Root Beer Float (Organic)

I got a pitcher packet of this in my last David’s order because I just needed to spend a couple more dollars to get the free shipping, and I absolutely love it. The sarsaparilla tastes amazing. I don’t get any cinnamon, supposedly the main ingredient in the tea, but I guess it’s doing it’s doing it’s job because the blend tastes great, all that root beer flavor without the sugar overload. But now that the whole packet is gone in this one pitcher, I’m faced with a restocking problem. Drinking this hot sounds kind of nasty, and with cool weather setting in, I don’t think I’ll be making many more iced pitchers. Should I just buy it now and save it till next summer? What are the odds that David’s will offer it again next year, since it was a special collection tea?

Pondering this deep philosophical riddle.

I decided to brew this up on a Sunday night and bring it on the train with me in the morning as a cold treat. I generally prefer a hot drink in the morning, but time is tough when you’re racing to get ready, and Monday mornings are particularly hectic – not only am I dealing with all the regular morning activities, but it’s trash/recycling/compost collection day, so there’s always an added bit of madness, which the (enormous) puppy thinks is great fun. Suffice to say, there isn’t always time to even boil the kettle, so forget steeping or doing anything fancy!

I forgot I had set this to steep in a small pot (oops!), so definitely overcooked it or whatever the tea connoisseurs call it. Still, I don’t mind bitter tea, so I poured it in my little iced tea travel sippy cup and left it to chill overnight in the fridge. I found this to be a very refreshing morning tea. The sarsaparilla has a strong zing to it, and the spice notes are slightly warming in the back of the throat. I was really pleased I’d tried it out, because I was pretty sceptical about a root beer float tea. I’m not sure how often I’ll use this one, especially given that the warm weather is winding down and the general consensus here says that this isn’t a great tea served hot, but I’m still happy with it, and would recommend it, if even just for a bit of a novelty.

I liked this tea, but I would’ve liked it with even a stronger root beer flavor. I drank the tea iced and it was good on a hot day. I did not add sugar or any sweetener, it really doesn’t need it.

Ah so much love once again for this. Two cups got downed so easily last night. This is a ridiculously nice, easy tea to drink.

This is good!

I’m not a big fan of root beer and got this one more for the curiosity factor than anything else. But, come on, soda flavored tea. That’s got to be fun right?

Dry, this one smells a lot like its soda namesake. And steeped, the taste is also reminiscent of root beer but with lots of flat cinnamon taste.

Much better than I expected, although not good enough to warrant more once I use up my sample.

The tea was ok iced as a tea pop (with carbonated water). Without it the tea tastes like a flat soda. It was a good effort but not quite worth it.

Pass the Stash TTB 2.0

Hooray, I’ve been curious about this tea since the carnival collection came out at David’s. I was lucky enough to try the Caramel Corn and Cotton Candy blends because I got them as free samples when I bought my cups. But I love root beer, and really wanted this one too! TTB saves the day! :P

I was surprised to see that David’s black tea samples actually have enough for two cups! The other samples I received definitely didn’t. So I used half the sample (about a teaspoon) for my cup and left the other half for someone else. It definitely smells like root beer, maybe with a bit more sarsaparilla and some vanilla added. Excited! I did a 5 minute steep.

The aroma is definitely root beer, with added spice! I’m fairly impressed by this tea. It tastes very close to root beer, even with vanilla ice cream added. My licorice sensor is going off, but I actually don’t mind it in this blend (it’s not listed on the ingredients, so maybe it’s just the sarsaparilla). It came out a tiny bit weaker than I would like, but I feel like it’s still a good representation of the tea. I’m not sure whether I would purchase this, but it’s certainly tasty enough and I’m sure it would be fantastic as a latte, either cold or hot. Yum! :)

Drank this iced and really not a fan – I couldn’t even finish the cup. Since I have a little left I’ll try it hot before I give up but not expecting much.

I steeped this as follows: 2 scoops of Root Beer Float tea with 3/4 scoop of Vanilla Rooibos in 450 mls of just boiling water and then after steeping for 4 minutes I added 50 ml of steamed frothed almond milk…and the result was “Root Beer Float”…it was delicious!

rootbeer float latte! the only was to drink this as far as i’m concerned :) I took a little time today to go through my cupboard and make sure that steepster, my cupboard and my spreadsheet are all in sync. :) I’m pretty excited since i’m down to 82 teas in my cupboard AND i only have 5 teas in my cupboard (not including puerh) that are older than 6 months! GO ME! i’m such a dork… but also, i’m just excited to aaaallmooost be at 80. And since canada post is a giant ball of suck, i technically may not even get tea from stacy to increase my cupboard :(

of course… yunnan sourcing and the puerhshop are both calling me to order from them… must.hold.out.longer.