Rooibos Chai

Tea type
Chai Rooibos Blend
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Cardamom, Tobacco, Cinnamon, Clove, Herbs, Malt, Medicinal, Spicy, Toast, Cloves, Rooibos
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by antleredguy
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 15 sec 9 oz / 271 ml

From Our Community

1 Image

9 Want it Want it

18 Own it Own it

  • +3

32 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I received this as a free sample with my last Harney and Sons order. I am very picky with my chai so I did not try this tea for a long time, not sure if I would like it. I am also not a huge fan...” Read full tasting note
    61
  • “okay, you have no idea how long i have had this sample and have been avoiding drinking it. not only am i not really a chai fan. but i really hate the design of the little sample tea sachet package....” Read full tasting note
  • “This came as a free sample from Harney and Sons, I still don’t like it that much. All I taste is rooibos and cinnamon. I tasted it a while ago and still don’t like it. :-P” Read full tasting note
    43
  • “Free sample. Its an interesting mixture, the chai with the rooibos, curiously sharp. I am getting the cinnamon and cardamon that are inherant to the whole chai experience, and the rooibos lends a...” Read full tasting note
    57

From Harney & Sons

Rooibos Chai brings together caffeine-free redbush herbal from South Africa with sweet Indian spices of clove, cardamom, and cinnamon. Savor Rooibos Chai in soothing soul-satisfying cups. The Indian spices impart a smooth, liberating earthy touch. Effusing a deliciously sweet aroma swirling in cinnamon, it is a cup of comfort that will have one welcoming seconds.

About Harney & Sons View company

Since 1983 Harney & Sons has been the source for fine teas. We travel the globe to find the best teas and accept only the exceptional. We put our years of experience to work to bring you the best Single-Estate teas, and blends beyond compare.

32 Tasting Notes

60
82 tasting notes

I was very underwhelmed by this one. The flavor just wasn’t there; even the spices were too bland for me. To be fair, I’m really not fond of rooibos and really picky about chai, and I probably would never have tried this if it hadn’t come with the sample pack.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 min, 0 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

66
54 tasting notes

Tasty, spicy. Why don’t I have more of this? Only two little bags? Huh.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

34
4 tasting notes

I’m not a chai or cinnamon or clove kinda girl. But I was hoping to be magically surprised and delighted with this rooibois chai blend. Turns out, I’m not a Rooibois Chai kinda girl either. Oh well.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

3226 tasting notes

This was a sample included with my last order.

I am trying to learn to like rooibos. I really enjoy green rooibos but red and I are not yet friends. I have tasted a Lupicia blend that thoroughly covered up the taste of rooibos and was good.

I was a bit excited to see this, because I thought if the chai spices were just right, it could prove to be a good base for my tea soda that we use for making floats. I have used Holiday Chai by Stash and Travel to India from TheODor.

The smell of the sachet was super duper medicinal. The tea itself was not so bad but there didn’t seem to be a lot of chai spice in evidence. It was not bad, though.

The sachets are measured for twelve ounce cups with Harney tea so I only used eight ounces of water, then added sugar and four ounces of milk and passed it off to Ashman after taking a sip. I thought it was especially drinkable that way, but most things can be rescued with sugar and if we made a tea soda for floats there would definitely be sugar as all the dairy product (the ice cream).

Ashman liked it! He said he could see why I would have considered it for tea soda. However, I do not think the spices were quite strong enough for that. These were the chai spices I like best with the ones I dislike not making a showing. Either they added very little of the spices or the rooibos just covered it up, because we tasted a little cinnamon and that was pretty much it.

