1812 Tasting Notes
Pre-steeping, my nose revels in the wonderful and delicious smells coming from the dry leaves. This tiramisu smells delicious, and it is strong enough that I can hardly detect the scent of the red rooibos underneath it.
After steeping, the aroma of rooibos has been brought to a more prominent place, but the tiramisu is not letting go of its grasp on the scent and the senses. The liquor has steeped a deep red colour, yet remains bright and clear. Eagerly, I lift the cup to my lips in anticipation…
Creamy! This tea has a very thick mouthfeel that actually starts out being a bit thin, but when the sweetness of the tea finally hits, it thickens considerably. The rooibos has come through beautifully, though it almost seems to have too much rooibos flavour (as compared to the tiramisu). The tiramisu does put forth a good showing, however. It boldly jumps out at the drinker, and lasts a while, settling in a delicious aftertaste. With each sip, I’m left wanting to take another sip and another…
I really enjoyed this tea, which is probably an understatement, considering how fast I went through the first cup. I gladly give this tea an 85 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.
Time to go have another cup!
Preparation
Two teaspoons of tea, two cups of water, and five minutes later…voila, two delicious cups of green rooibos. Lighter in colour than a red rooibos, the The taste of this tea is bold and very herbal, lacking the sweetness normally found in red rooibos. The smell of the first steeping matches the herbal taste, but slow sips bring out subtle hints of sweetness that only serve to make this tea tastier.
This tea lasted through two separate steepings, and I did very much enjoy this new and different experience in the world of rooibos. I highly recommend that anyone who has never before tried green rooibos take the opportunity to do so. Suffuse Tea’s Green Rooibos is a great place to start.
Preparation
Well, these pearls certainly are downy…I felt one of the little balls of tea and it was soft and fuzzy. The jasmine smell is sharp and sweet in the dry leaf, and makes me wonder if the taste will be the same.
I used approximately two teaspoons of pearls, in two cups of water, for three minutes (give or take ten seconds, as I initially forgot to start my timer, oops). At the end of three minutes, the brew was very watery, so I let it sit for two minutes more. At this point, I’d like to take a moment to say that while I enjoy the challenge of matching up just the right steeping time with just the right amount of leaf and water to make a delectable cup, I do wish that more companies would give what they believe the ideal steeping conditions to be, even if it’s a rough estimate, since not all teas are created equally, and generalizing conditions does not always work out. Regardless, the extra two minutes seems to have helped immensely, as there is greater unfurl to the leaves and more colour to the liquor.
The jasmine scent is just as sharp in the completed cup as it was in the dry leaf. And the taste….Wow…that’s incredibly…mediocre. Thankfully, the sharpness of the jasmine hasn’t come through in the taste of the liquor, yet everything about it is very average. The flavour is smooth, and light, and has a nice jasmine scent and taste, but, all in all, it just seems to be lacking something in a big way.
I enjoyed drinking it, but Jasmine Pearls are one of my favourites, so that could bias me a bit. I give it a 65 out of 100 on my personal enjoyment scale.