Jardin Sauvage

I got a couple of tea bags of this from Auggy that I had forgotten about. Funny how these things work, because yesterday I found myself internally lamenting the fact that I didn’t try this tea when I was at Lupicia in San Francisco [it’s been on my shopping list to try for months] and then I went rooting through my box o’ samples et voilà, there it was!

Upon catching a whiff of the dry leaves, my immediate thought went to that blasted Teavana concoction that I tried years and years ago when I was dipping my toes in the tea pool – rooibos tropicana [blended with something other other]. Near identical. The flavor, however…

If that stupid tea had tasted like this when I tried it, I would have been much more enthusiastic about tea, because this tastes like what I thought the other one should have tasted like upon drinking. Horrific sentence, I apologize, but seriously. [The other one tasted uncannily like…hot water.]

This tea’s character is tropical, and it took me a second to recognize it, but I was definitely getting strong mango notes from it. That’s the main flavor I get from it. There are hints of citrus dancing around, but it doesn’t lend any of that high, sharp acidity to the tea, so it’s more like…essence of citrus? Like the kind of sensation you get from a powdered lemonade mix.

It isn’t a particularly strong tea, but it left me with strong impressions. It was fruity, but that kind of starchy feeling I get from fruits like mango and guava kept it from being really crisp, crystalline, and awakening. It was refreshing, but in a heavy kind of way. Like in the way that a smoothie can be. There was also something else in it, which I’m guessing is the green rooibos, that I can’t really describe. I have some other green rooibos to get to, so now I’m intrigued.

For a first go, this packed a bit of a wallop. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t slightly overwhelmed by the swirling flavors, but luckily I have one more bag of this to try so on the second go round I’ll give it a bit more time. For now, I’m going to lay a bit low on the rating. It’s too early to call whether this is going to be something that draws me in or not.

Another selection from the Lupicia lucky bag. I couldn’t decide between the Piccolo or this one tonight so I let the boyfriend do a blind smell test and this is the one he picked.

Green and red rooibos are both kind of uncharted territory for me. I’m think one of them has disagreed with me before, but I’ve never really bothered to figure out which one it was and so stayed away from them both. At least with Lupicia sending me one of each I can figure out my tastes a little more concretely!

Preparation notes: 6 ish grams of tea (about 3 tsp.) to 500 ml. water and steeped in the Breville at the below parameters. No additives used.

Dry leaf: The dry leaf was quite small with little bits of flowers (and bigger chunks of mango!) interspersed throughout. The smell was very fruity, specifically a lemon lime kind of note.

Steeped tea: The tea steeped up to a light orange color, which I wasn’t expecting for some reason. I guess I just assumed it would have more of a green tint to it.

Anyway, the smell is woody and citrus (lemon) sour – with mango coming last. Someone mentioned hot orange jello as what it tasted like and that is definitely what I’m getting. No astringence or aftertaste, just a sweet orange flavor that would be killer iced.

Not bad!

I was pretty sad when I went into the Westfield Mall recently and discovered the Lupicia store was closed! But then when I went to Lupicia’s website recently they say they are relocating to another location in the same mall. I hope that is true because it was nice to have a tea store close to me that had so many different and fun things to try.

Now, onto the tea. I am discovering lately that I am much more a fan of green rooibos than red and this makes a nice base for an herbal tea for me. There is definitely tropical fruit here but it did not knock me over with the fruitiness. I might make it up a bit stronger next time! But to me it was a very nice zingy and fruity tea I can enjoy at bedtime or anytime. The price is a bit much, I believe I paid $7.50 for a small bag of tea. Kind of makes me want to go back to Celestial Seasonings but all they have is red rooibos. :-P

The only way I can describe this aroma is pure juice! It’s very juicy smelling! This one has been on my list for a while and I received a free sample with their newsletter today! I am so excited!!!!

It’s color after infusion is like an orange-green and light to medium brown color. It’s fairly smooth…I wasn’t expecting that! It does have a very even fruit taste. It’s not tart or bitter at all. It’s really true to that ripe mango flavor and it’s darn good. It’s not extremely fruity but a nice even fruit taste. I like this very much…wish I had more for an iced attempt.

I just might have to place a Lupicia order down the order (like I need more tea, eh!?) Of course I do!!!

In my world, rooibos = cardboard. Even flavored rooibos makes me gag. But, I’ve never had green rooibos. I’ve heard of it but never had any deisre to try it. However, this Lupicia sample came in at just the right time for me to actually try this tea instead of just letting it camp out in my pantry on my tea shelf for months and months. I needed another tea tonight because I needed a little comfort and also in my world, tea = comfort.

I wasn’t expecting to like this. Rooibos, you know. I hate it. But this? This was pretty awesome. The fruit flavor wasn’t strong mango or citrus – it was almost sweet melon or starfruit-like. Sweet, light… not knock-you-back strong but definitely the dominate flavor.

After trying this tea, I don’t know what green rooibos tastes like but I’m willing to not lump it in with normal rooibos and hate it. I’d even go out on a limb and say I’d like to try it plain.

Some flavored teas have a nasty aftertaste that make me need to chew a piece of gum afterwards. But this one, like most Lupicia flavored teas I’ve had, doesn’t have that ickiness.

