Rooibos

"Cultivated and consumed in South Africa for centuries for its healing properties, this herbal teasan, also know as red tea, features rich earthy vanilla notes." Apparently they felt that the only way to describe this tea is with a run on sentence. Perhaps they were just excited about going to South Africa. I would like to be there right now. It's summer there, and we are in our umpteenth winter storm. The predicted snow fall is 5-8 inches today. When I checked the road conditions (out of curiosity, not planning to go anywhere), most of the roads in the state were completely covered, with the southwest portion marked travel not advised. While I sometimes think I would get out some during these storms when I lived in town, last week there were some roads in town that were so horribly drifted it took the city longer to get those roads cleared up than the country roads. On well, I guess I'm stuck at home drinking tea.

I brewed a cup, and took a sniff. I can pick out the vanilla notes in it. Interesting. This is certainly better than the store brand rooibos that I tried before. This is even better than the loose leaf I tried as well. Sometimes I wonder how long bulk spices and teas sit on the shelf before they are purchased. I know that it is not optimal storage because they use clear glass containers (that thing about people being more likely to buy if they can see the contents). At first I was thinking that I was going to brew this with spices like cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. The reality is that I like drinking this rooibos all by itself. Maybe I'm getting used to the flavor... or maybe quality and age of the tea makes a difference. Either way, rooibos is becoming one of my go-to teas (although I admit all the loose leaf rooibos I have is flavored). Thank you South Africa.