Blueberry Rooibos

I’m addicted to steepster. Everytime I drink tea, I can’t stop thinking about going to steepster and logging my tea. Sometimes, I admit, I’m too lazy to write a review.

So this blueberry rooibos is a staple in my tea cabinet. I think I will always be ordering this for a long time. It is naturally sweet and not tart at all. It is laid-back and forgiving. I can forget the leaves in hot water for a long time and it won’t go bad on me. On the other hand, I can steep for 1-2 minutes and still has a lot of flavor. YUM! It tastes great cold and hot.

ahh… this reminds me staying at my bibi’s house in Tanzania with my 2 close friends from school. We drank this every night before going to bed. Mornings, of course, were times when we drank the TZ’s (finest) black teas, or Bibi would make us ginger black tea, overloaded with sugar of course. Yes I’m all over the place.

You wake up to the sound of your alarm, and reach over to hit the snooze button. But you realize that your alarm clock is a blueberry. Confused, you sit up and reach to turn on the light, except that the light is a blueberry. You reach to pull back the duvet, only it has been replaced by a sheet of blueberries. Panicked, you run into the bathroom to look in the mirror, and…YOU ARE A GIANT BLUEBERRY.

Open the package and take a whiff, and it’s like every single entity in your realm of consciousness has been replaced by blueberries. The scent is strong, young Skywalker. Luckily, I like those little blue pellets, so this is an enjoyable experience for me.

The scent continues to waft up sweetly when the tea is brewing. The taste is a similar to the blueberries as well – slightly tart, but with an unmistakable sweetness [if you get good ones, that is]. The sweetness in this tea arrives in the finish and lingers in the aftertaste.

For me, the rooibos in this is almost unrecognizable. When I do taste it, it’s in the aftertaste, but it’s not strong.

I’m curious to try this iced.

So far so good, Rishi. You’re two for two. Can you keep it up? CHALLENGE EXTENDED.

Meh incarnate.

I bought this tea several months ago from Rishi, but never got around to try it. I’m not the hugest fan of blueberries, but I figured it might be a nice caffeine-free alternative on the days when I’ve had too much to drink. It’s cold and icky here in NYC, so some hot blueberry goodness seemed right up my alley.

Man, when you open this package, the blueberry, it just hits you. A wall. SO aggressive! It smells tart and sweet and full of flavor. Blueberry concentrate. Blueberry incarnate. There are bits and pieces of blueberries mixed in with the rooibos, which is always a nice touch.

So I steeped this one up, and my entire kitchen began to smell aggressively like this tea. Seriously. It still smells. It’s hours later. My parents were freaked out when they came home. “WHAT IS THAT.” “teaplz, what did you do now?” Yeah, made some tea. They thought it smelled like perfume. And you know what, there is this undercut of floral notes. But for the most part, it smells pretty fruity, with a bit of a sour edge.

The color of this tea is pretty intimidating as well. Combine the reddish rooibos brew with the purple contrast of the blueberries and you almost get this bruise-like color in a cup. It also stained around the edge of the ceramic. This is some hardcore stuff, y0. A blueberry chain gang.

So I cuddled up on my sofa to watch some Buffy and Angel this morning, and took the first hesitant sip.

And man, is this TART. And SOUR. And… hibiscus-like. Yes, I am one of those people that can taste hibiscus almost immediately. The flavor profile on the first sip is not unlike Celestial Seasoning’s Lemon Zinger (or any of their Zingers, for that matter). There isn’t much body, and it’s just… BAM. I am here! There’s really not much of a rooibos, woodsy-hippie flavor going on here.

What kept me drinking was the aftertaste. Blueberry. Blueberry muffins! That’s exactly what the aftertaste was. It lingered on the tongue, the same way blueberry bear does (which is delicious, by the way). It was alluring. The faint wisp of what this tea could have been. Rich and succulent with an almost baked-buttery edge.

But again, it was only the aftertaste. And most of drinking tea is about the entire sip, from the moment it hits your tongue, through the body of it, finishing with those final notes. Ultimately, it was most of the sip that doomed this tea for me. I just couldn’t take the sour. The aftertaste pay-out wasn’t good enough. It’s like one of those movies that you watch for two hours and only the last five minutes are worthwhile. You admire what they did with those last few seconds, but you want your money back.

So unsatisfied, I dumped about 1/3 of the cup down the sink. The horrors, I know! Maybe with a shorter steep time, or some sugar, or even some milk, this one will mellow out. But for now, the blueberry dragon has defeated the teaplz.

Tea from last night.

I picked up this sample from the folks at Rishi while at World Tea East and I figured why not try it before bed last night. Well, I hardly got the package open before the smell of blueberries filled my senses! I enjoy blueberries and trust me the scent was there in a big way. So much that I wondered if I would get any of the rooibos in my tea.

The tea smelled a bit like the old Boo Berry cereal from way back. Which had my hopes up for a great cup as I used to love that cereal. But I was a bit disappointed in the taste. It tasted a little tart, but the blueberry flavor still seemed to get lost or not mix well with the rooibos. My husband tried it and he liked it…another first for him. But this one is not for me.

So, before I get into this tea, I’ll walk you through my day and how this tea comes into play…

Today was pretty amazing…. Spent the day golfing and drinking…. So I’m a little tired from walking through the golf course and whacking balls, plus drinking alcohol just dehydrates you more…. So throughout the day I’m slowly losing more energy bit by bit…..

