Pumpkin Spice Rooibos Herbal Blend

I finished a tin of this around eight years ago and have kept the adorable tin on my shelf ever since (currently filled with lavender). I was visiting family recently and was thrilled to see this same tin on their shelves, and it still had a few bags left in it! They use a tasty rooibos as a base, and the spices are mild, but pleasant. There’s a tiny bit of fruitiness from the pumpkin. It may be nostalgia, but I’ll always love this one!

Come for the tin, stay for the outrage over the phrase “pumpkin spice”. Historically, these spice combinations have been called “sweet spice” for they spice up sweet things. Rooibos is not a sweet thing. And the sweet spice blend doesn’t make it a sweet thing. In fact, to my palette, the sweet spice blend might as well have taken the day off because I just cannot taste it. I’m sure they are there, hanging out, being noticed by people with more refined palettes than I have.

But as for me, I wanted a cup of rooibos, and I got a cup of rooibos (with reusable tin as a bonus). Expectations were met.

This tea doesn’t need any thing added. The clove and nutmeg gives a pleasant smell and taste. It is a perfect fall tea.

Sipping an office castoff of indeterminate age, but it’s pumpkin season. What could I do?
Regardless of its age, it’s still mellow with a little bite (of cinnamon). I am, too ;)

Trader Joe’s tea selections are generally a miss in flavor for me. This tea sits somewhere between a hit and miss.

It’s not entirely bland, but it’s about one step up from it. I enjoy rooibos and pumpkin spice teas but there’s just not enough of any flavor coming through even though I steeped the tea for almost 10 minutes.

I don’t hate it but I don’t love it either. I’ve found adding two sachets to each cup enhanced the flavor enough that I’ll be able to finish the tin, but I won’t be buying it again. There are much better choices for rooibos and pumpkin spice teas.

This is fairly light, and is easily watered down if you add milk to it. I actually received this for free at Trader Joe’s, when they had overstock and were giving away things to random customers.

Really love the combo of rooibos and pumpkin! A great fall tea for the price.

…Not going to lie, the design of the tin is what sold me. I would love to have a pumpkin teapot!

I don’t often go to Trader Joe’s but sometimes it’s fun to go pick up some ‘treats’ for the weekend. We are going to the Pumpkin Patch tomorrow so I got this tea to get in the mood. It doesn’t taste like pumpkin (kinda glad actually). It is more of a vanilla cinnamon. I put in a splash of Trader Joe’s Coconut Creamer too for kicks. Yummy after dinner drink. I will be saving the tin, it’s super cute.

No, no, no, I disagree. This is just a normal rooibos, it tastes pretty plain, not spicy at all, there’s no pumpkin flavor which is understandable since it is a tea, not a smoothie (how do you add REAL pumpkin chunks into a herbal blend?), but the lack of spices it is not understandable. Big dissapointment. There is a better, more flavorful pumpkin spice tea served at some Barnes and Noble stores (the ones that have a coffee shop inside).

My husband says it’s not pumpkin spice season yet. The stores tell me otherwise. Though I do wish they would wait till October, I couldn’t help but pick up this up. Glad I did. It has a really nice lingering after taste. Pumpkin is hard to decipher in tea but as far as pumpkin spice goes, you can definitely taste it! Quite good. Quite relaxing.