What’s in Banana Shake tea?

Banana Shake is an herbal tea blend from Twist Teas, a tea company that’s all about flavours, quality and personality. Twist Teas has a whole range of intriguing blends (see Beetroot Acai Matcha and Choffee Mint), and, also important, an exceptional customer support. Twist Teas blends are available as loose tea and in pyramid corn silk bags, each containing 2.5 grams of tea. Tea bags are big enough to allow tea to fully expand, so you can enjoy the same flavour as when brewing loose tea.  

Banana Shake, an award-winning herbal blend, contains only a few natural ingredients – red rooibos tea, freeze-dried banana, sunflower petals and natural flavouring. It has a deep intense banana scent with deep and sweet notes of red rooibos tea. It smells very inviting. This is undoubtedly a red rooibos blend but crafted in a way to respect both key ingredients, with a personality of a dessert tea.

How to make this tea?

What’s great about rooibos (and most rooibos blends) is that it’s very easy to brew. It’s one of the most forgiving teas out there. Even if you are new to tea brewing, with rooibos you’ll always get the best flavour no matter how you brew it. Bring fresh water to a boil and steep 1 tea bag in a cup of water for 5-10 minutes. Even if you steep it longer, it won’t become bitter.

Banana nots are light, but present in the scent, flavour and ever as an aftertaste. While this is predominantly a red rooibos tea, it’s definitely a banana tea, too. It feels very natural, very pleasant and easy to drink. Although you can drink it with no condiments, to get that proper banana shake experience, prepare it either as a latte, or add 10-20 ml of single cream or full cream milk.

Milk will mellow out the rooibos notes and bring out the milky banana shake flavour. This tea is light, and it doesn’t need any sweeteners as it’s naturally slightly sweet. However, if you do need a sweetener, light honey or regular white sugar are a good choice.

Banana Shake is great tea for afternoon me-time and soothing evening caffeine-free lattes. You’ll like it if you love red rooibos blends, even if you don’t like pure red rooibos tea. You’ll also enjoy it if you love bananas. It’s a light, but very tasty blend, and suitable for tea lovers that don’t like heavily flavoured teas.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk

Day or night? Day or night

Hot or iced? Hot or cold

Sweetened or pure? Pure or sweetened.

Caffeine? No

What’s the price? From £5.00 (different options available)

Where to buy? Get it from Twist Teas website.

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What’s in Sticky Date Delight?

An inspiration for Sticky Date Delight came from a sticky toffee pudding, a yummy dessert made of a sponge cake, toffee sauce and dates. This tea actually contains dates (and figs) which are not at all common in tea blends. It’s blended with red rooibos tea, chicory, caramel pieces, figs, dates, marigold petals and flavourings. And it smells gorgeous. It’s sweet, deep, with hints of earthy rooibos.

Rooibos tea has a distinctive scent, which you’ll either love or hate. However, in some rooibos teas that scent and flavour are blended in a way it offers a perfect tea base, rather than a dominant scent/flavour. Sticky Date Delight is definitely one of those teas.

It’s sweet, but none of the ingredients are dominating the scent. Instead, they all give this delicious, sweet dessert note with deep caramel notes.  

How to make this sticky toffee pudding tea?

Rooibos is one of the easiest teas to brew. It will never get bitter even if you oversteep it and you can use boiling water. Simply use 1 heaped teaspoon of tea per cup of boiling water and steep for 5-10 minutes. If you want to maximise the flavour, add a teaspoon more.

This really is a beautiful rooibos tea. There’s a deep, subtle earthy rooibos note, elevated by all the sweet flavours: hints of caramel and hints of date sweetness. However, this is not a date tea. It’s a rooibos tea where all ingredients blend into a sweet and unique flavour. To make a proper tea treat, add milk, coffee creamer or use it for making a latte. Milk will elevate the caramel notes, and adding some brown sugar will intensify the sweetness.

Although flavourful, this is a light tea, so it’s great for drinking pure as well.

Who would like this sticky toffee pudding tea? This tea is great for tea drinkers that like caramel and rooibos teas, and sweet blends, or if you enjoy drinking tea with milk or cream. You may like it even if you don’t like pure rooibos teas.   

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk

Day or night? Day or night

Hot or iced? Hot or iced

Sweetened or pure? Pure or with some brown sugar

Caffeine? No

What’s the price? 18.00 AUD

Where to buy? Get it from T2 website.

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What’s in Sobre?

