Tea Review 84 - Snapple Red Tea

Mandarin Orange Red Tea
Snapple

As a general rule, bottled tea doesn't float my boat. I can sum up my reasons pretty succinctly - too sweet. There are exceptions, but they're few and far between.

Given that, I wasn't prepared to be impressed by Snapple's new line of red teas, which are made with rooibos, an herb grown in South Africa. But I figured I'd try to keep an open mind.

Snapple Red is available in Acai Mixed Berry, Peach Pomegranate, and Mandarin Tangerine flavors. I sampled the latter. According to the label, Snapple Red "contributes to a healthy immune system." Yeah, whatever. Ingredients include crystalline fructose sugar and pear juice concentrate, among others. Rooibos is number five on the ingredients list, oddly enough. I'm not sure what to make of that.

As I drank this one, I kept telling myself I could taste the rooibos, but I wasn't really sure that I could. The tangerine flavor was a bit more pronounced, but overall things were pretty understated and - surprise - not over sweetened. This one's also caffeine-free, for what it's worth.

Not too bad, but I think it would probably go down a lot better on a blazing summer day, as opposed to a frigid winter night.

I doubt that I'll seek out another Snapple Red, but if I was really hot and thirsty I probably wouldn't turn one down.


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Red Tea, Redbush, Rooibos

Call it whatever you will, but rooibos, the South African herbal "tea" is gaining more adherents all the time. Newsweek recently favored it with a brief article, which you can read here.

The Atlanta paper recently profiled the businessman who's behind a brand of rooibos tea called 10 Degrees South. Read that article here.

While we're on the subject, read this brief bit from the Detroit Free Press on Snapple's move into the red tea arena. Check the goods out at Snapple's page, here.

Image: Snapple

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Tea Review 80 - Rishi Rooibos (x2)

Jamaica Red Bush
Blueberry Rooibos
Rishi Tea

I've never been much of a fan of flavored tea. That's tea, in the strictest sense of the word, as in the beverage made from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant. But when it comes to rooibos and its African cousin, honey bush, it's a different story. While I can drink either one plain, in my opinion, they both benefit from the judicious addition of flavorings.

Which Rishi Tea does quite nicely, at least with the two flavors under consideration here. What caught my attention with both of these blends is how strong and fresh the flavoring is. In each case, when I opened the package, I was nearly bowled over by the aroma - and I mean that in a good way.

Jamaica Red Bush was a little less to my liking than the blueberry, but that's a matter of personal taste. Its a blend of organic ingredients, including rooibos, hibiscus, honey bush, lemongrass, schizandra berries (a new one on me), rosehips, licorice root, orange peel, natural passion fruit flavor, natural essential oils of orange, tangerine and clove, and natural mango flavor (sheesh). The overall aroma and taste of this one tends toward citrus and it's very nice.

But it's the Blueberry Rooibos that made me sit up and take notice. These Rishi guys are on to something with this one. It's a blend of rooibos, blueberries, schizandra berries, hibiscus, natural blueberry and strawberry flavors. The interesting touch here is that the blueberries are real or, as the packaging puts it - "real wild blueberries."

As a result, the aroma is so strong that you could actually use it as potpourri if you didn't care to drink it. Or you could do both. I made some into a batch of iced tea and the smell permeated the entire apartment. Oh, and it tastes good too.

Recommended on both counts, with a very high recommendation for the Blueberry Rooibos.

Image: Rishi Tea

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Black Gold & Red Espresso

No, we're not going over to the dark side here at TGS. But there's a new movie that has to do with the other hot drink (you know the one) and that seemed worthy of a mention.

It's called Black Gold and it takes a look at how your cup of coffee makes its way to your breakfast table or your local Starbucks counter or whatever the case may be.

The Sundance Film Festival's concise take on the movie, which is posted at the Black Gold site, reads thusly:

"Black Gold is a moving and eye-opening look into the 80-billion-dollar global coffee industry, where the spoils of overpriced lattes and cappuccinos are sparsely shared with the farmers who make it all possible."

Speaking of coffee, how does a tea espresso grab you? Huh? What?

