Organic African Nectar

The Final Sipdown: Day 11
Decupboarding Total: 24

Today is the day for drinking (and decupboarding!) the (not-)teas that scare me. That’s right. Rooibos. Yuck.

This one… still not good. It tastes like pear and sweet, slightly rotting wood. Don’t remember the pear from before but totally remember the rotting wood. Meh. Glad this one is gone.

My second time drinking this one. I liked it quite a bit the first time. And quite a bit this time as well. A solid bagged tropical flavored rooibos. I’ll pick apart which topical flavors I can taste next time I drink it as I was mindlessly drinking it tonight and it’s very late now and I can’t remember.

So, I’ve been doing this thing lately with well, any non-black bagged tea. I’ll leave the bag in as I sip it down and the tea cools some, I’ll top of the last inch with more hot warm. Usually I can do this twice before I notice that the tea will start becoming too weak. It both keeps my tea warm longer and gives me more tea. And uses up the last bit of water left in the new electric kettle, which I don’t leave water in when not using, which is prolly why I started doing this.

The beau brought a silken satchet of this home from his work for me to try. While I’m not the biggest rooibos fan anymore I do love him so try it I shall. The aroma reminds me of Ruby Red from Joy’s Teaspoon – some sweetness, tropical fruit of some sort and some rooibos. Nothing objectionable, but not too snazzy either. A quick comment on the satchet though – I love it! For a rooibos, it had plenty of room for spreading out and getting fully steeped. Actual tea might have needed a bit more room, but this was great for a non-expanding tea. It was also fine enough to keep the rooibos in which is important for me. I hate small floaties.

First sips are nice enough. It echoes the smell with some undistinguishable fruit flavouring and sweetness. There is almost a hint of bubble gum but it doesn’t quite go there (luckily). Still reminds me of Ruby Red, which I have 4 or 5 ounces of at home. One of the better rooibos teas I have had lately. Generic but good. :)

I didn’t expect much from this tea, so that’s ok. Would I purchase it again? Probably not as there are better out there. Really wasn’t feeling the "nectar’ portion of this tea whatsoever.

Tropical flavored rooibos and caffiene free. Nice and sweet with out being too much so. I prefer Teavana’s Zingiber Ginger Coconut and art of teas dessert line over this, but will finish what’s left in the sample pack I purchased.

From a Mighty Leaf Tea Assortment pack

I really enjoy the taste of “honeybush” or “red rooibos” or whatever it is called, but I am starting to notice that it gives me a weird itchy patch under my chin… Maybe it is psychosymatic? This one tastes delicious though and I will admit I am tempted to put it on my list of “must purchase” as a loose leaf, we will see how I react to the second bag in this pack – when I get to it.

A pretty tasty rooibos blend that I’ve leaned on many a time when drinking teas from the library tea bar this summer. Today I feel as though I’m coming down with something, so I am pounding back the tea, and trying to avoid taking in any more dehydrating caffeine than is absolutely necessary to keep myself vertical and studying for a test I have tomorrow (test plus sick = terrible combination! Am doing my best.) Wow, was that the worst run-on sentence ever? Did I mention I don’t feel well?

Anyway, this is nicely fruity and bright- sweet, but not too sweet. It’s like a mild cocktail and might be amazing iced. Either way, this makes for a really good summer blend. It may be the blorgie talking, but I think I taste a kind of peach-nectarine and a touch of coconut.

I’m pretty sure this is the tea I have but not positive. I’ll check when I get home tonight. Anyway this tea was pretty yummy. It smells kind of like apple juice which I found odd, but it tastes like roobios. If you don’t like roobios this is not your tea but I happen to quite enjoy it. I had a cup of this while watching Fringe last night!

From the coffee and tea bar at the Hotel Monaco, Salt Lake City – looking forward to trying this as I’ve read a lot about Mighty Leaf here but never tried their offerings. I’ve been drinking a lot of undistinguished iced tea during the long days of driving, so it was about time to have something with a bit more character.

This one is very mild in flavor – orange is there, and a rooibos base, but that’s about it. It’s warm, soothing and pleasant but not overly complex. I’ll try some of the other varieties on offer and see how they fare.

I’m not a big rooibos fan but I’d like to enjoy it more because it’s healthy, plus I stop drinking caffeine by around 1pm, leaving a tea void in every day. So I’m always on the lookout for a nice evening tea, and this falls in that category. A pleasing complement of flavors — peach, mostly, and the rooibos is played down, almost on the order of a very faint dusting of cinnamon, though of course it’s rooibos, not cinnamon.

… If you’re reading reviews for this tea looking for a good, natural-ingredient rooibos blend, this one’s very smooth and palatable with a good deal of flavor, and you might also want to check out American Tea Room’s Choco*Late, which is a rooibos blend with cacao husks and vanilla beans.

I think it’d make a nice adult beverage but I haven’t given enough thought to which alcohol I’d add… maybe some type of brandy or bourbon. ’Scuse me while I make a second cup ;)