Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: David’s Tea
Tea Description:
As far as we’re concerned, the root beer float is king of the soda shop. The crackle and fizz of root beer, the cool richness of vanilla ice cream – what could be better? Well, what if we brought the malt shop right to your tea shelf? With black tea, vanilla, cinnamon and white chocolate, this sweet, lightly creamy black tea blend tastes just like the classic treat. For the full experience, try it as an iced latte with lots of foam.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I’ve tried a few different root beer and/or root beer float teas/tisanes over the years, and some were better than others. This one is good, but not what I’d call great. It has a distinct root beer-ish taste to it, but, it is kind of light on the float-y flavor.
The root beer flavor here is nicely translated, it tastes like root beer. (and, yes, it is a little weird drinking root beer hot) It also tastes like tea, but, the root beer notes outweigh the tea notes by a wee margin. It lacks that certain fizzy, bubbly taste which perhaps might be a little difficult to obtain in a tea, although I’ve had a couple of soda inspired teas that did, in fact, taste “bubbly” like a soda pop, so I know it is not impossible.
I personally think that the root beer flavors could have been even better if there was sarsaparilla in this, or even some anise and wintergreen. I think that these ingredients could really take the root beer taste from good to great.
But, this is not supposed to be JUST a root beer flavored tea, but a root beer FLOAT flavored tea, and the float part is definitely lacking in my opinion. I taste a hint of vanilla here, but, it does not have a strong, creamy presence that I feel it needs to have to be called a root beer float. As it is, it tastes a bit more like a soda fountain drink. Instead of adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream, this tastes as though someone took a mug of root beer and added about a half a shot of vanilla syrup to it. It’s got a little bit of vanilla, but it needs a little more!
Overall, this is an enjoyable tea, I like the root beer elements to it, but, I think it could certainly be improved.
