Rooibos Lemon Chiffon

MandyB sent me a bit of this! I’m so excite about it too!

It smells just like Lemon Meringue pie or lemon chiffon, yes! It’s creamy lemon at it’s best!

I don’t like Rooibos. As a senator from Minnesota used to say, “I deserve good things. I am entitled to my share of happiness. I refuse to beat myself up. I am attractive person. I am fun to be with. I’m good enough and I’m smart enough” and I can still not like rooibos. It’s taken me a while to admit it. To realize that all those unfortunate tea episodes had to to with rooibos. From now on I’m going to use decaff teas or straight herbals without this sawdust.

I got some of this tea because of the good reviews. I got myself a really nifty ice-tea maker from Lupicia and made this. It’s got lemon shining through the saw-dust. The predominant taste, for me, is the rooibos. As you can tell from the other reviewers, I am in a minority. This iced tea makes me want a pure lemony black decaff ice tea for my next pitcher.

Talk about super yummy and it tastes sweet,lemony, and creamy just as it should. Delicious!

Thanks Doulton for sending this to me. I love it.

Thanks to Kristin for this sample! I actually sent her some Talbott tea Luscious Lemon Meringue and she sent me this one. I have to agree with her. These teas taste almost identical! So if you miss special teas Lemon chiffon try Talbott Teas Luscious Lemon Meringue

I totally understand why everyone is raving about this Rooibos. Personally I find red Rooibos bitter so I often choose green rooibos instead. However, every sip of this I can’t ignore the perfect balance of lemongrass. It actually makes me forget why I don’t typically drink red rooibos. I agree with what everybody says here. I love this tea!

In the bag- delicious lemon meringue pie. I wanted to tip the sample pouch back and chew on the rooibos. But, trying not to appear shifty, and like the type of person who does such things, I put on the kettle. I brewed this at double-strength the first time because I wanted to absolutely submerge myself in its lemony-sweetness. Brewed, this is as good as I’d hoped. It needs no sweetening, I think- but I don’t often sweeten anything other than chai. It’s lemony, but with a sugary kick to it…. I expect I’ll be ordering more than a sample size of this one!

There are few flavorings I know of that can put the flavor of rooibos in the background, so if you’re not a roo lover, this isn’t for you. But if you are, this is so nice and smooth and mellow and desserty!

Tried my first cup straight up, 5 min steep, water just below boiling. Next time, I’m thinking a little milk and, yep, lemon meringue in a cup.

grassy medicinal flavor with some bright lemon overtones. I think I could get a hint of creaminess as well. I totally wanted to love this tea. Alas, rooibus and I are simply not good friends.

Another tea from the box that Rachel sent! Today is a day for sipping down my samples…I’ve still got a ways to go on getting my real-life cupboard under control. Most of my samples aren’t listed in the one on here!

This reminds me of the Lemon Cream Pie from David’s Tea. Smell is spot on, but the taste here has much less lemon and much, much more rooibos. It’s not bad by any stretch; it’s just that, after having the Lemon Cream Pie, this just doesn’t meet those high standards and pales in comparison.

Just opening this package was heavenly – it smells just like lemon cake, complete with frosting. I had a hard time getting my face out of the container to make up the tea! It brews up a lovely brown-ish red, and carries it’s heavenly scent over to the steeped tea.

Drinking it, it made me really happy. Lemon and sweet and a little earthy. I brewed this up because I wanted more tea, but no more caffeine, since I’ve had more than my share today. I wasn’t actually looking forward to this one much before I opened the package, but now I’m glad I got it.

YUM!!!

Yum. Just… yum. I could stop there, but I’m much too verbose. ;-)

As wombatgirl said, the dry rooibos mixture does smell amazing. Sugary, lemony, creamy. Like a bowl full of icing. It’s amazing to me that that smell even exists in a context other than icing and makes me that much more awestruck by the artisanry involved in creating something like this. Also amazing is that this smell comes from something this color since it really seems like it should come from something colored pale yellow. The dry rooibos mixture is a pretty, almost chestnut color as is the liquor. I find the color/flavor thing pretty interesting and sneaky, like the chocolately flavor in red velvet cake.

The taste is similar to the smell, though the lemon isn’t quite as strong to me. The “chiffon” part, the sugar/cream duo, is more pronounced, whereas both were equally present with the lemon in the the aroma triumvirate. I haven’t tasted “plain” rooibos and only one other flavored version so I don’t really know what part of this taste could be attributable to the rooibos itself. But whatever it is, it works.

This is not the substitute I was looking for in my search for the perfect lemon herbal, but it’s enjoyable in its own right. I love it when I’m looking for something and have something particular in mind, and in the process surprise myself by discovering something else that is an unexpected delight. So while this isn’t the perfect lemon, it’s a stand up lemon chiffon. I can see it going into rotation as dessert, for evenings when something fruity and on the lighter side than, oh say, chocolate or caramel, is warranted.

Wow. This tea is good! This is the one sample I got that I really didn’t expect to like. It smells so lemony (but not like lemon pledge, more like lemon custard). When I tasted it, I kept saying “This is so weird… I love it” over and over again. I gave it to my husband to taste and he said “Mmm, cupcake”. He’s exactly right. It tastes like a lemon cupcake. I don’t know how SpecialTeas makes Rooibos taste so good. I didn’t like Rooibos until I found Sweet Heart and now Lemon Chiffon. I’ll definitely be ordering more of this one.

I really wanted to like this. I’m very picky about rooibos in general so that’s probably what I don’t like about this one. It’s hard to pinpoint though.

Something smells off about the dry leaves, which is probably the rooibos. The taste isn’t terrible when it’s really hot but as it starts to cool, it got harder and harder to drink. I get the “lemon chiffon” quality b/c there’s definitely a creamy/vanilla flavor with the lemon. It just has a sour flavor that reminds me of sour cream. On nachos – yum! In my tea, not so much.

Still, I think it’s ultimately the rooibos that’s ruining this for me. If you really enjoy rooibos, take this review with a grain of salt.

Rooibos for me more than anything really should fall into a category of “dessert tea”, since Rooibos itself rarely contributes much flavor. And if I were to create a poster child for my “dessert tea” category this would be highly in contention with Rishi’s passionfruit rooibos or Art of Tea’s Chocolate Monkey.

Delicious. It smells like red tea mixed with lemon candy but doesn’t taste too lemony or acidic.

I usually prefer true teas to tisanes, so it’s surprising how fabulous I think this is. It reminds me of a lemon tart or its namesake. Rooibos provides a nice, sweet backing for the creamy lemon flavor. Amazing hot or iced.

Edit-Why didn’t someone tell me I spell like an idiot? >_<

If you like Rooibos, this one’s got a nice creamy flavor.

I don’t. Gross!

Drank this a while back. My husband and I love the teas from SpecialTeas. This one smelled of lemon pie or cake; wonderfully aromatic.

This was AMAZING.