Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos & Herbal Blend
Where to Buy: The Cozy Leaf on Etsy
Tisane Description:
(Organic Caffeine Free Rooibos Tea) This tea blend has a sparkling-like lemon flavor which gives this blend a fresh and lively character – terrific served hot and sensational served iced! This tea is very soothing when served hot with a little honey, perfect for those winter sore throats! Rooibos is an ultra fine, delicate tea and once brewed it will produce a hearty red color with a warm scent. Rooibos holds a superior, natural sweetness that is unsurpassed with a smooth and aromatic after taste!
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This Organic Soothing Lemon Wellness Herbal Tea from The Cozy Leaf is indeed a soothing blend! As I’ve said before (and will no doubt say again in the future), rooibos isn’t my favorite tisane, but, I find that I do like it better when it’s organic (and yes, there is a difference that’s discernible in the taste!)
I also like how the nutty and earthy tones complement the lemon-y notes here. The lemon isn’t an in-your-face kind of flavor … just as the name implies, it’s soothing. It’s a calm, gentle flavor that is a little bit tart, a little bit sweet and even a wee bit bitter. I find that this tends to be true of blends with the citrus peel in them. Not a bad thing – the contrast keeps the cup interesting.
The lemongrass enhances the citrus tones in a sweeter way, and adds a hint of smooth, buttery taste to the drink. I like that this is a relaxing cup of tea that warms me up when I drink it hot, but is also tasty when served iced. I feel good when I sip it – it’s a very uplifting sort of tisane.
The Cozy Leaf was previously known as Teas and Tapestries, and we have reviewed a couple of their teas here on this blog. They have a very impressive line up of teas, I think I might have to visit them again when my tea budget allows! A really nice company and a really good product.
Red Hot Chai Rooibos Blend from The Tea Spot
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: The Tea Spot
Tisane Description:
This strong spiced chai kicks the cold away with the season’s boldest flavors: red rooibos, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, chai spices and a kiss of vanilla come together in this complex yet balanced herbal chai tea. Naturally caffeine-free and high in antioxidants and minerals, Red Hot Chai’s rooibos base provides health benefits and a mild honey sweetness to compliment the bold flavors of a traditional masala chai. Absolutely decadent when made with steamed milk as a chai tea latte (click here and then click on the “recipe” tab toward the bottom right of the page for the chai latte recipe!), Red Hot Chai is sure to please palates any time of day this season.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
You might have noticed that I’ve been drinking a lot more chai teas lately. The reason is simple: chai blends are my favorite teas this time of year. The heat from the spices warm me from the inside out, and when it’s chilly outside, I need something warm and tasty to sip! And this Red Hot Chai Rooibos Blend from the Tea Spot fills the bill.
This is a very cinnamon-y blend, reminding me a lot of the red hot candies. But I’m not minding that because I love those little red hots! I also notice notes of ginger and cardamom as I sip, and there is a creamy undertone from the vanilla. I think that the vanilla note is my favorite thing about this blend … I like the way it melds with the spicy to give the cup a sweet, creamy yet spicy taste.
I don’t taste a heavy “rooibos” flavor here, and that’s just fine with me. I do taste a little bit of nutty background notes, but none of that weird sweetness or the sour wood note that I sometimes taste with rooibos. This is a really tasty tisane, the kind of tisane I like to curl up to on a chilly autumn evening. And The Tea Spot is one of my favorite companies to deal with as a consumer, because their customer service is TOP notch!
As a special incentive to our readers, you can get 15% savings off any order placed with The Tea Spot between now and December 15th! Just use the coupon code hotTEAs in the coupon field at check out and enjoy your savings! That’s a great way to save a little bit of green this holiday season!
And … check this out! Right now, The Tea Spot is currently offering a FREE sample giveaway! Awesome right? They are also running a Facebook promotion where you can win Free Tea for a Year! Now, that’s the way to kick off the new year … with FREE TEA!
Organic Red Velvet Tea from Brew La La Tea
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Brew La La Tea
Tisane Description:
What more can be said about the excitement of Red Velvet? Well, when you add that special taste into an organic tea, it gets even better!
Learn more about this rooibos blend here.
Taster’s Review:
Today is Thanksgiving, and I don’t know about you, but today is the day that I’m busy thinking about delicious food … but there’s always the downside to that food. The guilt! So for my review today, I selected this Organic Red Velvet Tea from Brew La La Tea, which allows me to enjoy something deliciously dessert-y without the guilt of devouring something that’s full of fat and calories!
And I’ve got to tell you, that this is one of the tastiest “Red Velvet” teas/tisanes that I’ve encountered in a long time. Yeah, I said that about a rooibos blend. And what’s more … this rooibos blend has HIBISCUS in it! How’s that for a shocking revelation? I’m not ordinarily a big fan of rooibos, and you know how I feel about hibiscus. And here we have two ingredients that I’m not so hot for and nevertheless, I’m enjoying this cuppa.
And I think the reason I am enjoying this is that it’s not your traditional Red Velvet. That is, this is not a chocolate-y tisane. And you know me, I love chocolate, but I’m usually just a little disenchanted by the level of chocolate flavor in a Red Velvet tea/tisane.
