I’ve only tried a few rooibos teas, and none have really been my fancy. I got this alongside a host of other Equal Exchange teas at my local co-op (they had a Fair Trade Month sale, so they had tons of EE in store. Score!). I figure that I need to expand my tea tastes if I’m ever to become a tea snob (with my degrees, I’m not going to have the money for that, but I can dream, right?).
Since I had such bad experiences with rooibos blends in the past, I figured this rooibos would be a good place to start. Pure, simple, organic rooibos is the only ingredient here. I steeped for about 30 seconds, half a cup of tea to half a cup of milk. Yeah, I’m a wimp, I know, but I figure I can work up to a properly steeped cup.
I actually like this. I think I’m going to have to give the taste a bit of time to grow on me, but I can do it. I can’t exactly put my finger on what the taste reminds me of; it’s something like a candy, a yeast (Kluveromyces?), and bark from a poplar tree (perhaps Populus tremuloides?) put together.
Please don’t ask about why I know what tree bark tastes like. I lived in Idaho, it was rough there.