Sobre is hard to define. It’s a green tea with mint, but then again, it has nothing in common with other green teas with mint. It’s a rooibos tea with eucalyptus, but it also has nothing to do with regular rooibos teas. Sobre is blended with red rooibos tea, Chinese jasmine green tea, peppermint, eucalyptus, freeze-dried strawberries, mallow flowers, blue cornflowers and natural flavouring.

It’s a colourful blend that smells unique. Scent is very intense, deep, sweet, with hints of earthy rooibos and incredible eucalyptus freshness. If you love the scent of eucalyptus, you’ll love the scent of this tea, too. Eucalyptus is not that common in tea blends, which is quite a shame, as it smells incredibly uplifting and soothing. It’s mostly used for respiratory problems, but it may provide many other benefits, including antimicrobial and antioxidant properties (1).

What does Sobre taste like?

Even though this blend contains green tea, it mostly a herbal blend with ingredients that can be steeped in boiling water. Use one teaspoon of tea leaves and steep in freshly boiled water for 2-3 minutes. It won’t become bitter even if you over-steep it.

Although the scent of dry leaves is intense, the flavour of this tea is quite the opposite. Flavour is light, earthy, with a touch of jasmine green tea, and a subtle and delicate fruitiness lingering in the background. There’s also an incredibly fresh aftertaste from the eucalyptus. Red rooibos is a wonderful choice for all these flavours, as it gives a strong and deep base for layering all other flavours.

This is not a peppermint tea even though it has a minty freshness. It’s not a fruit tea even though it has a light fruity sweetness. It’s not a jasmine tea, and it’s not a rooibos tea. It’s a wonderfully refreshing, deep but light herbal blend. Sobre is a very light, very easy to drink tea that offers an instant refreshment.

Even if you are not a fan of strong mint teas, strong rooibos teas, strong jasmine teas, you will probably like this blend. It’s one of those teas you’d imagine sipping on a spa day to freshen up and relax. There’s no bitterness either. It’s not a sweet tea, but it feels sweet. It doesn’t need any sweeteners, and in fact, if feels like adding some may actually ruin the tea.If you do need to make it sweeter, try it with a lighter honey.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water.

Day or night? Day or night.

Hot or iced? Hot or iced.

Sweetened or pure? Pure or with a teaspoon of honey.

Caffeine? Yes, but very little.

What’s the price? Starting from 4.75 GBP.

Where to buy? Get it from Biscuit & Brew website.

Sources

(1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667031321000713

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What is green rooibos?

Green rooibos is made from the South African Aspalathus linearis plant, just like red rooibos or red bush tea. Rooibos is very similar to the real tea. There are green and red types, similar to green and black tea. Red rooibos goes really well with milk, just like black tea, and green rooibos is better served without milk, just like green tea. And then, there’s the flavour. Red rooibos is earthy and rich, while the green rooibos has a flavour similar to green tea, but without the grassiness.

But unlike real teas, rooibos, both green and red, will never become bitter, no matter how long you steep them for. And they are both caffeine free. If you don’t like the flavour of red rooibos, don’t automatically dismiss this type. The flavour is very different, and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Tick Tock Organic Green Rooibos

Although this tea type is available from specialised tea shops, it’s not as readily available in supermarkets or in tea bags. Tick Tock is for sure changing that, by offering both options that can be found not only online, but in Tesco and Waitrose too.

Loose leaf green rooibos loose similar to red rooibos, except, it’s yellow-greenish. Dry leaves have a less intense scent too, not as earthy but more herbaceous and much more neutral. You will need to use a fine-mesh strainer or a disposable tea filter for making this tea. This herbal tea has very small, fine leaves, which makes it very difficult to brew in many infuser mugs or teapots with a built-in strainer.

What does it taste like?

To make a cup of tea, you’ll need 1-2 teaspoons of tea leaves and a cup of water. Steep it for 5-10 minutes in boiling water.

This tea tastes like a mellow green tea, but with absolutely no bitterness. Just like red rooibos, it cannot get bitter no matter how long you steep it for. Flavour is slightly earthy, with hints of boiled greens. Since there’s no bitterness, only a very pleasant flavour, you don’t need to add any condiments.

The best way to drink it is pure, hot or cold. You can also use it as a very neutral base for making iced teas and blend it with other ingredients. As a base tea, it will give colour and depth, but it will be quite neutral and capable of carrying different flavours – from zesty to sweet, even spicy.

If you love green teas or want to find a mild tasting herbal tea with no caffeine, this herbal tea is a great tea to try.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water.

Day or night? Day or night.

Hot or iced? Hot or iced.

Sweetened or Pure? Pure or with a teaspoon of sugar or honey.

