Root Beer Tea

Homemade Advent Calendar from Arby: Day 17

Had this one last night while finishing up my final paper for this semester… so close to being done! Then I’m on break from my internship AND taking PTO from work, so I’ll have about a week and a half of freedom while visiting family for the holidays. I can’t wait to lie around in my pajamas reading, drinking tea, and playing Sims 4 for far too many hours, then going for a nice long run and zoning out to a podcast.

Anyway, the tea! I’ve never really cared for root beer proper, but I tend to enjoy root beer-inspired tisanes. This one was a little odd to me, though — I swear I mostly tasted musty chamomile! The sarsaparilla was sadly muted, so it was more of a fennel and chamomile deal. I’m not going to rate it because I suspect I didn’t have the appropriate ratio of ingredients.

Sipdown (330)

I am trying to get my cupboard under control which involves bringing down the number of teas I have but also finishing off older teas. This is a tea that Arby was kind enough to share in June 2017. I haven’t gotten around to drinking it for whatever reason but today it seemed like an easy sipdown.

I debated about icing it or making it hot but I went with hot. Scentwise, both the dry leaf and steeped tea smell like root beer. Alas, tastewise, fennel really takes over and this leans more to licorice than anything else.

Thank you Arby for sharing! Even though this wasn’t to my tastes, it was fun to try a new tea company.

I think this tea is super interesting not only in taste but also in ingredients! The company states that it contains the authentic ingredients used to make rootbeer (without all the sugar of course), which is super cool! If you’re expecting it to taste like a bottle of rootbeer, you are mistaken, but it still has some really lovely herbal flavours and that subtle rooty taste! Very good!

Homemade Advent Calendar #1

Every way I brew this tea it tastes delicious. I tried it broth hot (10 minute long steep) and cold (even longer steep). The hot cup had more ginger and fennel but still was well balanced and had a hint of sweetness like dried grass. Lots of intricate spices and herbs happening with a bit of creaminess. I think this comes from the sarsasparilla root. I’m a huge spearmint fan so that also makes this a nice blend.

Cold – Steeped 6+ hours and really enjoyed this cup as well. I get more spearmint and less spicy notes from the fennel and ginger. I’m not sure if there is cinnamon in here but it almost reminds me of that. I think I can taste vanilla or something creamy but it is less creamy than the first steep where I had it hot.