Redbush

I’m trying to stay away from black tea for a bit to regulate the ph levels in my body so it was a Rooibos day for me. This particular Rooibos is REALLY earthy and very clay like, it reminds me of play doh—not that I make a habit of eating/drinking play doh. Meh, it’s not amazing. I’ve had better.

This is my first experience of red tea, and it was pretty good!

Tetley Red Tea is caffeine-free and Tetley claims that it “contains qualities that relieve allergies, ease digestion and help increase iron absorption”. I have no idea if it helped me with anything, but this was a nice tea. Tetley also says that “it also contains minerals that promote healthy skin, teeth and bones.”

I’m no scientist so I have no idea if those are true or not. I drink tea for the feeling and taste (also because I dislike drinking water). Overall, this satisfied my tastes and I am considering buying more after I finish some of the 58 tea bags I bought today.

In my last tasting note on this, I said it wouldn’t be a chore to finish the remaining teabags. I have changed my mind. It’s not that the tea has gotten worse – it’s still an average, basic rooibos which is inoffensive to the tastebuds – it’s just that my tea collection has expanded ridiculously over the last couple of weeks (thanks to Hapatite and MissB mainly, as well as a slight indiscretion on my part in a tea shop yesterday) and I want to drink all of those instead of these.

I flash-iced two bags of this last night as I was incredibly thirst and needed something to gulp. Also my tea habit means that tea is the only available drink in the house. Two teabags in 1/3 of a mug of boiling water for around 5 minutes, topped up with water as cold as I could run. The smell is amazingly honey-like, but unfortunately this is not reflected in the taste, which is a one-note woodsy flavour. A good choice to drink iced quickly when you can’t really taste what you’re drinking much, as I wouldn’t want to waste my good tea this way! I was also curious to try an iced rooibos, and it was better than expected.

Still have better teas by a long margin, and am now quite bored of this. Not going to mark it down, though, as my ratings are based on the best experience and this was definitely not it.

A lower end Redbush in my opinion. Its an ok tea but lacks the refreshing flavour of better Redbush teas. However it is nice to see that Redbush has got the attention it deserves and maybe with some work Tetley can crack it.

One for someone looking to try Redbush without leaving their comfort zone.

A shade brighter and shade better than regular Tetley’s

A passable rooibos, not particularly flavoursome (though it does have that odd ‘Tetley taste’ somehow, so maybe someone who regularly drinks Tetley tea would like it)

Probably won’t buy it again but if it came down to a choice between standard Tetley tea and this I’d pick this.