So yeah, this whole babble has the bottom line of not all rooibos is evil and a prime example of that is this tea.

Tea of the evening…..

And tea #6 out of my 2012 Lucky Bag……. This is nice and fruity. I seem to really like Lupicia’s fruit flavored teas. This one has tropical fruit notes on a light green rooibos base. I definitely like green rooibos better than red, and I think this will make a lovely iced tea in the summer. Oh, the summer….how far away you seem today! Probably not a tea I would have ordered, and I am not likely to reorder, but I will enjoy it.

Usual mug method with an 8 minute steep.

Whoa, all these new features to play with! So many teas to add to my cupboard! And right when I don’t have loads of time to devote to all this! I know what I’ll be doing this weekend. In the meantime, have a tea review…

This tea is a really rare beast: a rooibos tea that I can drink happily. I didn’t mind the underlying taste of the rooibos, and that’s pretty much a first. It’s green rooibos, which I hadn’t had before, and perhaps that makes the difference. I liked the fruit flavour a lot. It was almost all in the aroma, but since it was present in the brewed tea and not just the dry leaves I breathed in that scent with every sip and the two blended really nicely in my mouth.

Another find to add to my growing collection of night time teas. Whee!

drinking this complex tasting liquor with my boyfriend tonight. I love how everything is blended into this inseparable experience of taste and scent that can only be described as Jardin Sauvage. It really plays true to its name; I feel transported into a truely wild/overrun garden. :)

This is a nice, green rooibos. It tastes similar to RoT’s Plantain Coconut Raw Green Bush Tea. Similar but not really. I think it is because of the green rooibos has a starchy but sweet taste to it. I’ve never tried it alone, however. This is tropical in flavor with some mild fruity flavors. It isn’t tart or overly sweet. This has a nice balance. Good tea overall, but not my favorite.

Although this tea is NOT creamy and contains NO vanilla, when freshly brewed it reminds me of a cake fresh from the oven – hot and sweet-smelling! After it has cooled a bit, the various fruity notes gradually stand out. Mango is the dominant flavour (you know, mango as in Body Shop’s mango body wash… this doesn’t mean I don’t like it, though), and the fragrance of orange peels is unmistakable. There’s a bit of lemon too I think. I can’t say much about the green rooibos base because it is very light and the bright fruity flavours have totally stolen the show. If you love fruit juice you are going to love it, but look elsewhere if you are a fan of rooibos!

I was a little apprehensive to try this tea. I saw the word “rooibos” and expected to hate it. But I found this to be a surprisingly pleasant cup of tea!

I can definitely smell the mango and citrus fruit in the brewed cup. It has a lovely sweet undertone I wasn’t expecting. It’s not artificial or overly sugary. It’s quite nice. Maybe the perfect balance of sweetness I’ve ever had in a cup of unsweetened tea!

This was a pleasant surprise! I found this to be a very good, easy-going, light-bodied tea. Now it just needs a more appropriate name than savage garden. I’m thinking: Secret Garden or Mango Paradise. And I bet this would make a pretty awesome iced tea too.

The flavor of Jardin Sauvage is very zesty and energizing. There was a familiarity to each sip that tantalized my curiosity. I recognized the taste; it was a flavor I’ve encountered before. But what it was, I am not sure. When I asked my brother, he tasted and declared the tea tasted of white/clear gummy bears. He tasted again, and said maybe a lime jello.

I don’t know that either of those is quite what I’m tasting, but it’s definitely a sweeter citrus-like flavor.

I’ve never had green rooibos before, but I really liked this blend and I’m normally not especially fond of red tea. Jardin is extremely refreshing and fun – I love it!

This is hands down my favorite tea ever. Sweet but not overpowering, the liqueur is beautiful and the smell is divine! I sincerely wish I had a never-ending supply of Jardin Sauvage- an impulse buy at the Lupicia store in San Francisco had me hooked, and I’ve been craving it ever since! It’s perfect if you like sweet teas, but if you’re not big on sweetness in your tea you might be less enthusiastic than I…

I just got this this past weekend and am currently in love with it. The color, the smell, the taste, everything about it is wonderful. It has enough flavour to stand alone, yet it is mild enough to eat with a meal. I really enjoy the smell that comes off it while brewing. I am having it as an iced tea for lunch and really find it a good way to wind down, having a hot cup before bed.

Love this rooibos. I think the green rooibos is a lot smoother and delicate than red rooibos. This tea made me like rooibos tea more. The fruity flavor also helped with that. This tea goes with everything and I can drink it at any time. Sweet, but not candy sweet.

More like drinking an expensive perfume than a tea: the lush smells of mangoes and citrus fruit disappear into a generic veggie-scented tisane with dried citrus fruit in the background. Not bad, but a little too subtle for my taste.

http://www.thatpourgirltea.com/2010/09/lupicias-jardin-sauvage.html

Green roobios mango and citrus fruits. You can see the green roobios and the other fruits. It mainly smells like a a tropical tea. I enjoyed the smell. And steeped it up. The taste had a twang to it that I did not like though.

Nice citrus flavor and aroma. Favorite green rooibos so far.