I did resteep the sachet to make a cup for me, but honestly the color was so much paler that I didn’t even drink it. I tossed it and made myself a hojicha latte instead.

beerandbeancurd

What’s your favorite green rooibos, ashmanra? I used to adore red, but I don’t get very excited about it anymore.

ashmanra

I loved the ones from Cuppageek but they are no longer available. I like Carrot Cake Rooibos from Simpson and Vail and Jardin Sauvage from Lupicia, although some reviews don’t care for that last one. I like it both hot and iced and sweetened.

beerandbeancurd

Cool, thank you for the suggestions! I’m gonna pick one and give it a try soon.

ashmanra

Glazed Lemon Loaf by Tazo is also green rooibos base! I had nearly forgotten!

beerandbeancurd

Oh, I have noticed that one mentioned a lot since I’ve been here. Brilliant.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

2170 tasting notes

This chai blend has some pretty awful reviews on Steepster, but it’s not so bad. The flavor is definitely light though. I received this as a sample with one of my orders, but this isn’t one I would buy myself. There isn’t really anything memorable about it.

Flavors: Cardamom, Tobacco

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 7 min, 0 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

32
31 tasting notes

Blech. This is a very flavorless tea. If that’s what they mean by “earthy” in the description of Rooibos teas, I’m gonna have to steer clear. It’s a bummer because I like the idea of a nice decaffeinated chai to occasionally and the night with. My search will have to continue. This is also the first Barney & Sons tea I’ve had that his disappointed me so much.

Preparation
3 min, 45 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

21
1048 tasting notes

I’m still plowing through the accumulation of samples from my recent purchases. For some reason, the folks at Harney & Sons always seem to send me samples of herbal teas when I order from them. Unfortunately, I don’t tend to drink too many herbal teas these days, so they tend to sit around for awhile.

I prepared this tea using a one step Western infusion. I steeped 1 sachet (again, I’m guessing that there is around a teaspoon inside) in 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. Obviously, I did not attempt additional infusions.

After infusion, the liquor showed a dark amber in the cup. I detected fairly balanced aromas of spices and rooibos. In the mouth, I immediately noted a contest between the toasty, malty, herbal notes of rooibos and the intense spicy notes of cinnamon and clove. The aftertaste was both spicy and medicinal, with muddled traces of herbal, toasty rooibos on the back of the throat.

First things first-I tend to absolutely hate chai. I simply cannot stand it. Understand that this tea was going to be a tough sell for me from the start. Second, I really don’t like the layering of flavors here. The rooibos and the spices seem to fight one another, creating a muddiness in the mouth that is really unpleasant. Of course, I have also yet to mention the aftertaste, which was medicinal, as well as a bit bitter and harsh. I have no clue what the teamaker was thinking with this one. I’ll definitely avoid it in the future.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove, Herbs, Malt, Medicinal, Spicy, Toast

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

37
6 tasting notes

Got this as a sample in my last Harney & Sons package. I’ve been on the fence about Rooibos, and while I didn’t get the overwhelming “medicinal” smell other folks have commented about, this didn’t do much for me. I didn’t really smell much chai. Mostly cinnamon. This would more honestly be called Rooibois Cinnamon. It’s not horrible but a bit oversweet for my tastes. Might be interested iced.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 6 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 6 OZ / 177 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

64
15019 tasting notes

not a fan. This was one i picked up in one of my various hotel trips and while i’m glad to try it and cross it off my list, there’s no need to try it again. It wasn’t bad…but it’s not my preferred style of chai.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

694 tasting notes

I received a sachet of this in my H&S order that arrived at my door step today. Thank-you H&S!

Two of my KC friends, and I went in on an order to get free shipping and we hit the 25% off 75 dollar weekend deal last week so it worked out quite nice. Free shipping and 25% off. I will take it. I got the okay from my husband to create a tea drawer and a spice drawer in our kitchen so I ordered a ton of their 4oz black tins. 75 cents for uniform tins. Heck yeah baby!

This isn’t bad. It is not run to the store and buy more good either. Since restricting caffeine I am still experimenting with the collection of rooibos I have. If I can’t find other wonderful rooibos chai I might come back to this one, but something tells me there are others that will suit me more. It is a weaker chai. The rooibos in this cup takes more of the center stage than the spices, but the spices don’t over power so much that it makes my stomach upset, which is a good thing these days. Not bad, not great. A good evening cup to settle down with my next book…. Wool anyone?

Login or sign up to leave a comment.