90
drank Rouge Sahara by Mariage Frères
362 tasting notes

Well this was an unexpected dud, but one which made me realize something about the peculiarities of my personal likes and dislikes.

I love rooibos, but I am very picky about rooibos – the base has to have certain characteristics. Some rooibos bases I dislike, seem musty or woody or even silty to me. But when rooibos is good, I do love it and it´s an extremely comforting evening drink. It´s far more difficult to me to find good rooibos than good tea, I got 3 (plus one south african supermarket brand which is an occasional random find) brands whose rooibos blends seem great to me – apart from those ocasional finds which seem good, but many others I do not even come close to finishing.

Mariage Fréres is one of my reliable rooibos brands, and wanting to try something new, the saleslady recommend this as her personal favorite. It smelled different, so minty, I decided to give it a (small) try. It´s rooibos with a lot of dried mint and rose petals, not sure if it has extra flavourings.

And the problem is with the flavouring – this made me realize I dislike dried mint leaves steeped in boiling water. I love fresh mint, I like mint in green teas (which do not steep in water so hot), but plain mint tisanes, noooo. Mint and boiling water, it is like the mint leaves this oily hint of bitterness which I dislike. And that was the problem here – I used boiling water and the mint had that oily boiled-mint thing and that was indeed a problem for me. Now I do not know what to do with is, I like rooibos very hot and very long, but if I do that the mint is going to annoy me. Will try again with water a bit colder, to see if there is rescue to this.

TLDR: Mint and boiling water: no-no. Mint only for lower temperature teas.

PS – also not a good rooibos for my late at night rooibos since I leave the spent leaves on the gravity infuser overnight. I never had a problem with smells (apart from the time I tried something with another variety of mint), but there is a definite minty overtone in the strainer now. This really is not a rooibos for me.

Preparation
Boiling 4 min, 30 sec
Ysaurella

too bad but you have now a new material to swap

cteresa

I have not quite given up yet, am going to try to brew it colder just to see – the review was more to make me remember my new insight into boiled mint being very much a dislike for me. And share in case other people also have a problem with it.

I, roiboosista that I am, have a problem with not having enough (rooibos) teas! I have 10 times more of other kinds of teas than of rooibos, but I am so picky about what I like with rooibos and somehow, because I always have rooibos in the evening and I like rooibos strong, examining the composting tea (it does not smell, really) half the tea I is rooibos. I am sniff running out of proper rooibos (do not pity me, I am a total snob about what is proper rooibos, and well it is a motivation for a tea order one of these days).

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Ysaurella

too bad but you have now a new material to swap

cteresa

I have not quite given up yet, am going to try to brew it colder just to see – the review was more to make me remember my new insight into boiled mint being very much a dislike for me. And share in case other people also have a problem with it.

I, roiboosista that I am, have a problem with not having enough (rooibos) teas! I have 10 times more of other kinds of teas than of rooibos, but I am so picky about what I like with rooibos and somehow, because I always have rooibos in the evening and I like rooibos strong, examining the composting tea (it does not smell, really) half the tea I is rooibos. I am sniff running out of proper rooibos (do not pity me, I am a total snob about what is proper rooibos, and well it is a motivation for a tea order one of these days).

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Bio

Inconstant tea drinker – I mostly drink tea when not too hot. I hang around steepster much more frequently in (northern hemisphere) cold season. Experimenting with cold steeping, for summer.

- Teas -

I like all sorts of tea, flavoured and unflavoured, though I am picky.

I am one of those people who actually loves Lapsang Souchong. I am not crazy about Earl Grey, in general. I don´t quite get Darjeeling teas, but I am exploring.

I like rooibos, though not all bases. I loathe hibiscus. I do not like fennel/liquorice/anise in blends or teas with chicory. I am picky about what I consider true cinnamon.

As you can probably tell from my cupboard, the brands I find more interesting right now are Mariage Fréres and Thé-o-Dor.

I am always willing to try anything new. I am now particularly interested in single origins.

Location

Portugal

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