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Red Rocks from The Tea Spot

Steepster Score 20 Ratings Rate This Tea

77/100

Red Rocks

Rooibos Tea by The Tea Spot

Our blend of naturally caffeine–free South African red rooibos, vanilla, and almond bits is an herbal delight! Rooibos is full of antioxidants and healthy minerals such as calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper, and fluoride. It has a wonderfully smooth flavor, and is a great cold buster as well as thirst quencher. It brews into a dark red liquor and has a naturally sweet, earthy scent, reminiscent of pipe–tobacco. You cannot over–steep this tea (the longer the better!) and it is fantastic by itself, or with cream and a bit of sweetener. Red Rocks is the perfect, healthy, all-around herbal tea – a favorite amongst athletes and as mom’s choice for children.

36 Tasting Notes

Missy
95
Missy 2 tasting notes

The rooibos is a lighter color in this one than my other two and that seems to make for a different taste. It’s still woody like redwood smells and reminiscent of tobacco. It’s not as sweet and seems to be missing the raisin note, but ends with a high spice like note. The vanilla is also weaker than my other teas but very creamy. It’s still done rather well as it competes strongly with the rooibos but drowns out the almond a bit. This almond is pretty subtle and mostly comes through more as an after taste.

I love this tea iced. I generally steep it for quite a long time and pour over ice. I feel like I get more vanilla and almond this way. Lets be honest here, I also ice it because I can drink it when ever I don’t really want to get up and make tea. It’s coming in rather handy with the warmer weather now though. Very refreshing for those warm days.

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Dinosara
81

Sipdown, 241.

Can you over-leaf a rooibos? This sample has been sitting around for far too long and I wanted to use it up, so I used 50% more than I normally would have for my pot. It’s not like it’s going to go bitter.

I figure this one will be similar to the other almond/marzipan rooibos teas I’ve had in the past. I think that nutty rooibos is the way to go for me, as I can never really get behind fruity rooibos.

Ok, maaaybe I shouldn’t be eating speculoos cookies with this, but speculoos cookies! Oh well, they are only making it taste better. This is pretty creamy and almondy, although even with the overleafing not particularly strong; it is possible that the flavors have diminished over a while, though it was in an airtight pouch. Yup, me and rooibos are not best buds, but it’s ok for an evening pot of tea that won’t keep me up.

LiberTEAS
89

I like this a lot. Normally, I like rooibos blends best when I can’t taste the rooibos, but, here I can taste the rooibos, but with the almond and vanilla, it works. And it works very well! This is really yummy.

Really glad I decided to try this tonight, so yummy!

Amy oh
68
Amy oh 3 tasting notes

Thanks for this one, QueenofTarts. I can’t say that I will ever love the taste of rooibos, it seems a little medicinal to me, almost like cough syrup? But I am still looking for things to drink without caffeine sometimes, plus now I hear it is good for people with asthma and allergies, I have both so I believe it’s worth a try.

This is one of the better red rooibos blends I have had, I don’t so much taste a lot of almonds but the vanilla is there. It was very good with soymilk as a kind of dessert tea. I’m not sure I would buy it for myself but I did enjoy trying it.

Steeped for 3.5 mins with boiling water.

Finished off the last of this sample today and enjoyed it, seems better than I remember. I also feel like I have a lot of tea swap/samples to get through right now! I wonder what kind of shelf life rooibos has? Thanks again, QueenofTarts

this was nice with a bit of dried orange peel and a cardamom pod. :)

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Anny Oxidant & the Tea Bullie
70

Red rocks and Missy rocks!! Thank you so much for the sample. 
This is my first red Rooibos and I think I kinda like it. It threw me off at first because it is actually almost salty. I will have to try it again though,  because I had been eating salty chips prior to drinking the tea. I could have cross contaminated. Haha. But after half cup in,  I really enjoyed it. Creamy and a little sweet but not overpowering, this red blend changes my mind about a previous statement in which I had said I don’t like Rooibos. 
Thank you again Missy. 

The DJBooth
93

Thanks to Brandy3392 for this one. I don’t have a lot of rooibos tasting under my palette by I’m finding this to be extremely tasty. I can’t really taste the almond but the vanilla is awesome. It reminds me a lot of the Tazo rooibos vanilla which is very tasty as well. I get to the comparison to a vanilla tobacco. Very good!

QueenOfTarts
80
QueenOfTarts 2 tasting notes

I had seen The Tea Spot company in person at a farmer’s market in Boulder… never sampled or purchased on my own. My friend gave me a tin of their Earl Grey tea for my birthday.. and it was delicious. The name “Red Rocks” has a special place in my heart because I have been there many times, once to see the gorgeous sunrise! I love rooibos tea and rooibos + vanilla + nuts sounded too good to pass up! The cup was surprisingly mild. I didn’t taste necessarily a creamy dessert tea, but it was a nice woodsy, slightly sweet cup. Thank you Brandy!

