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Nattie drank Redbush by Tetley

681 tasting notes

This is my first time posting from the main website on a computer instead of my phone! :O Maybe I should do it more often, it’s so much easier!

I’ve had these teabags lying around my cupboard for a while now, probably verging on 10 months, so I thought I should try to get them used up (and then buy more tea. Yay!) I bought them from my on-site campus shop last year as I wanted a caffeine-free tea, and it was either this or chamomile, which I don’t much care for. I remember thinking that it tasted like regular tea, only with an odd aftertase, and haven’t had plain rooibos since, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

My first mug of this, drank plain, was quite disappointing. It was very bland, with only a little flavour that I could make out at all, and not enough to tell what it was. Maybe the teabags have lost their potency over time.

I am curently drinking my second mug of the night, which I brewed using two teabags for twice as long. This seems to have helped, as the flavour is more present this time around even though I added milk to make it more soothing. Brewed, the smell reminds me of honey, and I expected it to taste like regular tea does with a spoonful of honey stirred in. The actual flavour is more woodsy than I expected from the smell, but commonplace in other rooibos drinks I own. It is a very suitable bedtime drink, with a deep, woodsy taste in the sip, and a floral honey (I knew I smelled it!) aftertaste which I find very soothing.

Now that my collection has vastly expanded, I own many rooibos blends which I would choose over this in a heartbeat. Having said that, it will not be a chore to finish the remaining teabags.

Preparation

Boiling 1 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 14 OZ / 400 ML

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I first got into loose leaf teas when a friend of mine showed me Cara McGee’s Sherlock fandom blends on Adagio a good few years back, but they weren’t on sale in the UK so I started trying other kinds instead and have been hooked for almost three years (and have purchased several fandom tea sets including the Sherlock one I lusted over for so long).

Flavoured teas make up the majority of my collection, but I’m growing increasingly fond of unflavoured teas too. I usually reach for a black, oolong or white tea base over a pu’erh or green tea, though I do have my exceptions. I will update my likes and dislikes as I discover more about my palate, but for now:

Tea-likes: I’m generally easily pleased and will enjoy most flavours, but my absolute favourites are maple, caramel, chestnut, pecan, raspberry, coconut, blueberry, lemon, pumpkin, rose, hazelnut and peach

Tea-dislikes: vanilla (on its own), ginger, coriander/cilantro, cardamom, liquorice, pineapple and chocolate

I am a 25 year old bartender, English Literature sort-of-graduate and current student working towards finishing my degree. I am hoping to one day complete a masters degree in Mental Health Social Work and get a job working in care. Other than drinking, hoarding and reviewing tea, my hobbies include reading, doing quizzes and puzzles, TV watching, football/soccer (Sunderland AFC supporter and employee of my local football club), music, artsy weird makeup, and learning new things (currently British Sign Language).

I should probably also mention my tea-rating system, which seems to be much harsher than others I’ve seen on here. It’s not always concrete, but I’ll try to define it:

• 50 is the base-line which all teas start at. A normal, nothing-special industrial-type black teabag of regular old fannings would be a 50.

• 0 – 49 is bad, and varying degrees of bad. This is probably the least concrete as I hardly ever find something I don’t like.

• I have never given below a 20, and will not unless that tea is SO bad that I have to wash my mouth out after one sip. Any teas rated as such are unquestionably awful.

• This means most teas I don’t enjoy will be in the 30 – 50 range. This might just mean the tea is not to my own personal taste.

• 51+ are teas I enjoy. A good cup of tea will be in the 50 – 70 range.

• If I rate a tea at 70+, it means I really, really like it. Here’s where the system gets a little more concrete, and I can probably define this part, as it’s rarer for a tea to get there.

• 71- 80: I really enjoyed this tea, enough to tell somebody about, and will probably hang onto it for a little longer than I perhaps should because I don’t want to lose it.

• 81 – 90: I will power through this tea before I even know it’s gone, and will re-order the next time the mood takes me.

• 91 – 100: This is one of the best teas I’ve ever tasted, and I will re-order while I still have a good few cups left, so that I never have to run out. This is the crème de la crème, the Ivy League of teas.

I never rate a tea down, and my ratings are always based on my best experience of a tea if I drink it multiple times. I feel that this is fairest as many factors could affect the experience of one particular cup.

I am always happy to trade and share my teas with others, so feel free to look through my cupboard and message me if you’re interested in doing a swap. I keep it up-to-date, although this doesn’t mean I will definitely have enough to swap, as I also include my small samples.
Currently unable to swap as I’ve returned after a long hiatus to a cupboard of mostly-stale teas I’m trying to work through before I let myself purchase anything fresh

I also tend to ramble on a bit.

Location

South Shields, UK

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