So I’m having this now because it was between Martha and Ten and Ten won for my morning tea, so Martha is for my night tea.
I’m not a fan of rooibos blends. I don’t like the taste of rooibos straight, but I can usually stand them mixed into a blend in small doses. This one was deceptive in that it looks like only a smidge of rooibos in the blend, but when I measured it out, it turned into mostly rooibos with a smidge of black tea leaves.
So strong caramel sort of scent to it, but not really any sort of other scent to indicate the sesame that’s supposed to be in the blend. Brewed the caramel smell is there but it doesn’t translate very strongly taste wise. It’s there, but not in the sense that would make me think ‘Caramel!’ on the sip. There’s a strange other taste that’s kinda…hard to describe. Kinda bitter? Sharp? Musky? I can’t really put my finger on it. And I’m not sure if it’s the rooibos or if this is the sesame coming up in the sip. It’s just strange and vaguely unpleasant to be honest. Also, the astringency on this blend has to be the worse out of all the other Doctor Who blends I’ve had from the set so far. Or at least, bad enough that I’ve actually noticed it.
I tried it with a bit of Truvia mixed in and while it takes some of the bitter edge off and turns the caramel into a sort of dark/toasted/burnt caramel sort of taste, it’s still an unpleasant enough blend that I don’t forsee me brewing this up again, not with other blends from the set that, even if they’re not my favorite, are still tasty.
Also, I’ve held off on giving this a rating since I’m not sure if it’s my dislike of rooibos that makes this blend so unpleasant, or if it’s the blend itself. XD
200 °F / 93 °C
2 min, 30 sec
2 tsp
12 OZ / 354 ML
