Mince Pie Matcha (Rooibos Version)

This is the last of my B&B matcha samplers, and since it’s one of the “not-matcha” tea powders (rooibos), I decided to froth it up in some vanilla oat milk as my nightly herbal cuppa tonight.

The dry leaf smelled incredibly spicy (I wouldn’t be able to differentiate it on the nose with the Gingerbread Chai powder!) but after brewing it, now the predominant aroma is fruit! Now I’m just smelling cinnamon apples…

Hmmm… yes, I can definitely taste apple. It isn’t the sharp green apple I got from their Toffee Apple matcha, though, but a sweeter, baked apple flavor, followed by mulling spices, predominantly cinnamon. Just a little citrusy too, which mixed with the strong apple flavor is coming off as a slight fruit punch flavor to me. I wonder if this would be a lot spicier and citrusy if I’d used regular oat milk instead of the vanilla (I always worry about the B&B powders being bitey without the extra bit of sweetness) since I am getting a lot of the frothy vanilla in the cup… it does go nicely with the flavors, though.

I haven’t liked the rooibos powders when I can actually taste the rooibos powder, and I’m not tasting it here, at least. And it’s a fairly smooth cuppa, at least so far (though I wouldn’t be surprised if I get some graininess closer to the bottom). Ya, I’m okay with this. If I top up my regular oat milk, I may have to use that with the remaining serving I have left in the sampler just to see if some of the other flavors pop a bit more, and hope that doesn’t turn it into a spice bomb… perhaps the sweetness in my cup is just bringing forth all the fruity notes instead, heh.

#adventageddon Day Twenty Two – 1/6

I don’t think I disliked this “matcha” as much as VariaTEA did – but maybe that’s because I went into it with the expectation that it would be really unpleasant!? Though I shared my mug of it with my mom today and she was definitely not a fan. Taste is subjective though…

I didn’t think it was much of anything exceptional, mind you – but it was fine. Really strong on the rooibos notes, and then quite a bright orange note with a warming spice undertone. You really taste the licorice root in the finish, as well. Appropriate for the season anyway, and let’s face it – a mince pie could have been MUCH worse.

I clearly did not look too closely at this when I picked it because it is a rooibos matcha which doesn’t appeal to me all that much. Plus, it has licorice which makes me a bit apprehensive. However, it’s my advent tea today so I got to making it.

I am at my sister’s and she doesn’t have a milk frother but she does have a breville hot choc and froth so I used that. Unfortunately it seems like the flat bottom of the frother piece in the hot choc and froth smushed some of the powder, instead of mixing it so I am not sure how much of the matcha actually mixed.

Tastewise, it mostly tastes like nutmeg/cinnamon rooibos. Rooibos being the operative word since that’s the flavor doing the heavy lifting. Also, some fruitiness. It is Christmas-y, I guess but this is not my favorite.

Sipdown! (21)

I had intended to prepare this straight, but once I started whisking and got a lovely strong orange aroma, I decided to add milk for an orange & cream sort of vibe.

It’s quite pleasant. The orange is the strongest note for me, which goes very well with the milk. There’s also a strong rooibos presence and some light spicing going on, including clove. I do get a bit of apple but it’s mostly dominated by the orange.

I would think a mince pie tea would have more apple, but that’s just me. Also there’s a bit of a weird texture thing going on, which seems to be an issue with all of their rooibos-based powders. It’s not undrinkable, but it does have a negative effect on the overall experience.