I’ll admit it – I sniffed this for a while. It smells creamy and like a tart raspberry or unripe blackberry. Oddly enough it brings to mind a thick, heavy but faintly lemony custard. I have no idea why this is making me think of lemon custard because I don’t think I’m supposed to. But I am. I should probably concentrate on the berry thought but I keep going back to lemon. Anyway. I smell a bit of warmish almost spicy that might be the rooibos. But it also might be the unripe blackberry so I’m going to say I can’t really catch any rooibos.
Once the hot water hit the leaves though, gak! Sour and berry and sour and wood and sour and rooibos all over the place. Noooo! But I shall soldier forward and wait for it to brew! Fortunately, once it has been fully steeped and put into my cup, the rooibos smell is much milder. The smell reminds me of this morning’s Marco Polo with a blop of custard in it. Not that I’ve ever put custard in my tea. I wonder if adding a little sugar would turn the custard into creme brulee because that would be awesome. Anyway, the rooibos is an infrequent back note hiding behind the custard. And now I’m just smelling it to put off sipping so here we go.
Huh. This is… pretty bland. It tastes maybe like a fourth steep of Marco Polo with a custard edge to it. How is this possible? As it cools, a little more flavor pops up but we’re talking third steep of Marco Polo or maybe a fairly week second steep. There is custard and berry and water. That’s pretty much what I’m getting. The flavors mesh nicely with the custard a little more towards the front and the berry a little more towards the back, but they overlap and flow well. And don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that there is virtually zero evidence of rooibos. But a little more flavor would not go amiss.
Okay, I refuse to rate this right now because I’m so mixed. If I can brew this tea where it actually tastes like a first steep and not a second, this could be pretty freaking awesome. But right now? Yeah, no so much.
3g/8oz
