Two Leaves Tea Company, Organic African Sunset

Two Leaves Description:
We call this organic rooibos tea (say "roy-bus") "African Sunset" because red tea is grown in South Africa, where it is cherished for its spicy, herbal flavor. We've added just a touch of lemongrass and lemon zest to brighten up this smooth, decaf cuppa' tea on your palate.

Price: $7.95 for 15 sachets. Steep twice for $0.26 per cup.

Part of the Complete Sampler Pack provided by Two Leaves Tea Company

My Review:
I am not sure I have a lot to say about this one. Known as red tea in the west, rooibos is actually a small African bush and not literally tea. Maybe if you were an expert at rooibos you could tell the difference between different growing areas and climates like many can with tea from different regions. I cannot. To me rooibos always tastes like rooibos, whether it is in a bag, sachet, or loose.

Now let’s move to what does make this one different. I have had rooibos straight up. I have had it blended to taste like everything from pumpkin pie to Earl Grey. In almost every instance the common trait is it has a sandpaper like feeling of scratchiness on my throat. That is until today. This one has just the tiniest amount of lemongrass and lemon zest. It is not enough to make me think – oh, this is lemony. What it does do is take the rough edge off the cup and change the flavor so slightly that I found myself trying to figure what is this I’m tasting. I didn’t have the ingredient list while sipping and I thought maybe it had a little bit of green tea in the sachet. Nope, it’s lemon. Rooibos is never going to be a personal favorite but I found myself enjoying this one.

It’s caffeine free, so it is a good evening choice. Rooibos makes a horrible mess fixed loose in my French Press. Bags often taste like paper. This sachet did not alter the flavor and somehow it held the contents and did not make a mess in the bottom of my cup. That impressed me. The way I usually make rooibos is with a Finum basket. The fine mesh does a good job with fine cut herbals. For pure convenience sake, the sachet was much less work.

Apparently I was wrong, I did have a lot to say about this one.

Visit Two Leaves at http://www.twoleavestea.com/