Caffeine? No

What’s the price? Starting from 2.25 GBP.

Where to buy? Get it from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, Tick Tock website, Waitrose, Tesco or Ocado.

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What’s in Twinings Inner Peace?

Twining Inner Peace tea is blended with 3 main ingredients – rooibos, roasted chicory root and ashwagandha root – and natural flavourings – fig, vanilla and others.

Rooibos and vanilla are a classic pair. These flavours that complement each other beautifully and they’ve been around for some time. But rooibos and fig? That’s a whole new story.

Fig has not been used as an ingredient or as a flavour in tea blends much until recently. Today, it’s a trending flavour that goes well will many tea types. Fig flavour goes exceptionally well with red rooibos tea, that’s naturally sweet and earthy.

Figs are naturally quite sweet and can be paired with a whole range of foods – from fruits to cheese, nuts and herbs.

Adaptogen in Twinings Inner Peace blend is ashwagandha or Withania somnifera, used in Indian Ayurveda. There’s a lot of research related to this adaptogen, and most of it is regarding the stress-relieving properties. Although different parts of the plant can be used as an herbal medicine, only the root is used for stress management. Studies suggest ashwagandha may help relieve anxiety and reduce stress caused by physical activity and provide a whole range of other benefits (1).

Twinings Inner Peace tea smells delicious – there’s a deep sweet fig note, earthy red rooibos base and a touch of vanilla.

Red rooibos is naturally caffeine free and, what’s also an advantage – very easy to brew. Plus, this blend contains no sugars.

How does it taste?

Twinings Inner Peace blend is an example of just how perfect red rooibos is in caffeine-free blends. It gives depth, flavour and sweetness, but it’s also like a flavour canvas that allows a creation of a whole new tea experience.

Let’s get back to brewing. Since this is a red rooibos blend, use a freshly boiled water and steep one tea bag in a cup of water for 3 minutes. Rooibos will never become bitter, even if you over-brew it.

The scent of this blend is beautiful. Just leave a cup of brewed tea on the table and the entire room will smell divine.

Although the scent may make you think this tea is going to be sweet, it’s quite light. Red rooibos and fig notes are predominant, and if you worry about the flavour of ashwagandha, this blend incorporates it really well. It’s present, but far from overpowering.

Who would like this tea?

Twinings Inner Peace adaptogen superblend is great for tea drinkers that like lighter, gentle herbal teas. Even if you are not a fan of red rooibos, you may like this blend. This blend makes for an amazing afternoon and evening tea. Warning, it smells so delicious you’ll want to have another cup straight away.

Twinings Inner Peace Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water or milk.

Day or night? Day or night.

Hot or iced? Hot or iced.

Sweetened or pure? Pure, or with a teaspoon of honey.

Caffeine? No

What’s the price? Starting from 3.99 GBP.

Where to buy? Get Twinings Inner Peace from Twinings website or Amazon.

This blend is now available as a part of Soulful blends range -> Quiet Mind blend

Sources

(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3252722/

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What is Plum Tart?

Plum Tart tea blend from Biscuit & Brew Tea House (formerly Arthur Dove), is a caffeine-free herbal tea blend inspired by a delicious sweet and zesty plum tart with a hint of cinnamon. The base of this tea is rich and earthy red rooibos tea (Aspalathus linearis). Red rooibos comes from South Africa, and unlike other teas, it’s not grown on other continents or even in other countries. With its rich, earthy, and full-bodied flavour, red rooibos tea makes a perfect base for Plum Tart blend.

This blend also contains elderberries, cinnamon, hibiscus, apple pieces, rosehip and natural flavouring. Plum Tart smells delicious – deep, fruity, intense, with prominent red rooibos base mixed with fruity richness, hints of cinnamon and juicy zestiness.

How does it taste?

One of the great things about rooibos tea is that it’s perfect for busy tea drinkers because it will never become bitter, even if you steep it for 30 minutes or longer. The flavour profile won’t change either, and it will taste delicious cold too.

To make a perfect cup of Plum Tart tea, steep 2 teaspoons of tea leaves in a cup of freshly boiled water for 5-10 minutes. It steeps into a deep red-brown tea, with a delicious intense scent of a sweet and juicy fruit tart. It’s extremely flavourful and rich, with notes of cinnamon and hibiscus. There’s enough of natural sweetness and flavour, so it’s great without a sweetener. If you want to make it sweeter, brown sugar would be a perfect choice. This tea is best without milk.

