Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green Tea & Rooibos Blend
Where to Buy: Just Add Honey
Tea Description:
Japanese and Chinese green teas are blended with organic rooibos, roasted cocoa beans, hand-crafted chewy caramel and toasted sweet brown rice to produce a creamy, buttery cup. a relaxing treat with milk and sugar and naturally low in caffeine.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was about to start off this review with a rant. That’s because the first time I brewed this tea, I did so on the assumption that this was a blend of green and white teas … because that is what it said on the package. However, checking out the website, and then closer examining the loose leaf tea, I realize that this is, instead, a green teas and rooibos blend.
And, because of this error, the first time I brewed this tea, it wasn’t as successful as the second time. The first time I brewed this tea, I used a very low water temperature (160°F) and a slightly longer steep time (3 1/2 minutes). However, now that I know this is a green teas and rooibos blend, I used a slightly hotter water (180°F) and a shorter steep time (2 minutes). The results have changed my opinion of this tea. This has gone from a tasty yet somewhat bland cup of tea (first infusion) to a tastier, less bland cup (second infusion). While the differences in temperature and time seem pretty small, it makes a big difference when it comes to tea!
The first cup was tasty, but, the caramel was lacking a certain … something. It tasted more like a weak green tea with hints of caramel. With this second infusion, the caramel is enhanced with notes of toasty rice from the Genmaicha – a flavor that didn’t really come through with the lower temperature of the first infusion. The green tea does not taste weak like it did with my first session of this tea.
I don’t taste a lot from the rooibos, but, in my opinion, that is a good thing. The caramel is still a little light, but as the overall cup is a lighter taste, I think that the lighter caramel notes might just be spot on. The green tea has a buttery taste that accents the caramel nicely, and I love the toasty dimension from the Genmaicha. The ingredients list cacao beans in this, and I do taste a slight chocolate note here, but it is very faint.
Overall, a fair cup of tea. Will I be buying this tea again? Probably not. But it is certainly not something I’d refuse if it were offered to me, and I will enjoy the rest of my package.
