Raspberry Vanilla

Thanks lovely cteresa for sending it over me.

but I won’t rate it.
I love vanilla (good ones only ! this is an aroma which cannot bear mediocrity to my opinion)
I love ,but really love, raspberry, my favourite fruit.

So what’s the problem ???…it’s me !!!
I trust cteresa (her tastes & opinions are so reliable), this is surely a very good rooibos. I trust Angrboda as well of course, I love so much your reviews and your notes !

The point is I think I really do not like Rooibos …until now…but will persevere : L’appétit vient en mangeant…as we say in French ;)

I’m having BRAVE TEA!!! courtesy of Cteresa who sent me an envelope of goodies. Well, actually it’s a rooibos rather than a tea-tea, and that’s why it’s brave. Me and rooibos, we have a troubled past, to be honest. On the other hand raspberry and vanilla? How can that not be lovely?

So, as this was the only sample in the envelope that had me a bit doubtful and as I was in an adventurous brave frame of mind, I decided to start with this one right off the bat, because otherwise the fear of rooibos would make me postpone it for ages and ages and ages. I must admit, I have been sent a few samples in my time that I’m still too afraid to try.

So we’re having this one now. The boyfriend was actually very excited that I was making a rooibos, as he really likes them. (And still rarely asks for one when I ask him about preference, for some reason. I think he deliberately goes for things that we can both have, and that’s not always the purpose of my question) Anyway, he was excited and wanted a cup too. Luckily for him, I had already decided that it would be a sharing one.

Now comes the challenge of keeping a neutral mind and not let my misgivings colour the experience too much.

The aroma is incredibly sweet and fruity and extremely raspberry-y! I’m surprised at how very fruity and juicy this actually smells. I’m not even getting a whole lot of rooibos-y aroma from it unless I put my nose so close to the surface that I’m dipping the tip in it. It’s just all raspberry and only just a hint of that rooibos-y woodenness that is the larger part of my rooibos problem. As for the vanilla, at first I thought I couldn’t find it, but the more I sniff at this, the more I realise that it is there, and it’s every bit as strong as the raspberry, but because the raspberry is a naturally sharper aroma, the vanilla ends up rather camuflaged. Once you know it’s there, there’s no trouble in picking it out.

This smells like a raspberry flavoured sweet. Or an ice cream, one of the more luxurious brands.

Gosh.

Oh my gosh.

Steepsterites, gosh!

Am I really drinking rooibos, or am I in fact biting a berry?

All this time, I’ve completely written off rooibos because I don’t like it plain, but now it turns out that flavoured it might be totally acceptable. Probably just has to be a fairly strong flavouring. Rooibos plain, I find I might as well be chewing a pencil dipped in hot water.

Anyway, yes, this is surprisingly good!

It’s very intensely flavoured and taking the first sip of this was one hundred percent raspberry. Not raspberry flavour, mind you. No, it was actually like eating a real raspberry! I can’t recall every having come across anything fruit flavoured, not just teas and the like, anything fruit flavoured and have it taste so unbelievably close to the real thing.

Again, I’m getting very little actual rooibos flavour here. There is a hint of something sort of wooden in the background, but it’s very faint and under control and therefore not unpleasant at all. I suspect it’s probably the vanilla aspect here that might be doing that. I don’t really get a lot of vanilla in the flavour, but I could definitely imagine a good thick vanilla flavour as being one that could counter the wooden flavour of plain rooibos.

Wow, this is amazing. I went into this one expecting it to be tolerable at best and probably somewhere in the range of the yellow face on the scale, and now look where we ended up instead! I suspect that Cteresa actually knows me better than I think she does. Perhaps even better than I know myself!

another delicious tea from Scheherazade I steeped this one for 6+mins and i’m pretty sure that longer would make it even better. Falling asleep at the moment but this one was a tasty raspberry tea, blending lovely with the vanilla.

The second of today’s Yumchaa reds, and a relatively simple taste profile this time. Just raspberry, vanilla, and rose petals. Dry, the scent is much as you’d expect. A slight brassiness from the rooibos, a whole lot of raspberry, and a creamy sweetness from the vanilla. There are a fair few rose petals in the mix, but they’re not contributing much at this stage.

This actually brews pretty quickly to a deep red-brown liquor, so I immediately considered adding milk. I’m resisting that impulse for the minute, though, as I’d like to know what it tastes like au naturel before I start on any additions. The scent, as with the dry leaf, is creamy raspberry, with a tinge of rooibos round the edges. Flavour seems to be the central thing with these teas, and I’m glad about that.

The scent does nothing to prepare you for the taste, though. This is pure, strong raspberry from the very first sip. Initially, it’s just very fruity, but the creamy sweetness of the vanilla creeps in afterwards to give this a smooth, thick taste that belies its appearance. It’s definetly one I’ll try with milk at some point. Another winner from Yumchaa!

Sometimes, no strike that, almost always simple is best. It has taken me ages to try this, it sounded so simple, raspberry and vanilla (with rose petals) rooibos. Nothing really new or different. But oh my, is this awesome. Awesome indeed. Smells like raspberry, very intense, but just kicked subtly into more awesomeness by the vanilla and rose. I was in love at the first sniff, the taste is as awesome as the smell and this is probably going to be a full fledged long term love affair. Love this.

Wow. Both when taking the pack off the cupboard and right after brewing, the raspberry smell is incredible.
When drinking it, I first noticed the delightful raspberry taste, nothing subtle about it; it was like I had been thrown in a raspberry bucket – if you’re not a big fan of this fruit, this blend might come as too strong for you.
What I really liked is that when the brew was getting more luke-warm than real hot, the vanilla flavor started to come alive, despite its being muted to my taste buds in the hot brew.
While drinking my second tea-pot (another evening), I realized the vanilla and rose flavors were there, right from the start, though almost muted by the overwhelming raspberry.
I then decided to try it iced, to see how it was coming. Amazingly the vanilla taste is now prominent, up to par with the raspberry, making the brew seems smooth and creamy.
I am not sure yet how I’ll feel about this flavored rooibos in a few weeks, as it’s possible I might have enough of it and prefer some more subtle blend. Or maybe not. Let’s see ;)