Rooibos Vanilla

The first time I tried this, I followed the suggestions of 2 tsp & it was kind of meehhhh…

Tonight I was looking for something, anything to drink that didn’t have caffeine, but maybe a little flavor would be nice, right? I tried this again, using 1 T, steeped the full 10 minutes, added stevia & coconut milk creamer, & it was definitely an improvement, & somewhat satisfying.

Initially, I was a little scared off by the flavor. The ad copy says that it uses natural vanilla flavouring, but to me this smelled kind of artificial (but I think I’m over-sensitive to this kind of thing). I don’t doubt that it’s natural, I just don’t care for the mix, scent-wise.
Brewed up, the liquor is gorgeous. I love the deep red-gold burnt umber of rooibos. Just seeing that is an instant comfort that I associate with being tugged under to sleep.
The scent brewed is much better – the two scents meld and become toasty bringing the best of each out.
The flavour is oddly fruity with an apple undertone (note to self: try blending up an apple rooibos. Rooibos always seems kind of like apples to me – anyone else have this association?).
I’m getting vanilla here only at the finish, at which point it lingers. Super tea snob that I think I’ve become, I have to say that I don’t care for it. It still tastes unnatural to me, more like a vanilla syrup than anything else. I think that I really for the most part don’t care too much for adagio’s teas.
As a decent tea to sip before bed (yes, at 2:30 AM), it’s perfect as something to put me to sleep. (I still like the flavors of rooibos by itself best).

Another sample from the quiet life!

I was a bit worried after smelling this tea because it smells primarily of the typical woody, almost sour, rooibos…..with a hint of vanilla. Wow, this brewed up extremely dark – not the typical red rooibos color but a red-brown much like a black tea….Turns out, I really shouldn’t have been that worried. Yeah, it tastes a lot like rooibos which I typically don’t care for, but it isn’t the sour wood version just the plain wood version. I’m not really tasting the vanilla.

The vanilla is a lot more noticeable after adding just a touch of sugar, which makes the tea taste a lot better. I will be able to finish my sample, but I wouldn’t buy this particular rooibos for myself. I still think I prefer the rooibos blends where the rooibos is very much hidden.

Thanks to oOTeaOo for this!
Rooibos Vanilla is really a classic (it seems to be a favorite in Germany), and I love it. I’ve never tried it loose before, until this.

Unfortunately, though my experience thus far has just been German brands of bagged rooibos vanilla, this isn’t any better. Perhaps they use high quality tea, or a good balance of vanilla and rooibos, so that the tea bags are actually good quality; and it’s not that this tea is bad, but the vanilla could be MUCH stronger. I wouldn’t want it so strong as to mask the rooibos entirely (I do like rooibos), but this pretty much tastes like an unflavored rooibos (you can smell the vanilla in the dry leaf, but that was about all I could detect).

I’ve played around with steeping times, too, and that hasn’t seemed to add to the presence of vanilla. I will be continuing to look for a source of loose, delicious vanilla (rooibos/honeybush) and unflavored green (rooibos/honeybush).

I am sipping on a cup of this tonight… I think I’ve had more than enough caffeine today. This is very soothing and relaxing. The vanilla flavor is very soft, and needed some encouragement so I added about a half a teaspoon of turbinado sugar. This seemed to accomplish the task, as the cup was so very vanilla-y after that.

Last night it was honeybush vanilla, tonight it’s rooibos. I thought I’d compare these while the honeybush is still fresh in my mind. I’d like to know what the difference in flavour really is, if I can pinpoint it, and I know I’ll only be able to do that with a clear recollection. So…

The first thing that strikes me about this is the immediate difference in the scent of the dry leaves. This one has a much milder vanilla scent, although it is there, but the dominant note is the rooibos. It’s almost woodsy, in a sawdust-esque sort of way, and there’s something slightly straw-like in there as well. The vanilla is quite rich and cloying in scent, as it was in the honeybush, but it’s very much second-fiddle to the rooibos here.

