Caramel & Rum

This could possibly get me to order a rooibos!
I get the rum and caramel but combined this is BUTTERSCOTCH and you all know I love butterscotch! On the other hand – Rooibos – :P
However the flavor is so strong I can’t even taste the rooibos so all is well! :)
On the shopping list it goes!

This is a sipdown for me but like an annoying ex-boyfriend, I won’t miss it too much. Farewell, old stinky…

Excitement! My gaiwan from Teavivre has arrived! I want to use it right now but several things are stopping me. It’s too late for caffeine, and my right wrist has been injured for the past month and is still healing. Sad.

This tea I’m drinking now arrived in my order from Lupicia. I felt like an easy tea this evening because my muscles are sore from exercising and the less I move the better. Haha. Yay tea bags!

I’m really enjoying this a lot more than expected. The smell of the dry tea made me nervous. It seemed so rummy! But after brewing all I can taste is caramel it actually reminds me of caramel Baileys Irish cream. Tasty! I wouldn’t mind keeping a bunch of this around!

Pre-emptive sipdown. I got a sample sache of this with my Lupicia order. I generally dislike rooibos and think it tastes like cough syrup, but sometimes I can be surprised. This is one of those times.

I took a quick sniff of the sachet and it smelled straight up like caramel and rum, including the alcohol. Steeped it smells way more like caramel and less like rum, although that hint is definitely there. No nasty rooibos smell. The flavor is definitely caramel in the main part of the sip with a distinct alcoholic rum aroma that fills your mouth when drinking, very similar to drinking a hot rum drink. It’s nice. I actually like it.

Again the husband is away on yet another business trip and I reach for this tea… This better not be the beginning of a trend! Actually, I grabbed this in an effort to help decupboard it, especially after the poor results I had last time.

After looking at the previous results, I went heavier on the rooibos (5 level tsp.) and a tad less water (8oz). Brewed for quite a long time, probably a little over 10 minutes. The brewed liquor is a nice dark amber.

Sadly it still tastes like a stronger version of blah… Wondering aloud: Will putting rum in this make it better? It is Happy Hour!

OMG, I just adore this tea! So happy to have restocked it. This is still the best rooibos I’ve ever had. The minute I opened the new bag, I was taken away by the heavenly smell. I brewed it up for about 3 min 30 sec because I was impatient to get to sipping it. I also added a splash of almond milk and a bit of brown sugar. Pure heaven. This rooibos is nice and viscous, and flavorful. This time, in addition to the caramel and rum, I noticed a raisin-y sweetness. Breathing in the scent of this tea really relaxes me…might need to brew this up daily!

I found my formal tasting notes!!!

I first tried this sometime right before Christmas with HistoryLaced. This was the day I believe that my boyfriend became the designated “Tea Boy” and HistoryLaced’s boyfriend became the “Ball Boy” (we make him fetch the ball when we knock it out of bounds during ping pong:) ).

Observation 1: This tea was steeped by my lovely boyfriend at boiling for 5 minutes as instructed. The dry leaves have a very fragrant aroma of rum. According to my notes, they smell like “the best rum ever!”

Observation 2: Naked: There is a beautiful orange color to this rooibos! The flavors remind me of butter rum candies, which are some of my favorite candies in the world, by the way.

Observation 3: With sugar, the taste is reminiscent of caramel.

Observation 4: Milk alone drastically detracts from the flavor of this rooibos.

Observation 5: Yummy with milk and sugar! Tastes the way I imagine Hot Buttered Rum or butterbeer to taste!

Overall: A pleasant rooibos, considering it was the 2nd rooibos I had ever had. I am impressed that my impression of this rooibos has not wavered much as my exposure to different types of teas and tisanes has continued to progress. I have noticed consistenly with Lupicia that my opinion of their blends only tend to increase over time as my palate is refined and I taste higher quality samples. Kudos to Lupicia for being friendly to the most novice and the more experienced!

This is very interesting. Right out of the bag it smells like eggnog and caramel. I’m surprised how accurate the smell seems to be. As it sits on my bedside table, I get the nicest sweet scent that tempts me to take a sip. It primarily tastes like a caramel rooibos – sweet, woody, but a little darker than other blends. I enjoy caramel rooibos teas, but given that this is supposed to be something different, I am a little disappointed. Before I know it, the rum comes at the end of the sip, reminding me of those butter rum Lifesavers. It lacks the buttery sweetness that would take it over the top, but I’m content with the syrupy caramel & rum combination. This is a decent tea, but I don’t think I will buy more.

I’ve had all new teas today so I thought I’d continue the trend with this one, my only untried herbal. The first sniff of the dry not-leaf was full on caramel. The second was rum. The third I got almost totally rooibos. The forth things started to meld a little and it smells like rum cake. Toasted.

Brewed, the rooibos is kind of there but it seems to meld with the rum. Again, the rum gives me rum cake thoughts, not a shot of rum. I’m thinking that is because of the sweetness added by the caramel.

The taste is… unexpected. Clean and sweet on the front – caramel glaze more than a caramel chew – and rooibos woody on the end. The aftertaste is a mix of caramel glaze with an alcoholic note. I love love love the flavor on the front. It’s so tasty and sweet and yum. But the transition into rooibos is a little confusing for me because I don’t really like rooibos and the rooibos taste comes right after such a delightful taste that has no hint of rooibos. See, it’s confusing.

The rooibos taste isn’t sour or rotting wood sweet or anything so that’s good. It’s obviously there but it’s just wood. Plain, dry, unrotted wood. I’m still not jumping up and down for the rooibos but the more I sip, the more I don’t care that the rooibos is there.

It’s not the best rooibos ever simply because it’s rooibos. But for those that can deal well with rooibos when it doesn’t taste like rotting wood, this one is pretty freakin’ good.

This months Lupicia freebie in the newsletter. I like to brew them up the same day that I get them, if possible, as otherwise they tend to sit in my sample bowl, until I have one of my drink-all-the-samples manias.
This is nice! It smells amazingly like one of those chewy caramels, and a faint chaser of rum is in the taste. I might hunt down a bit of this in future, as I like to have a sweet noncaffinated tea on hand.