Vanilla Rooibos Parfait

A little unsatisfactory. I was just walking around browsing westwood, and then I decided I was craving some tea – as per usual. I usually go to Coffee Bean, but I decided why not go to the good old Starbuckaroo. I’m a sucker for anything Vanilla, love vanilla tea, so when I saw that they made a “vanilla Rooibos” latte, I decided to be a little fiesty and order it. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t hear my name being called the first 5 times and the latte was a bit cold, but it was a bit unsatisfactory. I didn’t like the fruity undertones that much….meh. Perhaps I should try it without the latte part, just hot water and a good ol TEA BAG

Backlogging from San Fran again!

TMI ahead? Maybe if you’re ridiculously easily offended. I use the word toilet….

Let me tell you, I did a ton of walking down there. I mean everywhere. All the time. Public toilets? No. So how am I supposed to go to the bathroom?! Starbucks. Everywhere.

Go in. Buy a tea. Use the toilet.

I didn’t mind it! I first got it as a latte, but I enjoyed the flavor enough to get it straight. Of course this only led to more trips to the bathroom, and more Starbucks stops for tea. It’s a vicious cycle.

Hmmmm, there was a trend to my End of the School Year Thank-you presents, a box of this tea, some extra Starbucks cards and a few DAVIDsTEA cards… Since the giftcards have to wait I raced home and ripped this tin open to steep.

I instantly love the way these little pouches smell and am releived that the Chamomile is not prominent… but we shall see after steeping. I am sure this one will taste devine iced and I will do just that tomorrow.

Hmmm, It has a heavy milky taste and that is it, I am a little put off… the licorice kicks me pretty hard as an after taste and that is about it… Not my favourite at first steep, maybe iced with a hit of agave syrup would save this tea taste wise?

We shall see, we shall see…

- sigh – This should have been called “Licorice Rooibos”! There is no vanilla! and it has cooled for a while now!

Second steep, I could smell more honey or that “sweet rooibos smell” but it was still heavily licorice… lets see if there is a successful third steeping…

Had a Vanilla Rooibos Tea Latte at Starbucks. It was ok. Next time I will ask them to leave out the sugar syrup that they usually add, because it created a sludgy texture and off flavor at the bottom of the cup. Overall this is ok but I wouldn’t go out of my way for it. I prefer the green tea latte actually – the kind made with some sort of matcha-esque concentrate. I go to Starbucks so rarely that I figured I’d try something new.

The description made me purchase a cup of this from Starbucks. It smelled like apple and spice and I was expecting something delicious! The tea left an unpleasant tickling sensation on the back of my tongue. I’m not sure if it was the effect of the spice, but I did not like it. The tea lacked any sort of vanilla flavor and didn’t really taste too much like apple either. The spice was almost too peppery (reminiscent of Yogi Tea’s disgusting peppery character) to enjoy. Had to dump this one.

I keep this tea on hand for company that doesn’t like tea. :P it’s delicious with cream or milk and sweetener, and always a winner for people that don’t like plain tea. I am not the biggest fan, and I don’t know if it’s this specific blend or the actual rooibus that turns me off because I have no Idea what plain rooibus tastes like. It smells so good that I keep trying it and the result is always the same. It has a weird aftertaste. Again, I don’t know if thats what rooibus is like. So I won’t actually rate this one.

In an interesting turn of events, several tins of Tazo materialized next to the rack of Bigelow tea boxes at my office coffee station this morning. Tazo isn’t tea that I would normally seek out and purchase, so this is a chance for some new reviews.

Unfortunately I can’t rate this one very high. It sounded like the most promising contender at first, but there’s just something off about it. I like licorice, and there’s even part of a sip where things get very licorice-y that I enjoy, but there’s something really muddled before it gets there. It’s earthy in a bad way, like stepped-on wet leaves. There’s some nice apple notes in there, but very little vanilla flavor. The flavors seem to all be good on their own, but they just aren’t playing nicely with each other here.

Glorious. Its like apple pie, in a cup! I drink it with milk, and add nutmeg/cinnamon/vanilla when at the “extra’s” side table at Starbucks. It is my go-to Starbucks drink, though now the London Fog is becoming a competitor. One of my favourite teas.

This is a good one. Prepared like a black tea, but a tiny bit less on the steeping time. It’s too hot to totally drink, but it’s delicious smelling and the tiny tastes I have had are good.

Fruity, flowery, yummy :)

This was served to me with a rather large teabag, one of those mesh numbers that have a lot of room to allow proper infusing. I wasn’t expecting this to taste as it did, with a solid vanilla flavor along with some notes of cinnamon and I think I even got some apple in there. Or maybe I was just looking for the apple flavor when I got the cinnamon. Hard to say… Nevertheless, I found that it had a kind of sweetened taste to it despite having nothing added in. Anyone who sees this on the menu at their local Starbucks would be doing themselves a favor to try this out when they got the time.