But with this blend, Brew La La has thought outside the boundaries of what one might expect from a Red Velvet tea. This blend has been thoughtfully crafted. The rooibos adds a hint of nuttiness to the cup but it doesn’t taste overwhelmingly of rooibos. Instead, the nutty tones add a sort of “bake-y” kind of taste to the cup that tricks the palate into thinking that I’m somehow enjoying something cake-ish. And instead of chocolate, there are cherry and vanilla flavors, which together with the hibiscus add a sweet-tangy flavor. My taste buds think that they’re tasting a decadent cream cheese frosting atop a sweet, luscious cake! Yummy!
There are also rose petals in this blend, but I don’t taste a strong “floral” note here. There are some floral nuances that mingle well with the notes of cherry, but it’s never a strong enough note to where I feel like I’m drinking a “rose” tea. It’s just a hint of rose here and there.
If I must offer one complaint about this tisane, it would be that it’s in a teabag, however, I must admit that this is a really tasty tea from a tisane. I do recommend using an extra teabag when you brew this, because I found that this is best when it’s brewed strong.
Overall, a really yummy, naturally caffeine free tisane – great for those sweet cravings late at night!
Chocolate Chai Rooibos Blend from Red Leaf Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
This red tea combines the tangy flavor of ginger with the citrus notes of cardamom, to produce a chocolate chai with a taste like no other. With an inherent sweetness that is perfectly blended with spicy warmth, chocolate chai offers the dark sumptuousness of chocolate chips with the smoothness of rooibos tea. With two well-known antioxidants, this is a dessert tea that is a treat in the evening or in the morning!
Learn more about this rooibos chai here.
Taster’s Review:
Hmm … this Chocolate Chai Rooibos Blend from Red Leaf Tea is tasty. It isn’t an overly spicy tisane, but the spices are warming and certainly agreeable on this chilly autumn day.
Let’s start with the chocolate, shall we? Because, if you’ve read many of my articles, you are probably well aware of my fondness for chocolate. Here, the chocolate is not as rich as I would like it to be. Then again, seldom do I find a chocolate tea that satisfies me with it’s level of chocolaticity. (Yes, it’s a word, I just made it up.) That said, there is certainly some chocolate notes here but it isn’t as rich and decadent as I would want a tea that calls itself a “Chocolate Chai.” But I am enjoying what chocolate there is here.
The spices are pleasing. I think that the spice level here is one that most people could enjoy – even those that tend to shy away from spicier teas. This isn’t what I’d call hot or spicy. There is some peppery warmth from the ginger, and the cardamom adds an exotic element to the cup.
The rooibos base is nutty and adds a nice dimension of flavor to these other ingredients. I’m not always happy when I can actually taste the rooibos flavor in a blend, but, here it’s working for me. The nutty tones work well with the earthiness of the spices and the sweet, creamy notes of the chocolate.
A tasty blend. Not my favorite “chocolate chai” that I’ve tasted, but, it’s pretty good, and a nice cuppa to cozy up to on a chilly evening when you don’t want to be drinking a more caffeinated beverage.
PRODUCT REVIEW: Rooibos Vanilla Virgin Chocolate Bar from Raaka Chocolate
About This Product:
Raaka Virgin Chocolate bars, hand made in Brooklyn, New York. The Vanilla Rooibos bar combines unroasted cocoa beans with vanilla rooibos tea, stone ground to perfection in small batches. Tasting notes: Cherry and toasted marshmallow.
To Learn more about Raaka Chocolate, click here.
To Subscribe to Knoshbox, click here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this chocolate bar in my April Knoshbox (yes, it has been a while, I tend to horde my gourmet chocolates for times when I really need chocolate. Like now!) and because this Virgin Chocolate Bar from Raaka Chocolate is also made with vanilla rooibos, I thought that I’d offer a product review on this confection right here on SororiTea Sisters, rather than my foodie blog.
The first thing I noticed about this is the packaging … I love the zentangle-ish wrapper! Very cool! The chocolate itself is a dark chocolate and it has a crisp “snap” to it when I break the bar.
Now, I’ve got to say that I’m not as fond of raw chocolate as I am of the “roasted” chocolate. The roasting of the cacao beans seems to add a depth to the chocolate that I just don’t experience in the raw chocolate. But that’s not to say I dislike the raw chocolate, I just prefer it to be made from roasted cacao. Here the chocolate is dark (67%) and it has a bold, rich flavor that is both bitter and sweet.
I can taste the rooibos, and the rooibos offers a slightly fruity tone to the chocolate. The tasting notes on the Raaka website suggest a “cherry” flavor, and I don’t know if I’m getting cherry, exactly. I definitely taste the vanilla, and it enhances the overall “creaminess” to the bar, which I really like. I prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, but, there is something to that creaminess of a milk chocolate bar that I do enjoy, and the vanilla notes here add that element without the milk.
When I allow the chocolate to melt over my palate, I notice more of the aforementioned cherry notes, as well as the toasted marshmallow notes as described on the website, so, I highly recommend savoring this bar like this: breaking the bar into small, bite-size bits, and then putting the small piece on your tongue and allowing the warmth of your mouth to soften the chocolate. That’s when you’ll really enjoy the fullness of flavor from this chocolate bar.
Overall, a really delightful chocolate experience. Then again, when is chocolate NOT a delightful experience? If you’re looking for a good raw chocolate bar … I think that this one from Raaka is my favorite of the raw chocolate bars that I’ve tasted thus far.