Rooibos Breakfast Cuppa (formerly Breakfast's Ready, Honey)

Got this as a sample from Bird and Blend, but I am finding not much special about this Rooibos. Would happily choose it if offered at a friends place, but would not buy it myself.

One of a bunch of new (to me) Bird & Blend samples I added into my last order to try…

The idea of a rooibos blend positioned as a “breakfast tea” really intrigues me since Breakfast Blends are generally straight black or very mildly flavoured black teas. I can’t quite wrap my head around it because there’s nothing caffeinated in the blend and I feel like caffeine is sort of equally important to the full bodied, brisk and well suited to milk profile that makes breakfast teas so appealing to start your day with…

As for the taste of the blend, it’s fine but a little underwhelming. It really just tasted like a slightly sweeter and more honey forward plain honeybush/rooibos. A little nutty and little woody. Simple. Classic tasting. I neither dislike it or love it, and I can see how an argument could be made that it has the full body and milk appropriate profile of a breakfast tea. I just couldn’t ever see myself opting for this in the morning over a black tea. The caffeine thing is really tripping me up.

I wouldn’t compare this to a classic breakfast tea since I really only taste the honeybush. Which is fine, except I was really hoping for a solid nighttime version of a classic breakfast tea. Decaf versions are still the best option for me, I think.

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day.  I was a bit hesitant with this one, but B&B sent me over a single teabag sample.  Any rooibos blend shouldn’t have anything resembling “breakfast” in the name!  Unless it’s what I imagine is for the very small market of people who do not drink caffeine at all.  Even then, I can’t really see how this is supposed to be a breakfast inspired blend.  So I steeped this alongside an actual black tea yesterday morning, so I’d actually be drinking a breakfast tea during breakfast but also be trying this “breakfast” tea in the morning.  What we have here is rooibos, honeybush, sunflowers and flavoring.  I can’t really tell what the flavoring is.  Is the name hinting at honey?  Reading the description later says yes to honey. Some sips it seems like a very mild sweet orange, sometimes strawberry, at the very end of the cup a biscuity flavor.  Not sure.  I intentionally went for a short steep to get as much flavor as possible without the rooibos drowning out the flavor.  Confusing all around.  It’s definitely not something I would seek out.
Steep #1 // 21 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep
2021 sipdowns: 78

Brewed from a pre-filled bag.

Nice balance of flavours. I can see this being a good alternative to a breakfast blend. I often find “Breakfasts” to be too bitter, I would certainly be glad to drink this instead.

I’ve been intrigued about this one for a while, but couldn’t quite fathom a rooibos blend being anything like a typical black breakfast tea. It turns out, I was right.

While there’s nothing inherently wrong with this tea, and I actually enjoy the rooibos base that B&B uses, this does not make me feel like I’m drinking a breakfast tea. The scent and taste of rooibos is all I’m getting here.

Thank you for sharing Cameron!

Sipdown! (5)

I did a somewhat shorter steep on this blend this time to see if I could eke out a bit more of the flavoring (or any at all…).

It mostly still just tastes like a combination of rooibos and honeybush… There is perhaps an extra touch of butteriness? But definitely not a strong honey note.

This wasn’t an unpleasant tea, just a confusing one, LOL!

I let this tea in pouch quite for long without any notice.

I took it again today, to finish it. So it’s actually SIPDOWN as well.

Turned out really different (as aged, maybe), but still somehow boring.
It was very woody, some honey flavours and quite bold. This time it was as well most similar to English Breakfast as they claim, but still far from tasty for me.
It was smooth, tasty, but I am not a fan. It’s just a strange flaovur — real honey is somehow different.
I don’t know why I don’t like it that much as I would expect.