Tag: Rooibos/Honeybush

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24 Days of Tea: Crème Caramel Rooibos

Crème Caramel Rooibos by DavidsTea
Rooibos Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

Officially into the second half of the 24 Days of Tea advent calendar, and day 13 is Crème Caramel Rooibos. My initial reaction in seeing that it was a rooibos tea was “poop”. I don’t like a lot of rooibos teas, I’m quite particular (although I love Birthday Cake by DavidsTea). Rooibos to me often has an almost medicinal quality to the smell and flavour, and that is generally something that I don’t want to have in my cup because it’s not pleasant to me.

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Crème Caramel Rooibos has a slight caramel smell to it, but more heavy on the rooibos side. Crème Caramel Rooibos consists of: rooibos, caramel pieces, natural and artificial flavouring. For those who are lactose intolerant, it does contain milk. As you can tell from my photo above, my tin didn’t have a lot of caramel pieces in it (this may have played a role in my overall experience).

Preparation

The recommendation for preparing Crème Caramel Rooibos is to use near-boiling water (90-95°C/194-203°F) and to steep for 4 to 7 minutes. When I use my Breville IQ Kettle, I opt to use the French Press option (200°F) to get the water to the right temperature. I steeped my cup of Crème Caramel Rooibos for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Crème Caramel Rooibos steeps to have a very strong rooibos smell, very medicinal and not enough caramel in the steam that wafts up from the cup as it steeps. It does have a beautiful red colour that it steeps to, which I always like. There is a slight sweetness to this rooibos blend that I like, but it does get overpowered by the rooibos base. The medicinal quality in the smell is followed by a medicinal quality in the flavour. It lacks a creaminess that I was anticipating with a name like Crème Caramel Rooibos, and found that it benefits from a splash of evaporated milk. The cream content of the evaporated milk helps boost the caramel flavours, but doesn’t cut through the medicinal rooibos flavour as much as I would like.

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A Second Cup?

I did not resteep Crème Caramel Rooibos.

My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like DavidsTea’s Crème Caramel Rooibos. I really wanted to like this one, especially with a name like Crème Caramel Rooibos because I am all about the sweets (especially in the holiday season!). I found the amount of caramel in the steeped tea to be lacking, although it did improve a bit with the addition of evaporated milk. I’m just not overly fond of rooibos as a tea base, as I’m not a fan of medicinal flavours in my tea mugs.

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DavidsTea’s Detox

Detox by DavidsTea
Rooibos & Green Tea Blend / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

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First Impressions

I feel that I have a healthy level of skepiticism when it comes to teas that make health claims, especially when it comes to teas that claim to help with detoxing, clearing out all the bad stuff. This is primarily because I work in healthcare and the body is pretty good at removing toxins all by itself and doesn’t need a tea in order to do that. That said, I did give DavidsTea’s Detox a try because it is one of the fan favourites and I wanted to see if it is as good as people claim.

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The ingredients in Detox are: rooibos, sencha green tea, lemon grass, ginger, juniper berries, ginkgo, and natural lemon flavouring. It has an incredibly strong ginger and lemon smell to the dry leaf, and I can make out most of the ingredients when looking through the dry leaf.

As an aside, there can be interactions between ginkgo and/or ginger with certain medications. It is always a good idea to let your doctor and pharmacist know when you are consuming herbal supplements as they may be aware of interactions or things to look out for.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Detox in 85°C (185°F) water for 3-4 minutes. I steeped for about 3 minutes.

First Taste

Detox steeps to a beautiful golden orange, and it smells quite strongly of ginger and lemon. I find that the taste is also quite heavy on the ginger and lemon grass side, although I can’t really make out much of the green tea base or even rooibos. I’ve never had juniper berries so I’m not quite sure what those are supposed to taste like, but nevertheless I taste ginger and lemon grass. It reminds me a lot of when I was younger and if I was sick, my mom would make up a tea with some ginger, honey and lemons. This prompted me to add some honey to it, which actually helps the tea out a bit! The honey helps to make the lemon flavouring more pronounced and tones down the harshness of the ginger, which makes me feel a little it less like I should be bundled up in blankets on the couch.

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A Second Cup?

Detox does not resteep well, and I would say it is not a tea that’s meant for one more steep. The lemon grass, ginger, and lemon just falls very flat when I attempted to resteep it. It does not make for an enjoyable cup of tea.

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My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Detox was just okay. I think there’s some nice points to Detox – if I was feeling a bit under the weather, I may have a different opinion of this tea at that time (I will definitely make some again when I’m feeling sick and report back!). As someone who’s healthy and trying out Detox, it just reminds me of when I was sick in the past and brings back the feelings of not feeling great and having my mom take care of me. It’s not an everyday tea for me, that’s for sure, but I can appreciate how this tea would be good if I was sick. I would definitely recommend adding honey to it, I think it just adds a little something that the tea is missing otherwise.

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DavidsTea’s Oh Canada!

Oh Canada! by DavidsTea
Rooibos Tea / Flavoured
$7.98 for 50g

Happy 149th birthday, Canada!

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First Impressions

Oh Canada! smells amazing. It smells exactly as one would expect a Canadian-themed tea to smell – like maple syrup. Somewhere along the way, maple syrup just became the thing that is associated with Canada. Sadly, this tea does not also smell like poutine, but the cute maple leaf candies sprinkled throughout the tea more than make up for that. I really enjoy smelling this tea, it doesn’t smell like the maple syrup “products” that are more water than syrup, it smells like the maple syrup I’m used to.

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Oh Canada! is made up of: red and green rooibos, honeybush, caramel, toffee, candy leaves, natural and artificial flavouring. For those with allergies or sensitivities, Oh Canada! has milk, soy, and almond in it.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends near-boiling water for 4-7 minutes. Those temperatures, according to their website, are 90-95°C (194-203°F). I steeped mine in just boiled water for close to 6 minutes.

First Taste

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Oh Canada! smells like strongly of rooibos, with hints of maple syrup and caramel after it has steeped. This patriotic rooibos steeps to a lovely reddish brown that I’ve come to expect from rooibos based teas. There’s a very pleasannt taste to it, but it is primarily rooibos rather than maple syrup and caramel. Despite the added sources of sugar (maple syrup, maple leaf candies), it isn’t very sweet.

I added a little bit of sugar into my cup of Oh Canada! and I found that the maple flavours became more pronounced with the addition of a sweetener.

A Second Cup?

Based on the nature of this tea and the use of flavourings and candies, I did not resteep Oh Canada!

My Overall Impression

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I thought that DavidsTea’s Oh Canada! was just okay. I love the idea on a patriotic, maple syrup tea more than I actually liked drinking Oh Canada! I really wanted to love it for all the reasons that I love Canada, but the fact remains that the rooibos base overpowers the maple syrup flavouring without additives on my part. I think this tea does well with the addition of a sweetener, and if you want to taste more of the maple flavouring I would recommend using a little bit of sweetener.

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