I’ve been looking forward to trying these loose-leaf herbal blends from Mighty Leaf ever since I received my sampler box. Let’s see when was that? My tea life has become a blur of box deliveries… Anyway, the reason why it has taken a while is that late at night when I seriously entertain herbalia, I am deterred by the possibly stimulating effect of the pink peppercorn in this blend.
The night is young, however, only 9 pm, so I still have half my day to go! I brewed this colorful mélange rather strong, because I wanted to give it a fighting chance. To be honest, I’m not the number-one fan of rooibos blends, to put it mildly. I do love chai, and I have tried some herbal chais before, including a couple of rooibos chais. But I was not all that optimistic in this case, given past experience.
I am happy to be able to report that my low expectations have been exceeded. I credit the ample provision of coconut and ginger in the blend to its relative degree of success. The coconut imparts a rich feeling, what is so often lacking from herbal chais. With a mediocre black-tea blend, there’s always cream to save the day. But I cannot really fathom adding cream to a rooibos blend. Shredded (unsweetened) coconut does the trick here. And the blend is spicy, with a big hit of ginger, along with the pink peppercorn (which from what I understand is not really pepper—a similar case to wild rice, which is not really rice, but that’s another story…). Happily the cinnamon and cardamom are balanced and do not overwhelm, as so often happens in these sorts of infusions.
All in all, I am pleasantly surprised. I do recommend brewing this blend very strong so as to avoid the dreaded “Vitamin Water” effect.
Flavors: Coconut, Ginger