In the strictest sense of the word, red espresso isn't a tea drink, given the fact that it's made with Rooibos, the South African "herbal" tea also known as redbush. But let's not split hairs.

I guess it remains to be seen whether there's a market for this sort of thing, although the company's Web site indicates that the product is already available at some South African cafes.

Image: Red Espresso

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Vodka Recipes & Rooibos Recipes

Some time back I wrote about a green tea-flavored vodka from Charbay Winery and Distillery. While nosing around at their Web site recently, I ran across a page that list recipes for three cocktails made using this particular spirit. There's the Angèle Green Tea Cooler, the Charbay Green Teani and the Mochi Cocktail.

Over at Simpson & Vail's Web site, they have an iced tea recipe that uses vodka and Rooibos, or redbush, an herbal "tea" from South Africa. Also at their Rooibos recipes page are various recipes for drinks, cocktails, desserts, soups and main dishes. Rooibos Fudge, anyone?

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Tea Review 43 - Kombucha Wonder Drink Rooibos Red Peach

Kombucha Wonder Drink Rooibos Red Peach
Kombucha Wonder Drink

I was hanging around my humble tea house (tea apartment, actually) the other day, minding my own business, when who should arrive but a jolly portly old guy in a red suit bearing the two newest flavors from Kombucha Wonder Drink.

Okay, it was actually a brown suit and the guy wasn't particularly jolly or portly. He was actually rather young, now that you mention it, and isn't it a bitch trying to sign your name on that big clunky electronic clipboard thingy with that little fake pen?

But I was happy to take a crack at sampling the latest KWD flavors, no matter how they arrived, and the Rooibos Red Peach was certainly no disappointment. The ingredients in this one are kombucha from Rooibos, organic cane sugar and natural red peach essence.

I was expecting the kombucha to overpower the other flavors, especially when I caught a big whiff of that distinctive sour aroma while pouring the goods into a glass.

But the taste is actually rather mild and the Rooibos surprisingly prominent. As for the peach, I think it was there but maybe I was just succumbing to the power of suggestion.

Anyway, here's another winner from Kombucha Wonder Drink.

Recommended.

Tea Review 35 - Four Faces of Rooibos

Redbush Chai Tea
Yogi Tea

Red Chai at Night
Mango Rooibos
Ginger Roibos
Tempest Tea

Feeling a little twitchy? Indulging in too much of the old Camellia sinensis? Maybe it's time to take a break and try out some caffeine free Rooibos, one of a few herbal beverages that can stand in - sort of - for real tea.

I've had a bunch of Rooibos come my way lately. I reviewed several a while back and recently I rounded up the rest and had a tasting session.

First, the chais - which is kind of a tricky thing actually. I keep giving chai another chance, but to be honest, I really don't like it much.

So with that caveat, on to the Rooibos chais. First up, Redbush Chai, from Yogi Tea. This one comes in a tea bag and uses all organic ingredients, including cardamom, cinnamon bark, ginger root, clove bud and stevia leaf.

At the same time I brewed a loose leaf Rooibos chai from Tempest Tea called Red Chai at Night (clever). This one brewed to a darker color than the Yogi and with a fuller taste, though not as spicy. I could smell a little more cinnamon and could taste some of the Rooibos that was overpowered in the Yogi variety. Not bad for a chai.

Also up from Tempest was Rooibos Mango. This one is good, but the mango aroma and flavors are very subtle, at least to my leaden palate. Tempest's Ginger Rooibos was considerably less subtle, with a nice ginger bite complementing the Rooibos rather nicely. It no match for the king of all ginger teas - Traditional Medicinals' Ginger Aid - but it's quite good.

Tea Review 29 - alltea.com Rooibos

Organic Rooibos
Rooibos Orange
Rooibos Provence
alltea.com

Rooibos, for those of you who may not be familiar with it, is an herbal beverage made from a plant - Aspalathus linearis - grown only in South Africa. It is brewed like tea, contains no caffeine and is commonly known as red bush, a reference to its color.

Most of the Rooibos I've tasted thus far has been in tea bag form. I recently had the good fortune to sample three loose varieties from tea merchant alltea.com, who sell about a dozen types of loose Rooibos in "plain" and flavored varieties.

