Rooibos Cederberg

Sipdown (1824)!

As I just said in another tasting note, I love the taste of straight rooibos. However, it’s not really something I would ever think to buy from another tea company because I have DT’s Wild Grown Rooibos so easily available to me and that’s the best straight rooibos I’ve ever come across. That said, I was pleased to see this as one of the free samples in my most recent DF order!

The little sachet actually seemed pretty generously leafed/portioned so I made this in one of my bigger mugs. It came it pretty rich, with a lovely woody and nutty profile. Not as red fruit leaning as some straight rooibos can be and not as nutty either – mostly woody/mineral but very clean tasting and with a good level of natural sweetness.

I’m happy to have tried it, but it doesn’t top my beloved Wild Grown Rooibos.

I have the day off work, so upon awakening I made my way to the kitchen, fed the cat, threw the kettle on and looked through my sample collection. I was feeling like rooibos and so I grabbed this one, the only rooibos left in my little Dammann sample bag. And it’s been a while since I reviewed anything.
Upon opening the tea bag smelled strongly of olives in brine – very green, very fruity, and very reminiscent of oregano and thyme as well (please forgive me if I got my herbs mixed up, it is still so early in the morning as I’m writing this…) Given my still very limited experience with unflavoured rooibos, I was quite surprised. Once steeped, the brew has a very reddish robe (unsurprisingly) and a very nice and round smell, the herbaceous side not overpowering its sweetness.
The taste is sweet as well, but not too much, even for someone who likes their drinks unsweetened. This is the moment where the whole bouquet really gets to unfold and shine. At no point does it taste medicinal to me though, it’s really more on the food side of herbs, without tasting like any kind of herb mix I know in particular. And while I can tell that the smell from earlier for sure comes from what I’m drinking, there’s a huge difference between the smell and the taste, both in concentration and in balance. It is enjoyable until the very last sip, which I always appreciate.
The website advertises it as a drink for both adults and kids, to be drunk hot or iced. I definitely think that this could be really nice for either an afternoon tea with kids (although, have something else ready just in case, it’s still rooibos) or for a regular breakfast drink if you want to avoid cafeine. I’d have to see what I think of it when it’s cold – I might go to the shop and get another sample, in which case I’ll add an edit to this review.
All in all I recommend this rooibos to anyone who, like me, is new to rooibos and wants to see if they’d be interested to look into it more. For me that’s definitely the case: I already have a few flavoured rooibos in my all-time favourites, I’m interested in the unflavoured base – and I wonder if what I like in the flavoured ones isn’t actually the rooibos underneath… Exciting!