This was followed up by the Blues’ final home game of the season. Keith Tkachuk’s final game…. And what a game it was…. such an unforgettable night….. The Ducks are a pretty decent team, and have been somewhat evenly matched against the Blues….. I could tell it was gonna be a good night…. Huge hits all night…. Crombeen beat the snot out of Brown… This got the energy flowing… Then two of the rookies the Blues picked up this season… Eller and Junland… Eller’s 2nd goal of the season, assisted by Junland (he got two tonight) was reviewed for a possible high sticking… called the goal good… Energy just keeps building and building… Brewer gets a goal, I dislike him as a player, but whatever, it’s a goal, I’ll take it…. Energy is slowly building…. Ducks got a goal, my energy level is put in check for now… Ducks get another goal, now it’s 3-2… My energy slowly starts to fade… Blues come back, Andy Mac to Tkachuk to Colaiacovo, GOAL!… Walt gets an assist in his last game!… Energy comes rushing back to me… But then stays at bay because not much is happening with the game…. Then McClement gets a goal, I’m so hyped up at this point because we are leading 4-3… Not even 20 seconds later, Perron to Tkachuk to Andy Mac, GOAL!… Oh my GOD I’m going crazy! Big Walt has 2 assists! What a final night for him!… Then my boy Backes gets goal 6 to put the nail in the coffin of the Ducks! (6-3)… Oh man, energy is RUSHING through my veins… In the final minute of the game everyone stood up and just started chanting…. KEITH TKA-CHUK! KEITH TKA-CHUK! KEITH TKA-CHUK! KEITH TKA-CHUK! The buzzer goes off, the crowd goes WILD… Tkachuk picks up the puck from his final shift in his final hockey game…. I’m so full of energy at this point….. Everyone keeps standing and just applauds Big Walt for a few minutes as he takes a final lap around the ring with his kids….. He gave a few words and there was a tribute video to him and his amazing hockey career…. I’m floating on cloud nine at this point….. Thanks for all the memories Walt…

So, after my not-so-short babblings I’ll get to where the tea comes in…. So I get home from the hockey game and realize I’ve gone all day without tea! And I need to quit drinking because I have a meeting at work at 7am and I can’t be hungover… So I wanted to end the night with some nice tea…. But it’s about 11…. I’ve already got all of this faux energy from the hockey game… so I didn’t want to stay up due to the tea… But I didn’t want a chamomile tea that would put me to sleep… I just wanted to be able to enjoy a tea and ride out this natural high that I was on… So I decided to give this a go since I just got my first Rishi order in a few days ago….

This tea smells amazing in leaf form…. The blueberry is definitely noticeable… The brew is a deep almost maroon color… Man… did this tea hit the spot…. Naturally sweet from the berries, and caffeine free rooibos… Typically when I have had berry teas in the past, they have been somewhat tart… but not this tea… not tart at all for being fruity…. Definitely soothing, but not like a chamomile or other nighttime teas that will leave you snoozing…. This is just a nice relaxing tea without all the caffeine and stuff… What a great way to end my awesome day…. with an awesome tea…. I’m glad I chose this as the first Rishi tea to drink…… I’d highly recommend it…

(P.S. has a second steep to it, but not nearly as flavorful and colorful… but still good)

(P.P.S. Sorry for the extremely long blurb for this tea)

(P.P.P.S. I think I’m just doing this now to see if I can get on anyone’s nerves by taking up their entire dashboard page….)

(P.P.P.P.S. Ok, I’m done now… Time for bed, g’night)

Once upon a time my little brother was nice to me and gave me some herbal tisane that had the most amazing blueberry flavor. I adored it and I drank the whole 3 cups worth he gave me. Sadly the store he got it from closed before I had the chance to restock a lifetime supply and he had thrown away the packaging leaving me without hope of ever finding it again. Many years passed but my desire for a delicious blueberry drink was still deep inside of me. One day, I came across this Blueberry Rooibos and figured I would try it and see if it would live up to my beloved memory.

This story has a happy ending because this is all I wanted it to be! I shall forever cherish this rooibos and hold it close! I will NOT be sharing this with my brother.

The end of my sample from the lovely jennlea; I’ll definitely buy a larger size of this someday. I typically loathe rooibos, but you really can’t taste much rooibos at all in this. It just tastes like sweet, juicy, tart blueberries.

Mmmmmm. I need to find this locally, it is wonderful. Juicy and tart without being too tart, and just….blueberry-y. XD.

Mmm. I’ve been dying for some blueberry tea… for days. So yesterday I checked my mailbox and found a surprise tea package from Lizbet and it smelled like blueberries before I even opened the package. I’m so happy to have a cup of blueberry tea today. Thanks Lizbet!!!! I think I’ve tried this one before and I like it a lot more this time.

Update – I’ve been thinking about this one since I had it a couple of days ago and plan to buy it when I hit Whole Foods tomorrow.

This tea smelled so lovely! Just like blueberry pastries or pancakes. Upon first sip, there is a strange tangy, almost savory taste that I’m not too fond of. The smell makes me expect a perfectly smooth and sweet rooibos blend, but there’s that almost jarring flavor just waiting to pop out! I would have loved a smooth, sweet blueberry muffin flavored rooibos, but this just isn’t it. Thank you so much to oOTeaOo for letting me try this!