Organic Rooibos brews up to a very appealing dark reddish brown color and has a great flavor. While it doesn't really taste like black tea, I'd say it's about as close as you can get if you're looking for a caffeine free substitute.

Rooibos Orange is flavored with citrus peel and orange blossoms. It has a whopping strong aroma dry, but a rather delicate and pleasing taste.

There's no kitchen sink in Rooibos Provence, but that's about the only thing not present. The flavorings in this one are lavender, rose petals, dried black currants, dried blueberries, rosehip shells and the rather mysterious "natural flavors."

All three of these teas are quite good, but the last was probably my least favorite. One of the flavors didn't quite click with me, though I couldn't place what it was - perhaps the currants.

Anyway, for a nice iced tea you might try one part Organic Rooibos, one part Rooibos Orange and one part mint. I used Celestial Seasonings Organic Peppermint, which packs quite a kick, as the latter ingredient.

Recommended.

Ipsei? Pepsi? Rooibos? Huh?

From the Who Really Cares desk. Coca-Cola is apparently poised to launch a non-carbonated beverage called Ipsei in the United Kingdom. I mention it here because it contains rooibos (redbush) extracts, among other things. BevNET.com claims that Ipsei is derived from the Latin word for self, but that other big soda pop maker thinks there's more than a passing resemblance to the name Pepsi and they're not so happy about it. Ah, the trials and tribulations of the giant sugar water manufacturers.

Tea Review 8 - Kalahari Red

Kalahari Red Tea
Kalahari Limited

As far as I can tell, rooibos tea is pretty much rooibos tea, no matter who makes it. At least that's been my experience so far, just going on the evidence provided to me by my taste buds. Perhaps, upon further investigation, I'll find that there are high grades of rooibos and crappier grades. That research will have to wait for now.

The last rooibos I reviewed was from Twinings. Kalahari, which calls itself a "premium South African rooibos herb tea," does not taste noticeably different, though ideally, I should have done a side by side taste test. Kalahari also bills itself as "the original pure rooibos." The box offers no explanation for this claim, though it does point out that the "tea" is made using only the tips of the plants. So maybe there's something to the company's claim that it's a premium variety.

Founded by a Californian and a South African, Kalahari is distributed on these shores from a base in Atlanta, Georgia. I brewed a cup using almost boiling water and steeped it for about five minutes. Color and taste were about the same as any other rooibos I've sampled, but again, a side by side taste test might provide more accurate results.

Recommended, as are any of the rooibos brands I've tried thus far.

Contents: 20 tea bags in a box.
I paid: $2.79

Tea Review 1 - Twinings Red Bush

Red Bush Herb Tea
Twinings of London

Nothing can take the place of tea. Tea, in this case, meaning a beverage made by steeping the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant - in it's black, green, white or yellow formulations - in hot water.

A problem for some tea lovers - present company included - is that tea contains caffeine. For those of us who have a sensitivity to this substance, the pleasures of the tea are somewhat negatively affected. Yes, I know there are various and sundry decaffeinated teas, but I have yet to discover one that doesn't strip out much of the flavor when it removes the caffeine.

Which is where red bush, also known as rooibos, comes into the picture. While it's not quite a caffeine free substitute for black tea, it's close enough to fit the bill until something better comes along.

Rooibos is derived from the Aspalathus linearis plant, which is grown only in the Cedarberg region of South Africa. When brewed it makes a "tea" with a dark tan/reddish color not unlike some varieties of black tea, though with a sweeter and mellower taste.

Twinings of London, one of the bastions of the English tea trade, has been doing their thing since 1706, but only introduced their brand of rooibos in recent years. Unlike so many so-called herbal teas, Twinings' brand of red bush consists of one and only one ingredient - rooibos.

Twinings Red Bush is good for drinking as a hot tea. It has a nice, smooth taste and doesn't suffer from being steeped for longer than the recommended three to five minutes. It also makes a nice iced tea and is especially good when mixed with another type of herbal tea, preferably something fruity. I've found that peach works quite nicely in a ratio of two parts to one part red bush and I usually toss in some loose green tea to spice things up a bit.

Contents: 20 tea bags per box
I paid: $2.50 (sale price)