Root Beer Rooibos from Trail Lodge Tea

Tisane Information:

Leaf Type:  Rooibos & Honeybush

Where to Buy:  Trail Lodge Tea

Tisane Description:

This tea was made by using some ingredients that were used in old fashioned home made root beer. We added honeybush to the rooibos to give it a natural sweetness. This way you can have an all natural, chemical free alternative to soda. If you do want the extra sweetness found in root beer, just add some sugar or natural sweetner and you will still have a natural treat. Caffeine free. Ingredients: Fair Trade Certified^TMorganic rooibos, and honeybush, Fair Trade Certified^TM Organic Whole Cloves, and Organic Cinnamon, Organic Ginger, Organic Star Anise, Orange Peel, and Organic Natural Flavoring.

Learn more about this flavored rooibos here.

Taster’s Review:

This Root Beer Rooibos from Trail Lodge Tea is quite tasty!  It’s actually a whole lot better than I anticipated it to be.  I like that they chose to use a base of organic rooibos and honeybush, I think that the slightly woody/nutty flavors of these two herbs seem to heighten the overall root beer taste, and the natural honey-esque sweetness makes this a very pleasant beverage.

A quick review of the ingredient list, and one might think that they’re about to drink a chai blend, but, this doesn’t taste like the typical chai, despite the ingredients.  It definitely tastes more like root beer than it does a masala chai.  The spices used here really do create a very “root beer-ish” kind of taste, and they are skillfully blended to keep the drink from tasting “spicy” – rather, it tastes like … well, like I said, it tastes like root beer!  All that’s missing is the bubbly carbonation.

I do think that this root beer taste could be elevated even more if just a touch of spearmint was added to the blend.  Not enough to make it minty … just enough to give it that zesty note of root beer.  As it is though, it’s really quite tasty.  It’s good served hot (even though it does seem a little weird to be drinking a hot cup of root beer) but it’s even tastier iced.  If you decide to go ahead and ice this, I recommend adding some sugar (go with turbinado sugar!) to bring out the flavors in the chilled tisane.

If you’re a fan of root beer (and really, who DOESN’T like root beer?), you really should try this.  I’m wondering how this would taste if I added a scoop of vanilla ice cream to make a float … I’ll bet it’s amazing!