Brewed, the vanilla comes through more clearly and the strong scent of the rooibos has faded into the background. The vanilla is sweet and creamy but not overpowering. Somehow, it just seems to fit the rooibos base better than it did the honeybush. It might just be me. Previously, most of the hineybush blends I’ve tasted have been fruit flavoured, so I guess that’s what I’ve come to expect, and anything really sweet sort of throws me. Still, of the two, this is the one I think I prefer, which has come as a surprise. Rooibos is not usually my thing. I also surprised myself by not adding milk to this. I definetly know I’m drinking rooibos — it just has that taste about it, which I can only adequately describe as slightly brassy or metallic, but for some reason I’m okay with it. Maybe the vanilla is addling my brain. The only other complaint I have is that it’s slightly drying on the palate, but it’s not too bad. I’ve certainly drank teas the worse for this.

To taste, this is ultimately very similar to the honeybush. The vanilla is rich and creamy, the base substantial. It is a little like drinking warm vanilla ice cream, and I guess I will try this with milk at some point. I imagine that will augment the creaminess very nicely. Otherwise, this is a very pleasant, comforting, hug-in-a-cup style drink — perfect for a snowy night like tonight! This is definetly one I’ll be revisiting — maybe with a little sugar or something along those lines. If I could tone the rooibos down just a little bit more I’d be all the happier, but this is still an unexpected hit!

So even though i skipped day 4 to day 5… i got this tea from adagio For free with an order… I must say it is VERY GOOD even my husband likes the smell and taste of this tea its sweet and So full of vanilla flavor and Roobios is So strong in this tea its just wonderful! after a very Rough day with alot of crying… I needed this tea to really bring me back to reality and that with a cup of tea everything is a little better

Today, as my exciting tea adventures continued, I was introduced to Rooibos tea. I wasn’t sure if this unstimulated herbal experience would be good for me since I prefer the caffeine kick of bold black teas.

I brewed this loose leaf tea for five minutes at 212 degrees as Adagio recommended. While brewing, its aroma gave me flashbacks to the wonderful smells of my mother’s kitchen, when she would make sweet and delicious vanilla cake frosting from scratch using fine vanilla extract.

The brewed color of the tea is a rich, reddish gold. Having an insatiable sweet tooth, I enjoyed the very robust vanilla taste. Again, I would compare the flavor more to vanilla extract than to vanilla ice cream.

This tea has an extremely savory and sweet taste that lingers on your palate after each sip. There also is a twinge of spice. The vanilla flavor is so full that any bitterness would be well hidden if it did exist.

For the first time, I am starting an afternoon tea rotation list to accompany my morning lineup. This tea is currently numero uno on the new list!

So at first sniff, the dry tea smells like vanilla coffee. My daughter thinks it smells chocolaty. I was very ambivalent. I brewed it using the directions: 1tsp of tea/cup, boiling water, five minutes of steeping time.

The first smell was gorgeously vanilla and something else that my husband said smelled like a cookie. The first taste was kind of like licking a piece of wood that smelled like vanilla. My husband also agrees. Once I added a teaspoon of honey, the tea became drinkable, but the smell of the vanilla went away. There was this vaguely coffee taste with a woody finish. I never imagined that anything could taste woody, but this definitely has a woody taste (and not oak or pine my friends).

With honey, it isn’t bad, and I will probably finish it unless I decide to see if anyone wants to swap me anything else, but unless I find a better way of using it, like putting it in a cookie, this will be last rooiboss vanilla I drink.

Maybe I just need to try a different rooiboss, any suggestions?

This is another pretty sweet tea. I haven’t tried many rooibos teas, and I just got the rooibos sampler from Adagio. I’d had this particular one recommended to me by a friend, so I started out with it. It does have a very pleasant vanilla taste, and it smells delicious. I wish I hadn’t added honey to it, but I wanted to see how it tasted with it. If you add a sweetener, I wouldn’t recommend adding much. It’s a very comforting tea.

The taste takes some getting used to, kind of woody. And as soon as the tea cools I dont like the flavor too well.

