Madametj's Fresh Garden

Too much rooibos. agggggh

I feel like I’m becoming a pioneer, or rather an EXPLORER of uncharted territory: brewing herbal tea gongfu style! Sadly, my Rosemary plant didn’t make it :( BUT my aunt has a huuuge bush in her backyard and I was able to get some from her! Next time I’ll make sure I weight my herbs to get more consistent results.

Steeping times: 60s, 60s, 120s

First Steeping: The rosemary definitely overpowered the brew. If you concentrate reeeally hard you can taste the lemongrass in the background and I really do think it enhances the taste. I also added honey which made it a really enjoyable drink.

Second Steeping: One thing about herbals is they generally don’t resteep well (probably why most people don’t gongfu them). The second steeping definitely tastes lighter, but still has enough flavor to be enjoyable. Gonna bump up the next steeping time to see if any flavor is left.

Third steeping: Doubling the last steeping time allowed to get a flavor that matched that of the second steeping. Ahhh, and now my tummy is happy and full of fresh herbal tea :)

I think I’ve finally confirmed that while I do love a nice, warm, comforting cup of soba cha,, I much prefer my green rooibos genmaicha for the fuller flavor. Which is actually a good thing because I have plenty of rice and plenty of green rooibos so it’s a much cheaper option :D

for a homemade dupe, this is pretty darn close! Abigal the teapot likes this tea too :)

ohhhhhhhhhhhh yes. My efforts in brewing Green Rooibos Bonita in my new blue Yixing pot were less than stellar yesterday. Today a guest came over and I offered to make them some tea. I opted for this one because i know most people like mint, and it was sooo good. Forgot how much I loved this tea. It tastes great in this teapot, and it’s the perfect size for serving guests :)

Garden dew lovely
Leaves crunchy and green
Clay pot patina
Minty, fresh, clean

I got two new spearmint plants and a peppermint plant. I’ve been drinking mint tea ALL. DAY. :D

Backlogging this from this morning. It’s becoming my favorite first drink of the day! :)

Sooo good. Nothing compares to fresh mint! The first steeping was kind of 50-50 spearmint peppermint, but the second steeping was just spearmint. Peppermint doesn’t resteep well. Or maybe dry herbs just don’t resteep as well as fresh herbs. Eh. Either way, this was awesome!

I’ve had this cold steeping for two days and it’s soooo good iced! Oddly enough, it reminds me of a cold glass of chocolate milk, just more refreshing.

For this one it’s really hard to extract the flavor from it. I tried crushing them but they’re really tough. Some suggested simmering on the stove for an hour but ain’t nobody got time for that. I added some green rooibos and that helped fill out the flavor a bit, but overall I prefer the sobacha.

a little extra sugar makes it dessert!

So tasty and relaxing <3

It’s been a while since I’ve whipped up a custom tea. So here I am in the middle of the night roasting brown rice on the stove and brewing it with green rooibos. It’s really good. Tastes just like soba-cha!