This tea has grown on me and has moved up a few points. It’s still not my very favorite vanilla rooibos tea, but lately it’s been smooth and just perfect before bed. I’m almost finished with the tin and probably won’t purchase again, but I’m happy to have enjoyed many cups!

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SimplyJenW
80
SimplyJenW 4 tasting notes

This was a free sample in my recent order from The Tea Spot. I will admit I was a little disappointed it was a rooibos before I tasted it. This one really is pretty good. It almost makes me want to try a few other rooibos teas I have in my cupboard again, just in case I missed something with them. I can definitely taste the vanilla, and the almond is light. Sweetened, it really is a good, smooth, dessert type taste. A surprisingly good cup.

Resteeps well, too.

Backlogging tea from last night. Simple but good. The vanilla isn’t super strong, and I really think the almonds don’t add much flavor as the red rooibis is pretty srong on its own. Still, not too bad for a non-caffeine infusion before sleeping. It is one of my favorite versions of rooibos, but I think I like Bourbon Sttreet Vanilla Rooibos better.

My tea of the evening. I love that it resteaps so well. The vanilla and almonds are a good match to rooibos.

I did finally purchase some of this tea because it was available on Amazon.com. It is a good rooibos with light vanilla flavor and almonds. I do think it is better with a little extra tea in the brew.

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Spencer
Spencer 10 tasting notes

Pretty tasty rooibos. Will review more thoroughly later.

Desert tea!

Made a full pot last night for desert and then only drank one cup. The rest was delicious, had cold this morning.

Farewell, Red Rocks!

This is for sure keeping me from nomming a bunch of fruit snacks right now…

Just more tea…not feeling the need for caffeine this afternoon, thankfully.

The drinkdown continues

Backlog: I spent all afternoon, yesterday, drinking this at work (yes, I was working at the same time). Nearly gone through my entire supply. Thank you, Tabby!

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flowering
85
flowering 3 tasting notes

I definitely had my doubts about this one; it was a free sample with an order, and for the past few months I haven’t really been digging the taste of rooibos. The smell isn’t anything special, either, so I figured this would be just like Adagio’s barely-flavored rooibos sample pack. But… it’s good! It’s really good! The rooibos flavor is for the most part covered up by a really surprising creaminess. I was pretty shocked with the first sip, since it tastes just like someone added a lot of creamer. The almond is there, too, but much more subtly.

This is a nice pick if you, like me, want to love rooibos but aren’t a fan of it without flavoring.

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brandy3392
93

This is one of the better flavored rooibos teas I’ve found. It’s simple, but tasty. The vanilla and almond flavors are just right and very natural tasting. I’m very glad I finally decided to purchase this one. Prepared with stevia.

greenducktape
100

I got a couple samples of this tea, and I love it! Will definitely buy more some day. I really enjoy the smoothness of rooibos, and the vanilla and almond make this a nice healthy treat for any time of day.

PattiM
85
PattiM 2 tasting notes

I have not been a fan of rooibos, but this is really good! Dry blend has the scent of tobacco and vanilla with just a hint of almond. The vanilla aroma and taste carry over into the deep amber brew with just a slight nuttiness. Very mellow with a natural sweetness.

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Shelley_Lorraine
24

I was excited to try this tea because of the vanilla flavor. However, I did not like it at all. It tasted to me like straight-up vanilla extract (too much of a liquor flavor). It seems to have great reviews from everyone else, but it isn’t for me.

CheshireEyes
82

I really enjoy this tea. I knew I would like it the second I opened the tin. It smelled like cherry tobacco! The smell of it brewed is just as good. This is one of my favorite rooibos blends. I love almond and vanilla together always a yummy combination. It is quite sweet by itself (which is how I normally drink it) but tastes delicious with honey or as a tea latte.

unfeasible
81

This is so delicious! The vanilla is really easy to smell in the dry leaf, so it’s not surprising that it would be detectable in the brew. There’s a small bit of almonds in the tea, but not nearly as much as vanilla. The natural sweetness in the rooibos and the vanilla just play off each other here; it’s really delicious.

brendan_o
75

Great iced and hot, usually in the middle of the day.

mburris
81

This is one of my favorite go-to daily teas at work. I will usually put a really small dalop of honey in a cup. I love this stuff!

dagdardash
dagdardash 2 tasting notes

Brad – good. Want to try again. Rating: 90

Sarah – is indifferent to this tea. Rating: 65

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Roofshadow
53

When I want a cup of tea it’s black tea that I’m imagining but I do try to cut out the caffeine as night falls. Thus I turn to Red Rocks. I like seeing the almond pieces as I make my tea and you definitely do taste almonds in the tea as well as the vanilla. However I can’t rave about this tea because as much as I like almonds and vanilla, I don’t really like rooibos. So, my final verdict is: as an herbal tea before bed time, it’s nice enough.