Last night there was a damp chill in the air so I went looking for something to chase it away.(caffeine free naturally) On my shelf was the sample box of rooibos teas, found the vanilla, thinking this will chase the chill away. You know it did just that…But.

When I first opened the packet it was not what I expected when I smelled it. It was a bit earthy smelling, will more woodsy. That went away when I poured the steamy hot water over the rooibos. Then later the steam that touched my nose as I poured the dark amber liquor into my cup only added to experiance. Drinking the warm vanilla rooibos tea was the next best thing to snuggling in a my favorite chair. Which I did while anyway. This tea did indeed chase away the chill that seem to be rising inside me.

Overall this was a most comforting tea to end the day with. Got to get more…

I got this as a free sample for sharing my last order from Adagio on facebook.

I like drinking rooibos at night time. I like the taste, plus it is caffeine free.

When I opened the package, I smelled a lot of vanilla. Since I like the taste of rooibos, I was honestly worried that all I was going to taste was vanilla.

The vanilla flavor is definitely there, but it is very light. I sort of get a vanilla-wood type of taste. It has a natural sweetness to it that I like.

I had this rated a little bit higher when I first started drinking it. However, now that I am about half way done, I feel like the aftertaste gets kind of old quick. It isn’t bad, I just do not find anything exceptional about it.

I would drink this again at night time.

Hot brewed and then iced. Yum yum.
Very strong vanilla smell out of the tin, but it mellows out nicely in the cup. Used about a tablespoon of tea for 8 oz. of water, then added ice. May do a longer brew/use more tea next time. Wish it was a bit stronger. Also added a bit of simple syrup to sweeten it up.

I’ve once heard a Rooibos been described as NyQuil and I agree to a certain extent. It does have a certain menthol quality. The Rooibos Vanilla by Adagio, despite this “interesting” quality, is actually pretty enjoyable. I hardly ever add sweeteners to my teas, but I’ve found that this Rooibos with a small dash of honey really improves the flavor and provides a nice cup of tea. Not the best thing I’ve ever drank, but I’m glad I tried it.

Mmmm… a new favorite of mine! I love rooibos and I love vanilla, so I figured that mixing the two together would just have to create a fantastic, tasty union. This tea is perfect for any time of the day, but I especially like it for the nighttime hours to help me unwind. It’s also really good with almonds (just discovered it by accident when I happened to be eating them at the same time!). I like how both flavors don’t overwhelm the other. So often I get a rooibos flavored blend only to discover I taste merely the flavor and not the rooibos. Not this time- vanilla and rooibos work happily in harmony together. A creamy, mellow vanilla and a earthy, sweet rooibos… why did I buy only a sample? Oh, so I can have an excuse to go on a tea shopping adventure yet again.

Like someone below, I was surprised by the deep color of the initial steeping; it looks more like a black tea after steeping than a typical red rooibos. But it tastes delicious, smells wonderful, and is an easy tea for a newbie to rooibos. My first vanilla rooibos was the RoT Good Hope Vanilla, which I also liked a lot. But I think that this is a bit better: it does well with 2 or 3 steepings, it’s rich without being bitter, and it has a creamy quality that I really enjoy. My only complaint is that the “chips” leave a lot of debris in the cup, which cuts the beauty.

My sister doesn’t like tea much, and she commented that it tasted slightly chocolate-y to her (I think people associate vanilla and chocolate a lot).

This is available on Adagio.com and also in the Fresh Market Stores, which is where I got my can. Good stuff!

Well, I hardly ever have rooibos (like the last time was probably 5 years ago when I was rummaging through my mom’s tea cabinet and found some random redbush tea), but this tea came as a surprise sample the last time I ordered from Adagio. Although it is different, I think I like it. It is pretty nutty and while the vanilla smell is overpowering while steeping, it mellows out nicely in the cup. I might look into these a little more to find some nice late night drinks.

Rich flavors, big body, big aroma. Definitely recommend this one.

This tastes exactly as advertised. The vanilla isn’t my favorite but if I’m sure I’ll make it through the sample just fine.