Winter Plum

So I guess this is a new Bayswater rooibos blend? I had to add it to the database and I can’t find any useful info online. The “ingredient list” on their website was more of a list of flavours. Anyway, the dry tea is very aromatic – I keep sniffing it and the only description I can come up with is “fruity and boozy”. The brewing directions on the label are pretty intense (“2 heaping tea measuring spoons for 1 cup of water. steep 10-15 min”) but I went with it. It brews up a nice reddish-orange colour. As I was tasting it, the fruity and boozy impression continued, because first it reminded me of… ok, you know when you’re making fruitcake and there’s the part where you soak a bunch of dried fruit and stuff in like, rum or something? That. Then I sipped it some more and I thought maybe it was more like mulled wine. So, fruity and spicy and boozy? It’s good. :) There a bit of tartness that makes me wonder if there’s a tiny bit of hibiscus in this blend, but it might just be the citrus, and it’s balanced by the sweet and spicy. It has “plum” in the name, and maybe that’s the only reason I’m getting plum notes, but if it’s just the power of suggestion it’s very effective.

I went back to inspect the dry tea a bit more closely. So, it’s mostly red rooibos, and the most obvious additions are these little dried orange (?) wedges, like a 1cm strip of orange peel but with a little triangle of orange attached, why is this so hard to describe. Anyway, there are also some big chunks of cinnamon stick, and some crystalline bits are definitely sugar of some sort, and some little chunks of what I think are dates.

I am confused but pleased by this tea. :)