Green Rooibos

Backlog from Sunday.

This is the first time I’ve tried green rooibos on its own. I’ve had a couple of blends which featured it, but I’ve never tried it in its neat state before. The smell, at first, was discouraging. I find rooibos disturbingly brassy, but this smells somehow…swampy. The colour of the dry leaf was interesting, though. It is actually pale green and cream. I don’t know what I was expecting, but a small part of me was pleased that its colour lived up to its name. I think I thought it was just going to look like rooibos. And rooibos is red. Habit.

Anyway, this doesn’t taste as bad as it smells. It’s not exactly lovely stuff, but it’s not bad. The taste is hard to pinpoint. I want to say woodsy, but in a piney sort of way, or maybe sawdust. There’s something quite resinous and “green” about it. I also want to say nutty, but that’s not quite right either. It tastes similar to normal red rooibos, only…greener. Unhelpful, yes, but it’s so hard to put words to what I’m tasting. I think raw wood and resin, maybe pine, are as close as I’m going to get.

The liquor is a pale gold, so I drank this as is. I normally add milk to rooibos, but it wouldn’t work here. I can’t say I find it an enjoyable cup, but I’ve got a couple of blends in my stash that feature green rooibos, and I wanted to try it solo at some point so I have the experience to draw on when tasting. Educational, if not overwhelmingly pleasant.

I hate red rooibos. Completely loath it. So I was terrified to try the green version, but I was suckered into it by RoT’s savory greenbush blends… and I love ’em. This is my 1st unflavored greenbush.

The liquor is not green at all. It’s bright orange… like BRIGHT orange. It’s pumpkin almost verging on blaze orange. The aroma is light and slighty fruity.

What an interesting tea… It’s smooth, woody. My grandfather was a wood worker by hobby before he retired so I smelled so much wood I could almost taste it as a small child- and I really think this is what wood would taste like if you licked it. There’s also a slight fruity note. And warmth. Warmth in the flavor, beyond the temperature. Almost like faint notes of cinnamon. Pretty good!

After a disappointing cup of hazelnut honeybush which I ruined by adding honey (how on earth do those not go well together??) I decided to try the green rooibos to see if that would help me sleep. It’s after 2 am so, I’m getting concerned that I might never fall asleep again after last night’s insomnia.
I opened the package and got a really nice green scent. I can’t really say more than that, it didn’t really have any particular notes that I picked up on and it didn’t really smell like red rooibos that much.
Brewed it had a little more of that creamy rooibos scent. Also, for some reason I was expecting it to brew up green – it’s actually a really nice apricot orange color.
It’s really strange to drink – there isn’t any particular flavor, but there is a sweet/dry grassy flavor/sensation that hits the back of the roof of my mouth while I’m sipping it.
It’s completely unlike red rooibos.
I’m already feeling sleepy! I like the way that rooibos makes me sleepy better than honeybush. Honeybush kind of made me feel like I was being sucked into sleep against my will. Rooibos makes me tired in such a way that I actually want to go to sleep.

Ordered a sample of this out of curiosity, as I’d never tried green rooibos.

Dry leaf: Thick smell of hay and candied dates. Needles are slightly dry/crumbled and dusty compared to the red rooiboses I’ve tried, maybe this is a slightly old batch?

Steeping: Very attractive, bright golden colored brew. However, LOTS of crumbles etc. got into the tea, so I poured it through a paper coffee filter into my cup. The smell while steeping reminds me of a Darjeeling or Ceylon tea, but with hints of citrus and fresh hay.

Drinking: Very smooth and still has a flavor similar to red rooibos, but more citrussy and grassy, with slight hints of grape skins or raisin. Also somewhat comparable to Ceylon black tea. Something about the flavor is “dusty”, not a bad thing, but difficult to describe.

Reminds me of: A horse farm on a hot, dry day

Summary: Intersting, caffeine-free herbal tea somewhat reminiscent of Ceylon, but with a more grassy, citrussy side.

Pros: Cheap, good for a night time tea, nice smell and color, smooth
Cons: Gets through mesh strainers

I tried the Green Rooibos today, and I cannot complain. It is exactly what it claims to be- Green Rooibos. Sweet and woodsy.

Perfection in a nighttime cup! Of course i added cardamom, cinnamon sticks, crushed hot pepper and bay leaves…

I really like this, and I have no idea why. Its…odd.

I’m a budding rooibos fanatic, I love the taste and being naturally decaf makes my life a heck of a lot easier. I’ve read several reviews on here about green rooibos and have been curious for a while, so when I recently bought a few random samplers from Adagio (thank you free shipping on Cyber Monday <3)I figured that’d be the perfect time to finally try the stuff.

…It reminds me of Darjeeling a little? I’ve never had lose leaf Darjeeling, just the bagged stuff, but that’s all I could think of drinking this. Darjeeling with something extra, this kind of ‘almost’ of the regular rooibos taste. Either way, I like it quite a bit even though I can’t pin down why, and I’ll definitely be picking up a 3 oz of it next time I can.

I made mine with about 2 spoonfuls of sugar.

This is bit of a departure from my usual white and black tea varieties. I do enjoy Roobios so I thought why not give this a try. It was interesting to say the least. I found it to be difficult to pair just the right accompaniment. I like to pair my tea with food and find that this one was a bit more difficult to determine. I finally decided just to go English style with some biscuits and strawberry preserves. Though this was a bit of a cop out it did seem to work OK. I must admit I usually try a bit harder to be a true tea foodie.

Despite not loving red rooibos, I thought I’d try the green stuff. This is my first experience with it.

The dry odor is sweet, very sweet. Surprising. Nothing like red rooibos. It… um… smells, to me, exactly like orange Tang.

I liked orange Tang as a kid, but fortunately, this smells very different in the cup. It actually has an odor slightly reminiscent of green tea. Slightly. The odor in the cup is actually not very strong… I was concerned that I’d brewed it too weak, until I tasted it.

The flavor has a grassy note and a back-of-the-tongue sweetness that is surprisingly like green tea – although this may only be because I haven’t had real green tea in ages. This certainly isn’t a green tea substitute. It has its own charm… sweet and almost fruity, but there is also a warm flavor of alder wood, as if I were drinking from an alder cup. There’s also a tiny bit of astringency, barely noticable, but it helps keep the sweetness from being overwhelming.

I don’t normally like light-bodied, fruity teas, but this one is a keeper. I’d like to try a different green rooibos and see how much variation the flavor has.

I’ve had this tea for a while but haven’t reviewed it up until now. Green rooibos is rather plain on its own and I got this to blend with other teas and herbals. Earlier today I made some in my Lupicia handy cooler mixed with ginger root. Now I am drinking it over ice and the combination is quite nice, especially for a warm evening like we are having. I’m not sure how to rate this as it’s a standard herb. Green rooibos has a much milder flavor than the red kind, so it you’re normally a red rooibos hater, I would recommend giving it a try. I think this would be good with lemon too, just not sure my stomach is up to that tonight.