Avalon

Advent day 2.

The bag smells very strongly of cinnamon and cloves. I go through waves of feeling like this is the smell of a pantry (the scent of all the spices muddled together and indistinguishable) and something a little more interesting than that. I feel like it was more recognizable as a spiced apple when it was hot and as the cup cools it goes round on the edges. Is it gross? No. Is it interesting? Eh? My feelings might be drastically different if the base wasn’t red rooibos, which I’m not a fan of. The rooibos dry mouth doesn’t kick in until late in the finish which is nice. I saw that there were a few rooibos blends in this advent (I’m a total cheater and peeked). Wish it were all caffeinated blends because I need all the go juice I can get this week!

The dry blend has a strong apple cider fragrance. Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but that’s just not my thing. When it was steeping, though, and afterwards in my mug, the fragrance was pure rooibos, which is most definitely my thing. It tasted a bit flat to me, honestly. Like, if I wanted plain rooibos, I would drink plain rooibos; and if I wanted apple cider, I would drink that. This was a mash-up that wasn’t quite as layered or well rounded as I’d have liked. Okay, but not great.