On the 2nd Day of Christmas 52Teas Sent To Me (Spoilers!). . . .

Today is the 2nd day of Christmas if you are following along with your own 12 Days of Christmas. I’m quite excited to see what tea we have in store for us today after yesterday’s delicious flavored green tea.  So as I’m typing this I’m scratching off the label and today’s tea is. . .

 Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos

I’m sorry but I feel that we need to announce that in a bigger way. For the 2nd Day of Christmas promotion in the 52Teas holiday pack. . .the tea of the day is

Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos!!!

So as you can probably tell, I’m exited about this tea. I’m a huge fan of green rooibos even tho its relative red rooibos are arch enemies.  Green Rooibos just adds a gorgeous honey flavor that I’ve come to adore and love. So when I see a flavored one, I get a bit giddy.

This tea was again stunning. Gorgeous pops of green and red (or maybe a cranberry color-ha!) throughout the dry leaf. The dry leaf aroma was amazingly sweet and I couldn’t wait for my water to prep and the tea to finish brewing.  Like the tea from yesterday, I ended up devouring this entire pouch in no time at all.

This tea had notes of a creaminess that I fell in love with right away. The creaminess reminded you of a cream soda, which is where I’m thinking the inspiration for this tea came from. The lovely cranberry tartness really mingled well with the honey flavors of the green rooibos. That underlying creaminess really drove this tea to something special. I could and did drink this tea for hours and hours. I infuse the tea leaves until they couldn’t give any more.

Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos is one of those tea that I will also crave more of and will never be able to get enough. Hopefully this will be a re blended because I need tons of this tea. This would be a perfect after dinner tea or I’m sure an dynamite cold brew. I could even see this tea being mixed with maybe a touch of an adult beverage and you’ve got yourself the makings of an fabulous cocktail.

What I’m really trying to say is this tea was tasty and I would like more.

Please see below for the official description of this tea.  Click here to read all of 52Teas Mad Tea Musings!

Here it is, the 2nd day of our Christmas tea countdown! Today’s tea is a new tea that I crafted especially for this box. I wanted to have at least a couple of caffeine free teas for our advent box, so I decided to create a green rooibos based tea with a flavor that’s inspired by the sodas that find their way onto supermarket shelves this time of year . . .

Crisp Cranberry Soda Green Rooibos!

Tea Description: My inspiration behind this tea was the cranberry flavored lemon-lime soft drinks that come out around Thanksgiving. I thought that the best base for such a tea would be a green rooibos because it has a light, sparkling kind of taste to it naturally, and the light fruitiness of the rooibos would enhance the fruity flavors that I’d be adding to it. 

Then I added lots of cranberries to the blend and some natural flavors to create a soda like taste.

Really nice! Light and crisp and refreshing!

organic ingredients: green rooibos, cranberries and natural flavors.

The flavor of this tea is really quite lovely! So light and crisp, with the cranberry notes weaving their way in and out and lingering in the aftertaste. It reminds me very much of it’s inspiration – the cranberry flavored lemon-lime soft drink – because if you taste one of those, you’ll find that the cranberry tartness doesn’t slap you upside the head. It’s a light, sweet yet pleasantly tart flavor – just like the soda itself. This is really nice – bright and uplifting. And it’s naturally caffeine-free so it’s something you can enjoy any time of day!

It’s sweet but not too sweet – with a really nice level of tartness to it (at least for me as I’m not a big fan of tart). The first few sips were light in flavor but now that I’ve taken a few sips, I pick up on more of the lemon-lime notes as well as a really lovely cranberry note.

I’m pleased with how this turned out!

To brew: use about 1 1/2 teaspoons to 12 ounces of hot water (because this is green rooibos, I set my thermostat on my Breville to 190°F) and let it steep for 8 minutes. Because this is rooibos, you can let it steep longer without worry of bitterness – very few tannins in rooibos! So you can let this steep for 10 minutes or beyond!

After finished steeping, strain and let cool for 5 – 10 minutes and enjoy! A teensy bit of sugar will help enhance the ‘soda’ experience of this tea, but it’s also quite delicious without the sugar!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Flavored Herbal/Green Rooibos Blend
Where to Buy:  52Teas
Description

This tea will be available in very limited quantities beginning December 28th at 52Teas!

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Snickerdoodle from Simpson & Vail

I have never been a fan of red rooibos, although I tried one or two flavored ones that I liked simply because the flavoring covered up the base. I have been eager to try green rooibos to see if I would like it because I would love to find some caffeine-free options for evenings, but it has to be something I really enjoy, or why bother?

I was pretty excited to see that my first ever green rooibos was going to be in a flavored tea that celebrates and imitates one of my favorite cookies – Snickerdoodles.

Wow! Simpson and Vail knocked it out of the ballpark on this one! This is sweet, I guess from the blackberry leaves, and the cinnamon is forefront but not “cinnamon red hot candy” strong. It really tastes like you have just had a bite of a cookie with that cinnamon sugar dusting on the outside.

My daughter immediately said, “This tastes like Christmas!” And I am happy because I have found my evening cup of indulgence for this winter.

Way to go, Simpson and Vail!


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Simpson & Vail

BannerNewFont670Description

When we were kids Jim came home from elementary school with some recipes his teacher had given him (perhaps for an upcoming bake sale). I’ll never forget the day our Mom made a batch of Snickerdoodle cookies. They were an instant favorite in our house! The recipe was lost for awhile and we would continually ask Mom for “those lovely cinnamon cookies”. You never saw four happier kids than when she found the recipe again.

If you are a cinnamon lover then this Rooibos blend is for you! When you open the bag, the aroma of cinnamon cookie happily greets you. The brewed cup is amber colored with the taste of fresh baked snickerdoodle cookies. The sweet cinnamon taste lingers deliciously on the tongue.

Ingredients: Organic Green Rooibos, organic cinnamon pieces, sweet blackberry leaf and flavoring.

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!

Lemonade from Shanti Tea

I remember LiberTeas reviewed Lemonade from Shanti Tea a few years ago but I figured it would be a good time for me to add my two cents worth before I’m faced with colder weather in the upcoming winter months.

Lemonade from Shanti Tea is a Green Rooibos based herbal tisane that I am quite fond of. Along side the Green Rooibos there are Lemon Peel, Lemon Myrtle, and floral specs of joy throughout the dry and loose blend.

It infuses to a lemon-lime color with a light brown hue to it. It’s very lemony and I like that. Lemonade from Shanti Tea makes a lovely hot cup and an even lovelier cold cup. It’s sweet enough on it’s own but I’m sure if you were to add a sweetener of your choice it wouldn’t hurt the overall flavor.

This is a pure delight! Lemonade from Shanti Tea is a wonderfully flavored Green Rooibos that I would call a WINNER any day!

 


Here’s the scoop!

Leaf Type: Green Rooibos/Herbal
Where to Buy: Shanti Tea

header_logo3Description:

Bright, citrusy and zingy, caffeine-free tea, providing you with refreshment and amazing health benefits too! *RECIPE RECENTLY CHANGED*

Ingredients: Organic Green Rooibos, Organic Lemon Peel, Organic Lemon Myrtle, Organic Calendula, Natural Essences

 

Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!