Rooibos Mirage

Orange, vanilla and… cactus? Really? So weird! And the smell is kind of weird, too. It’s simultaneously herbal, vegetal, citrusy and a little… crisp. I can’t tell if mixed in with all that is the sour rooibos smell that I detest so much or if it’s something more pleasant that I just don’t know how to properly register.

And now I’m going to say something I never thought I’d say. The sour rooibos taste is there but it works. It somehow blends into the orange, is softened by the vanilla and matches oddly well with the cactus (or at least what I recall cactus tastes like from the one time I’ve had it). It’s crisp, natural, smooth and fresh in a sharp, clean way.

This is definitely a different tea. I never would have thought that the flavors would work based on the description but it does. It’s pretty outside the norm but I could definitely see it growing on me. I’m kind of on the fence about whether I’d order it or not but the more I think about it, the more I think I would get it just to see exactly how much it would grow on me.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for this share!

This smells herbally. I can smell the orange too tho!

This is sweet and floral and herbal and citrusy and almost plant-like but in a good way.
Very interesting, very different. Tastes good tho! I would drink again!

This has a very interesting aroma – I can smell the vanilla notes, the citrus-y notes, and some of the nutty tones of the rooibos. I am also getting some of the herbal-y scent that the others who have logged tea notes on this blend have mentioned. They meld together into this unified scent that is a little bit of everything. It’s different but it isn’t unpleasant. I like it.

And I am also enjoying the flavor. I like the combination of red and green rooibos, I think that the fruitier tones of the green help to cancel out some of the funkier flavors of the red. It has a nice creamy background from the vanilla, and the orange is fainter than I expected. I don’t know that I can actually pinpoint or describe the flavor that is emitted from the cactus flowers, but I can tell that there is something different about this. Almost a weird, sour flavor that hits the back of the throat. Again, not unpleasant, just unusual.