Cran-Blackberry Rooibos

Sipdown! So, uh, I was nicely under 800… and then I received my swap package from whatshesaid as well as a lovely tea-containing thank-you from Lala… (you guys are both awesome!) er… so… with this sipdown, I’m back at 801. Ahahaha. Oh well, that is to be short-lived. I don’t think there are any sipdowns from sending my half of the swap out, but I of course have tons of other things to sipdown in the meantime!

Well, cleverly I did remember that had intended to brew this up a bit more strongly this time (ok, it was a total fluke, but whatever), and the results are definitely better. Even though this tea is from my very first swap EVER!!!! with momo, this is kind of tasty! It tastes mostly like a cranberry-flavoured rooibos to me, but although I’d prefer a honeybush base, the rooibos isn’t too bad here. I’m not sure, however, that cranberry is my favourite flavour in tea, so I probably wouldn’t pick this up again if it was to reappear.

I’m not sure what to write about this one, so I’m just going to transcribe the discussion between Missy, myself, and our daughter:

Dylan: “It is kind of weird that the flavor is so passive on this”
Missy: “Right? It’s fairly tame, with just a little blackberry at the end”
Dylan: “You can’t even really taste the Rooibos”
Missy: “Yeah, where’d the honeybush go?”

It truly is light enough that we weren’t sure whether it was honeybush or rooibos (the bag says rooibos). At this point, Missy called our daughter in, who we’ve been trying to get to be a little more discerning on how she likes different teas and tisanes.

Missy: “Here, taste this”
Dodge: “It tastes okay. Not like bad okay, but pretty good okay. I would drink this”
Dylan: “I just think its weird that there isn’t that much flavor”
Dodge: “Dude, what are you talking about, there’s tons of flavor!”

Just proves the point that people don’t taste things the same.

Ah evidently I am the first person on Steepster to log this particular blend.

My track record with roobois tisanes has definitely been a mixed bag so I wasn’t sure what exactly I would make of this one. :)

I ended up steeping it in an infuser mug for 5 minutes @ 208F. I think I like roobois blends a little bit better when the other ingredients drown out the flavor – lol. I am getting both cranberry and blackberry in this which is very nice. It does have a bit of tartness that comes from the cranberry element but not overwhemingly so. This is a very “juicy” blend with only a touch of cherry cough syrup -ha!

I liked this pretty well when it was hot and then I decided to throw it over some ice and I added a bit of sugar to it. I’ve never had an iced roobois before and I’m not sure that’s really my “thing” but it was ok. I preferred it hot.

This was good enough for even a roobois malcontent like me but I’m not sure I would buy it again.

The first time I had this, I cold steeped it because I was curious as to how rooibos tasted that way. I did not like it at all. So this time around I steeped it up hot, then poured over ice. I still don’t really like how it tastes. I feel like I need to sweeten it but now I’m too lazy to get up. But I think it would benefit from just a little sugar or something.

It might just be I don’t like how the blackberry tastes in here, which is weird because they’re pretty much my favorite fruit. It just isn’t strong enough so to me it doesn’t really taste like blackberry. I’ll give it another try hot.

I am so out of it. This is the first time I’ve had tea since Tuesday. But at least jury duty wasn’t bad. I just sat there for 3 1/2 hours then I got to go home…except I stopped at a food truck and it was awful and I’ve felt horrible since. So, if I want tacos from a food truck I know who to avoid now but meh.

Thank you Sandy for sending me this sample.
You know I don’t hate it.
Its really not bad its just a bit weak.
Still, I had it for an evening sip and it was hydrating and enjoyable.
I had read the tasting notes before hand so perhaps I was impressed more because it wasn’t AS disappointing as I was anticipating but it really was pretty good.
I sure didn’t toss it out.
The more I tried to find the fault in it the more I enjoyed it really.
Its probably not something I would have scraped pennies together to order but I would not refuse it either.
It was enjoyable and while the flavors sure didn’t do a tap dance on my tongue they were present and hung out casually in the background talking to each other. Even if they did tend to ignore my taste buds a little I still liked the after taste and the pleasant non nonsense nature of their chatter.
Anyway enough of that – I liked it enough.

Thanks for this one Liberteas!

It’s smell very wine-like, actually. YUMMY!

The Cran is pretty tart but in a good way…like a cranberry WOULD be. The Blackberry is really puckery…like a Blackberry WOULD be! The Rooibos is sweet but not cigar-like like some rooibos’s can be.

This also tastes sort of wine-like. It makes me think of a winery in the Finger Lakes Region that I have been to once or twice…they specialize in fruity-sweet wines with lingering flavor. YUP! That’s what this one reminds me of!

Sipdown! Woot. Ok, so I’m officially over flowing with tea. I no longer have space in cupboards or drawers so it’s spilling out onto my counter. Addiction D: ugh…

Anyways, this one I really do like and I’m sad to see it go. It’s pretty delicious. Mellow cranberry and blackberry. The cool thing is you can taste both berries. They each have their own unique sweetness and tartness. Such a lovely but playful rooibos.

Backlog:

I’ve had this twice now, I had some hot the other evening, and then, this afternoon, I decided to have it iced. We had some rather warm weather today and I thought I’d celebrate with a cup of iced tea! It was yummy.

But it was also TART! I needed to add a little bit of sugar to this to soften the tartness … I found that half a teaspoon of turbinado sugar helped curb the tartness just enough for me. When it cools, the tartness subsides a little.

Aside from the tartness, though, there is a lovely fruit flavor to this. I love the combination of cranberry and blackberry. They go together well. If you can look beyond tartness, this really is a decent combination with the rooibos.

Thanks to the Traveling Tea Box I finally get to try a 52tea blend! Unfortunately this one doesn’t seem to have much love on Steepster and may be meant to be drank cold. Not setting my hopes high. So level teaspoon with this one, steeped for 5 mins, boiling water, in a tiny 3-4oz tasting cup.

The dry leaf does smell berry like and can you even smell tart? It seems I can. It reminds me of something, some kind of bath product or candle. The liquor smells very sweet and reminds me a bit of a fruit wine or mead. As I pull the basket out it looks like its almost going to be wine colored, but there is definitely rooibos orange here. Hmm such a familiar smell.

Now the taste, oh! This is familiar in a different way, this is like blackberry frozen yogurt! No mistake! And I’m drinking this hot! I’m guessing Frank is known for stronger flavors and perhaps his followers come to expect that, but this is really quite nice to me! Again bar set low so pleasant surprise! I do get a bit of cranberry but this is mostly blackberry yogurt to me, frozen and not. Fun!

I don’t drink many fun tea. Incredibly amazing complex teas yes that can be joyful to drink, but not straightforward fun. Then again may be part of the Traveling Tea Box experience! Toddler says quote “Mmmm, that was very good!” after remarking that it too is orange. He’s taking a second helping and requesting a third, Rowan approved!

This is another time when I distrust my taste buds. The rooibos and berries are coming through but not as strong as I expected them. I mostly taste bubblegum. It’s a nice flavor just not what I expected. If I hadn’t seen the package first, I’d say this is cran-blackberry gum rooibos. In any case, this is pretty good iced too. More bum flavor. :D