Rooibos de Provence

A few weeks ago, I had dinner at my best friend’s house. For dessert, we had lightly sweetened strawberries and blueberries mixed with mint from the garden. It was completely amazing – light, sweet, a really satisfying end to dinner. After smelling this tea’s dry leaf and seeing all the dehydrated berries, I got very exciting, thinking that perhaps I’d found that most wonderful dessert in tea form.

Ha. Hahahaha.

I used up my entire sample to make a pot of this last night. It is overwhelmingly medicinal. Any fruit flavor that might be there just contributes to the medicinal quality, making this tea taste like less repulsive cough syrup. I get what I think is mint as an aftertaste once each sip is finished, which is the best part of this whole tea.

I was so excited for this sample and I’m really disappointed that I broke out my teapot this!

All I can really say is that this just isn’t my cup of tea. It tastes too much like perfume to me. I really enjoyed the scent, but I just wasn’t into the taste.

I will admit that I brewed this from one of those samples that David’s Tea throws you when you order online from them, so I wasn’t precise in measuring the tea, or the water, so much of the problem I have with this tea could be attributed to my own laziness. That said, this tea seems weak to me. It’s just not very robust, although it certainly smells deceptively so. The aroma is delightful, particularly if you like berries. I also love the smell of lavender, so my expectations for this tea were high by the time I took my first sip. And I was sadly disappointed. I just wanted something more from it than what I got. It smells better than it tastes.

I’ve been meaning to try this tea for over a year and I’m glad I’ve finally done it. Nice and rooibos-y with sweetness. I need to try this iced!

A sample from MissB. Thank you. :)

So first. Ingredients.

Website:
South African rooibos, rosehip shells, black currants, rose leaves, lavender, red currants, blueberries, natural flavouring*.

Package:
South African rooibos, blueberries, rosehips, rose petals, rose leaves, lavender, raisins, black currants, red currants, artificial blueberry flavouring.

DavidsTea! You need to do better. Which one should I believe? Are there blueberries in there? Rose petals? I have no idea! Thankfully I’m not allergic to anything in either of the ingredient lists, but it doesn’t make me feel like I could trust either of them. I could serve it to a friend and find out about surprise!raspberries, or surprise!strawberries… and honestly it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Because this keeps on happening.

Anyways. The tea smells amazing. Yes, like Blueberry Jam or Blue Lagoon. I guess the same blueberry flavour is used in all of them. But since this one is a rooibos, it is a bit woody. Maybe it’s a tiny bit floral, on the end of the sip. IDK. It’s hard to tell, what with all the blueberry.

This is another rooibos I like that isn’t a dessert flavour. Nice and fruity. But would I have room in my cupboard for both Northern Berry from Zen Tea, and this one? Probably not. And I’d probably go with Northern Berry because it has cranberries in it. Mmm, cranberries.

(Sample pack in 16 oz. 1/4 tsp honey.)

Sipdown! (117)

I got this from shmiracles pretty recently :)

Opened up the pack and… medicine? The blueberry flavouring was kinda overpowering, and the sweet African Rooibos was kinda getting lost with all the other super fruity flavours.
I poured it into my slightly warmish moist mason jar and it kinda just sat there for a while as I was waiting for the kettle to boil and the mediciney smell was definitely going away and I can smell the sweetness of the rooibos! oh happy day :)
It’s steeping and wow. The lavender is coming out like a lot a lot.
The taste of the actual tea is a bit confusing. Love the lavender and I love the rooibos (those are the two most prominent flavours I can taste) but I don’t think that they mix well together. Can’t taste the rose in it, and I’m getting wee bits of the blueberries and currants. Like I said, the lavender is pretty strong in this tea.
It’s okay? I probably won’t finish this cup, but I’ll wash out my mason jar and stick it in the fridge and see how it’ll taste in the morning :)

Got this as a free sample with an online DAVIDsTEA order. Very nice, the lavender is strong with this one! To the point where it almost felt like a savoury tea rather than a sweet tea. I don’t really know how to describe it. I was expecting a mouth full of flowers but it was quite… dry? I don’t know what I’m talking about.

The scent is lovely. Lots of berry on the front end with the rose and coolness of lavender trailing behind. The taste took a cup or two to grow on me. It’s taken me a while to build up a palate for more floral tastes, and this one started as a little perfumey for me. I did end up loving it once I was able to parse out the different scents and ingredients and will likely order more. Would also like to try it cold.

I’m a bit of a tea noob, so forgive any ignorance revealed here!

I’m loving this tea. All the flavours are there and you know what I get overall? Extra Bubble Gum. Not the Bubblemint but the old fashioned Pink flavoured Bubble Gum. Totally delish.

After trying out other teas from the same place, this has become my favorite after sweet dreams. It reminds me of Pakistan’s amazing drink, ‘Rooh Afza’. love it