This has been the first day in a while that I have had the opportunity to relax. To me, that means sitting by the fire while drinking cup after cup of tea. Now, as much as I like to say I am not impacted by caffeine, I know it is good to switch it up a bit. To that end, I like to mix in a rooibos, honeybush, or herbal infusion amongst all the mugs of black tea, green tea, and oolong.
I brewed up my entire sample packet (5 grams) of this Raspmonade tea by TeaTaxi as a hot tea, steeping it in near boiling water (200F) for 3 minutes, 2 minutes shorter than the recommended steeping parameters as the rooibos began to smell quite strong.
As I drink now, the rooibos is strong but more so because the other flavors are so subtle which leaves little to taste other than the base. I get some berry flavor from the raspberry leaves but lemon comes through mainly in scent.
I don’t know if my understeeping is at play here but this lacks the flavor I was looking for when I brewed this up. I wanted sweet raspberry and bright lemon and I got generic berry rooibos. Definitely not what I was hoping for but still fun to try something new.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Red Rooibos
Where to Buy: Tea Taxi
Description
Delight in this amazing concoction of raspberry flavored with lemon. A fruity euphoria you can drink hot or cold!
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Coffee or Tea? from Tea Taxi. . . . . . .
You know the Old El Paso taco shell commercial where they’re trying to decide between hard shells and and soft shells for tacos and then the cute little girl comes along and asks “Why not both?” and the whole city celebrates this great revelation? That is what coffee-flavored teas make me think of – someone trying to bridge the gap between the coffee camp and the tea camp, bringing us all together with one hybrid beverage. Such is the case with this Coffee or Tea? drink from TeaTaxi.
This blend is made of black tea, broken cocoa bits, brittle pieces, chocolate chips, roasted coffee beans, and free-dried yogurt granules. I set up half my sample (about 1-1.5 tsp) in vanilla almond milk yesterday to cold brew overnight and the rest was steeped per the package directions, 3 minutes in almost boiling water.
Now I don’t drink coffee so I am probably not the best person to determine accuracy of flavor but the hot tea definitely has the taste of the roasted coffee beans (at least it reflects how they smell) combined with chocolate. It is a medium-bodied tea with strong flavor which makes for easy drinking. It is a touch bitter but that is balanced by the slightest bit of brittle peaking through. It is by no means a cup of coffee but it does have more coffee to it than the other coffee flavored teas I have tried.
This cold brewed in vanilla almond milk is not my favorite. I think the vanilla of the almond milk is just far too strong and it butt heads with the more roasted quality of the coffee beans. I thought it might make for a sort of coffee with cream vibe but instead the two flavors just don’t blend at all and the vanilla drowns out the chocolate that worked so well with the coffee in the hot tea. So this was a bit of a fail, more because of the flavored almond milk than a reflection of the tea itself.
I am definitely a member of the tea camp and though coffee-flavored teas catch my interest, I am usually never a fan. Though this is not one I intend to stock anytime soon, I will say it is one of the better coffee-flavored teas I have had. The combination of the coffee and chocolate with the hint of brittle in the hot tea reminds me ever so slightly of a more roasty coffee crisp bar or perhaps dark chocolate covered coffee beans.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea Taxi
Description
This chocolaty black tea with a high caffeine content offers the best of both worlds.
