Rooibos Vanilla

Meh. Maybe I didn’t steep this long enough? It just tastes like hot cigars. And if I want that I drink Tea Spot’s Red Rocks. I’m really disappointed in Adagio’s Rooibos Sampler. I’ll give this another shot with a longer, stronger steep and add some milk & sweetener.

Great afternoon tea. Very vanilla!

Single cup, 2 raw sugar

Welp, apparently I misplaced this tea and just found it. It wasn’t even opened. So I figured I’d brew a cup. For starters, I wanted to say that in my past experiences, vanilla rooibos needs to be brewed for 3 minutes not 5 unless you want to drink vanilla body spray (or something that tastes like I imagine it would). So 3 minute brew. Tasted without sweetener, and it was lacking. I could definitely taste the vanilla, but it tasted more like vanilla extract (super bitter) than actual sweet vanilla. So one splenda later and it’s pretty good. It has a strong vanilla bean flavor to it. Actually, it tastes a bit like this of I would say aged vanilla. Like the stuff they put in really good cream soda. Some Malt flavor as well. Yep, I would say that this fixed this way kinda tastes like the tea equivalent of craft brew cream soda. Yummy and bold, rich and flavorful. Its a pity you have to add sweetener to it to truly bring out the richness of the vanilla but some things can’t be helped.

Advent calendar treat. Decently sweet. The rooibos isn’t overpowering. Takes milk quite nicely and tastes better sitting quietly by the Christmas tree. My son surprised me and spent the afternoon decorating with me. A better treat than cookies and cocoa!

I’m a huge rooibos fan, but I have to say that this one is a bit too rooibos-y for me. It’s a flavor that’s difficult to describe, but it’s super there. I’ve added a lot of milk to my cup to try to mute it, but this rooibos will not be tamed! Not completely, at least. There’s not too much vanilla either. On subsequent cups, I’ve shortened the steep time, and that’s definitely helped. There are just way better executions of this flavor elsewhere.

2023 An Ode to Tea – R

A pleasant enough rooibos! Flavor (at this point anyway) reminds me a bit of rootbeer. But I would buy this again. This is probably so old now, that any new batches are probably vastly different.
2023 sipdowns: 32

Woody, sweet, with the smoothness of vanilla right towards the end of one’s mouth where one would expect the usual rooibos nibble (not a bite) to happen. It’s not as sweet as the regular rooibos or the honeybush tea. It’s not a tongue-curler; it’s still somewhat of a dry drink. The vanilla flavor doesn’t seem like the same vanilla in the vanilla green, but if it is, it’s behaving differently due to the different tea base.

I do want to like this, and I probably do like this more than a regular rooibos. Thing is- I’m worrying if my taste is changing away from rooibos, and that worries me. This tea just doesn’t strike me as fantastic; it hits my “meh” button- but because it’s vanilla I may well like it more if I did a blind taste test with other rooibos teas.

Bleh. Another Adagio tea bites the dust. At this point I’m something like 0/24 with Adagio flavored teas and should know better, but they are 5 mins from my house and generous with samples so I keep trying them.

This one smelled promising. The dry leaf had a warm aroma of vanilla bean and wood and it brews into a beautiful deep red color. But the taste of the brewed tea is another story. The vanilla flavor really knocks you over the head, overpowering the rooibos. After a few sips, I felt as if I were drinking a bottle of vanilla extract. There is a little spice in there too but none of the other flavor notes are decernible because the vanilla dominates. Perhaps a splash of almond milk might make this is a little more palatable.

This is tolerable. It’s been sitting in my collection for so long and I just want to finish it up. I’ve made three cups of it today and it’s just not getting better. It’s woodsy and the vanilla is lacking.