Rooibos White Chocolate Toffee (No. 763)

This tea sampled by me courtesy of Lisbet. Thank you for sending me some samples :)

I wanted a rooibos this afternoon because my allergies are really acting up and I’m curious to see if one cup a day does enough to ease the allergies a bit. So here it goes.

This tea smells strongly of Rooibos (sour wood) and has a heavy scent of nutty liquour mixed in with it. The taste is similar to these toffee nut cookies we have at work. Cookies which I used to love, until they changed the recipe to this current recipe which is missing something, but I can’t quite figure out what it is that is missing. This tea is like that. Something is missing from the flavor.

I didn’t really get the white chocolate flavor out of this, but their was toffee. The rooibos itself really overpowered this tea, too much for me. I don’t want to finish the cup, but I will. I think. It is just so sour. Sour and nutty are an odd combo.

This sample did spike my curiosity in Specialteas in that I have ordered a few samples to try for myself. A few other Rooibos blends sounded interesting.

Morgana’s review is spot on for this one. While I love that the Rooibos flavor isn’t overpowering, I didn’t love the flavors of this one so much. The bag does have a strong liquor smell which is nice. Once brewed, it smells like mocha ice cream. The taste is harder to describe. There is a lot going on. At times it tasted like black tea and at other times it tasted like coffee. I actually feel like I have coffee breath after drinking that one. I was excited to see this Rooibos has a white chocolate that is dairy free, but sadly it didn’t do it for me.

If you are looking for something like a mocha then this tea is for you.

Spot52 was kind enough to trade some of this tea. I popped open the bag and found that it was just a hint of rooibos smothered by a bit of a medicinal scent. Brewed, I’m not tasting any white chocolate or toffee. The scent is familiar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It reminds me of some kind of liquor or medicine. This tea has so much potential, but there is just so much going on.. and way too much power from that odd flavor/scent.

I got this as a sample when I ordered the Rooibos Lemon Chiffon. I came very close to picking another sample (which they let you do) because I am not big on white chocolate for two reasons. The first is because of a news item I read a number of years ago to the effect that although there are quality control requirements and standards imposed by law concerning ingredients of brown chocolates, there are none on whites. (Whether this is true or not I have no idea, but it influenced my feelings about white chocolate. Essentially, I try to make it a rule not to eat something if I have no idea what’s in it.) The second is just based on taste. I love chocolate, but white chocolate doesn’t have the same flavor. It’s just close enough to seem like it might be the same, but it’s a tease that way — and I always feel a bit let down after I eat it because I’m expecting that true chocolate flavor. If only I could change my expectations, then maybe I could appreciate it for what it is. But life is short, so given the choice I’d always choose a brown chocolate over a white.

The smell upon opening the bag is pretty strongly of a liqueur. I thought perhaps it was Amaretto, but reading the ingredients it’s more likely Frangelico. The aroma opens up some after steeping and some more chocolatey notes come through along with a suggestion of something buttery.

The flavor is also buttery and nutty. It isn’t exactly what I think of when I think of toffee, but I can see the resemblance. And there’s a sweet, subtle fudginess to the taste which I suppose is the white chocolate. I suspect if the white chocolate flavor was more pronounced I wouldn’t like it as much. All in all, it’s pretty nice, and I can see it growing on me over time. It’s something I should probably reserve for dessert given the sugar content.

Actually, between this and the cinnamon latte I had earlier, I am pretty close to having the sugar shakes…. so I think I’ll go bounce off the walls for a while now….

The aroma is really lovely and it does remind me of Tiramisu. If you drink this tea as is, you’ll get an average taste and I did read the prior posting about the flavors being confusing. I agree. But for me, I have to add a few drops of milk and sugar cubes and all of a sudden I get it.. the whole Tiramisu taste. The tea place that first served me this actually serves this tea with boba in it and iced. I love it. I taste the white chocolate, the red rooibos. Yumm.

I let my husband sniff this and he said ‘flavored coffee from a grocery store’! Thankfully it tastes better than that to me. It’s odd how much it does taste like coffee though….although my first though was ‘rum raisin’ (sans the raisins). I don’t know that I would have gotten to coffee if not for my Jim, or Kristin’s review here. Anyway, I think I like this one! I can’t for the life of me match the name to the taste, but it’s good nonetheless. It’s extra good with just a bit of vanilla almond milk.