Producer: Lupicia
Origin: South Africa
Brewing Parameters: 2.5-3g; 100°C; 3-5 min.
Appearance: Very small, orange red leaves (since it's rooibos, it looks like red tanbark) with chunks of fruit, rose petals, and marigold petals
Rating: B | 86/100
# of Brews: 3
Tasting Notes and Thoughts
So, first, let me preface this with the note that, personally, I love bananas (which this tea is flavored like), but recently have been a bit sick of them. The reason why is that I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich in my backpack a couple of days ago; I thought I finished it, but it turns out I didn't, and the bananas essentially became the consistency of juice. Said banana juice spilled out of the bag it was in, into my bag, and onto a few of my books. As a result, my bag began to smell like a mix between rotting trash (the smell of foodwaste that has been sitting in a can for a while) and bananas. I ended up having to smell that for a full school day, so right now, I can't really stand the smell.
If you've been following my blog for a while (or look at the sidebar), you can tell that I barely drink rooibos tea. It's not really that I don't like rooibos, but rather that I don't purchase rooibos that often (I usually only get it in packs of different teas). As for this tea (or tisane, if you're anal like that), it appears to be of the red type; however, the leaves are much more broken up than the other teas I've seen. I'd compare it to, say, the size of tea fannings. As for the smell, it's a surprisingly accurate banana aroma (maybe a bit overripe, but still) with a tiny bit of the cough syrup/menthol smell found in most rooibos.
Again, I brewed the tea in a kyusu (I really need to get a western-style teapot, don't I) for five minutes. The liquid came out a very deep red-orange. According to the item description, the tea has actual chunks of mango with banana flavoring, and that is very obvious in both the taste and smell. The liquid smells exactly like the dried leaf, but maybe a bit more indiscriminately fruity and less like banana. The taste is actually a bit like bubble gum at first, followed by an unsweet (unripe, to an extent) banana flavor. It ends abruptly and dries the throat a lot, to the point where I felt like coughing after each drink. The aftertaste is a minty, cooling sensation, with a slight cough syrup taste of most rooibos. To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this tea as a whole. It's obviously one of the better rooibos teas I've had, and does banana well (I don't think I've even seen a banana flavored tea), but it's not one of the better teas I've had. I'd try it cold brewed, but it's not too bad hot. (On a good note, I noticed that the tea didn't try my throat nearly as much in the second brew, and the flavor was only marginally weaker. However, the third brew didn't really have any flavor.)
Other Notes
And that's the end of the Hawaii-specific teas! I'll be getting to the other senchas when I'm up to it and have the time to. The one I'm most excited for is a sencha from Yakushima island; I loved the Tanegashima tea, and since Yakushima is near, I'm assuming the tea will be somewhat similar (that is, if the soil and everything else there are similar).
Along with the Hawaii-specific teas, I'm also done with my first week of school! I ended up sticking with my schedule because it turns out I'm actually pretty decent in ceramics, like working with my hands, and enjoy the teacher's stress-relief and life tips (and he's very, very big on them). I also won't be able to switch into AP English Lit because almost every class has forty students; in fact, some classes don't have enough desks for people to sit in since there are too many students. When I talked to my counselor about it, she pretty much said to not worry because I'm taking two English classes already and Competition Civics (so it doesn't look like I'm slacking off senior year). I love African American Lit since it's essentially a history class with a lot of reading, World Lit since the teacher's great and I have quite a few friends in the class, AP Chem since it's a nice challenge (and other than the first test, I have been doing it pretty decently and correctly), AP Gov/Macro since the teacher's great at lectures and the topic's interesting, and Comp Civics because, well, it's comp civics.
Today, though, I ended up going to San Francisco for the final comp civics workshop, and I thought it was interesting since the topic was the Bill of Rights. After the workshop, the team went to a Chinese restaurant, which was a great bonding experience in my opinion. Tomorrow, I'll be going to the Oakland Art and Soul Festival to volunteer with the Uhuru Africans again.
There's also one thing I want to mention, too. So, my best friend has liked this girl for a while, and she's leaving to do an international exchange program. The thing is, yesterday we were hanging out when she texted him, asking if we'd like to get dinner with her. When we went to eat, they were late, and got a table without us (because we didn't want to eat, they didn't invite us to sit with them, so we were stuck outside the restaurant for one or two hours, after waiting an hour). They finally wanted to meet with us at a Starbucks when they were done eating, but when they came in, they pretty much just bought drinks, got them, and left without really hanging out or talking at all. Needless to say, I', pretty pissed about it, and my friend is heartbroken since she didn't even hug him (they've been friends for years now) when she left, and that was the last time he'll see her. I can't tell if they noticed how rude they were being, but oh well. Hopefully he gets over it soon, because on the ride home, he was very upset. Relationships, man.
And that's the end of the Hawaii-specific teas! I'll be getting to the other senchas when I'm up to it and have the time to. The one I'm most excited for is a sencha from Yakushima island; I loved the Tanegashima tea, and since Yakushima is near, I'm assuming the tea will be somewhat similar (that is, if the soil and everything else there are similar).
Along with the Hawaii-specific teas, I'm also done with my first week of school! I ended up sticking with my schedule because it turns out I'm actually pretty decent in ceramics, like working with my hands, and enjoy the teacher's stress-relief and life tips (and he's very, very big on them). I also won't be able to switch into AP English Lit because almost every class has forty students; in fact, some classes don't have enough desks for people to sit in since there are too many students. When I talked to my counselor about it, she pretty much said to not worry because I'm taking two English classes already and Competition Civics (so it doesn't look like I'm slacking off senior year). I love African American Lit since it's essentially a history class with a lot of reading, World Lit since the teacher's great and I have quite a few friends in the class, AP Chem since it's a nice challenge (and other than the first test, I have been doing it pretty decently and correctly), AP Gov/Macro since the teacher's great at lectures and the topic's interesting, and Comp Civics because, well, it's comp civics.
Today, though, I ended up going to San Francisco for the final comp civics workshop, and I thought it was interesting since the topic was the Bill of Rights. After the workshop, the team went to a Chinese restaurant, which was a great bonding experience in my opinion. Tomorrow, I'll be going to the Oakland Art and Soul Festival to volunteer with the Uhuru Africans again.
There's also one thing I want to mention, too. So, my best friend has liked this girl for a while, and she's leaving to do an international exchange program. The thing is, yesterday we were hanging out when she texted him, asking if we'd like to get dinner with her. When we went to eat, they were late, and got a table without us (because we didn't want to eat, they didn't invite us to sit with them, so we were stuck outside the restaurant for one or two hours, after waiting an hour). They finally wanted to meet with us at a Starbucks when they were done eating, but when they came in, they pretty much just bought drinks, got them, and left without really hanging out or talking at all. Needless to say, I', pretty pissed about it, and my friend is heartbroken since she didn't even hug him (they've been friends for years now) when she left, and that was the last time he'll see her. I can't tell if they noticed how rude they were being, but oh well. Hopefully he gets over it soon, because on the ride home, he was very upset. Relationships, man.
No comments:
Post a Comment