This was a tea of the month selection for April on the Classic plan. I was afraid of it, which is why it has taken me until halfway through May to get around to trying it.
I fear this tea for three reasons. First, it is a flavored green. My track record with those is well nigh abysmal. Second, has red rooibos in it, which I hope doesn’t mean it actually shows up in the taste (why would one add rooibos to a flavored green tea? filler?). Third, it is both a green tea and a rooibos, which means it falls between steep times and temps, which always makes the experience dicey.
At least it doesn’t appear they’ve changed the blend. The ingredients are the same. (Carrot bits? Huh?) I’m treating it as a green tea for steeping purposes at least for the first try.
Looking at the dry mix it is hard to tell what kind of green tea this is because its interspersed with a humongous amount of other stuff. It might be sencha, as it has a long and spear-like look. I can’t see any rooibos at all, which worries me. It makes me wonder whether as the smallest and finest ingredient, it has migrated to the bottom of the tin and the last few cups of this will be nothing but rooibos. It’s pretty: lots of big, long, colorful flower petals that look a little like ribbon, and chunks of dried fruit. It smells like dried fruit and raisins. (Yes, I realize raisins are dried fruit. My point is that the raisins are providing their own aspect of the smell separate from the rest of the dried fruit.)
The tea is a light yellow color and smells like white wine. Seriously. Like a chardonnay, only fruitier.
And it rather tastes like wine, too. Or at least, about a third of its taste is wine. Another third or so is a sweeter tropical fruit taste (mostly peach/papaya) that is apparent mainly in the finish and aftertaste. And the last third is the green tea, which is mild and fairly sweet. Not bitter. And I can’t really taste rooibos except maybe as part of the fruity after effect.
This is a weird little tea. It really isn’t bad as flavored greens go, in fact it’s surprisingly ok in that regard. It has a lot of different things going on. I just can’t imagine it being something I’d find myself thinking, “you know, I really want some of that” about.
