In a word? No. This tea is just godawful in my books. The first time I drank it, I finished the cup, because I’d just had my wisdom teeth out and couldn’t eat anything, so I was taking anything I could get. At the time, I distinctly remember thinking, “This is really excessive on the almond flavour.” When I first drank it those weeks ago though, I didn’t have any soy milk, and I think it’s a flavour that wants milkiness. I tried it again this morning with it. Took some sips, had some pauses to think about what I was tasting, and decided the tea is going to have to be passed on to someone else. The marzipan flavour is like almond extract on steroids. It’s so in-you-face. With a more subtle or nutty almond taste, this could have been a good tea (especially because I think rooibos’ flavour seems conducive to nut mixtures), but as it is, it’s way too much. It’s all marzipan and no rooibos and it’s kind of sickly.
I felt like this was one tea that really made me take to heart those ideas about tea being bastardised into a dessert-y item that waters down tea traditions. Normally, I don’t think much about that idea, but nothing about this felt very tea-like. I think I’m going to have to stop these flirtations with rooibos, as well. Even slightly better rooibos teas just can’t measure up to the richness and flavour complexity of black tea.
