A sample from VariaTEA. I had my first cup of this last night, and have to admit to being slightly disappointed. I didn’t get much in the way of pumpkin pie from this, and it wasn’t even remotely spicy. I know it doesn’t claim to be, but I’ve come to associate spice with pumpkin pie, and I felt kind of cheated. We could perhaps argue about the pumpkin. There is a sweetness that floats over the top of the rooibos, but it’s so generic I really wouldn’t want to define it as pumpkin. Not the vegetable anyway. Maybe it could faintly recall tinned, pre-sweetned pumpkin pie filling…but I don’t think so. Not really. Let’s say that if I hadn’t read the label first and known this was supposed to be a pumpkin tea, I wouldn’t have been able to guess. There’s no pie, but I think you knew I was going to say that already.
All this being said, it’s not an unpleasant rooibos blend. There’s no woodiness, and it takes milk nicely. The sweet flavour makes it a little different from a plain rooibos, and it’s not difficult to drink. I’ll happily make up my second cup from the sample I received, and drink it too. It’s just not pumpkin pie, and having expected that I now feel bereft. It scores low because it disappointed me, although I don’t mind the flavour.