If you are looking for a delicious late evening tea, Plum Tart is naturally caffeine free and won’t interfere with your sleep. This tea blend is great for tea lovers that enjoy rich and sweet fruity and berry blends and want to enjoy the benefits of red rooibos tea. If you love intense fruity flavours and hibiscus and rosehips teas, this blend is an amazing choice.

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What is Herbal Sticky Chai?

Herbal Sticky Chai comes from Chala Chai, a company that specialised in chai products. It’s made with herbal, caffeine free red rooibos tea, cinnamon, star anise, fresh ginger, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, fennel seeds, black peppercorns and almost raw Northern Irish honey. In fact, this blend contains almost 30% of honey, and over 50% of spices, so expect a delicious, naturally sweet and spicy flavour.

Sticky Chai blends are like regular chai blends but contain a sweetener like honey that binds the ingredients and makes the blend look wet. What makes sticky chai great is that you don’t need to worry about ratios or adding a sweetener – it’s already naturally sweet.

Herbal Sticky Chai is a chai blend that contains all the ingredients needed to make a perfect caffeine-free chai – including honey.

This tea smells delicious, with deeper clove, cardamom and star anise notes, and lighter fennel and nutmeg notes. Ginger, rooibos and honey wrap it all up into a beautifully spiced, sweet and earthy blend that won the Great Taste award in 2022.

How to brew this tea?

There are different ways of making chai tea, and there are different ways of making sticky chai too. The easiest way is to prepare it is by simply steeping the tea leaves in hot water. Steep 2 teaspoon of sticky leaves in a cup of freshly boiled water for 5 minutes. Rooibos won’t get bitter no matter how long you brew it for, so it’s great for simmering too. This tea goes really well with milk, or you can enjoy it pure. Because it’s caffeine free, it’s suitable for a late evening sipping too.

Herbal Sticky Chai brews into a delicious, smooth, sweet chai that doesn’t need any condiments. Even though it’s a rooibos tea, rooibos is not overpowering. It tastes great without milk and even offers a similar texture and mouthfeel as a properly made chai. Sticky chai should be infused only once, as the honey will melt and spices will lose potency after the first infusion.

This tea is a wonderful alternative to regular chai, especially if you want to enjoy it at nighttime or if you are avoiding caffeinated drinks. It has depth, sweetness, spiciness, with a real warming touch of fresh ginger. Even if rooibos is not really your cup of tea, it doesn’t overpower this blend, but gives a perfectly smooth and deep base instead.

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What are coffee and tea blends?

Coffee and tea blends are blends that contain Camellia sinensis tea leaves or herbal ingredients and coffee beans, ground coffee or instant coffee. Not only are they unique, but some may also provide a higher caffeine boost than regular tea. Until recently, these two ingredients were considered unmatchable. But today, not only are they becoming widely available, but there are also some truly unique combinations that will prove to you that many ingredients can be matched to create a delicious cuppa, not only coffee and tea.

Top 13 coffee and tea blends to try

Black tea is often considered a good replacement for coffee, especially because it’s stronger, bolder, and goes well with milk. But many other teas can go well with milk, and many other teas may contain more caffeine than black tea. These coffee and tea blends are not blended with black tea only – some contain green tea, pu’erh tea, yerba mate or even caffeine-free rooibos and honey bush tea, and one or more types of coffee.

These 13 coffee and tea blends undoubtedly show just how unique these ingredients can be.

1. Coffee Truffle – Tea People

Coffee Truffle from Tea People offers not only a caffeine boost, but a chocolate flavour too. All ingredients in this blend are naturally caffeinated. There’s pu’erh tea for earthiness and depth, black tea for lightness and maltiness, cocoa bits for sweetness and creaminess, and coffee beans for an extra dose of caffeine and flavour. Coffee Truffle is a tea for tea, coffee and hot chocolate lovers. Available as loose tea and in pyramid tea bags.

Price: starting from 2.50 GBP for a taster pack

Where to buy: Tea People website, Tea People Amazon store or Tea People eBay store

2. Vanilla Tiramisu Espresso black tea – Bloom Teas

If you are looking for a liquefied caffeinated dessert tea with coffee beans, Vanilla Tiramisu black tea ticks all the boxes. It’s creamy, light, and feels like a delicious cocoa dusted Italian dessert. A great blend for office sipping and afternoon tea parties. Available as loose tea in plastic-free pyramid tea bags.

Price: 4.50 GBP for a pouch

Where to buy: Bloom Teas website

Read more about Vanilla Tiramisu Espresso black tea.

3. Caffe Latte – Subrosa Tea

Caffe Latte is a blend that takes its mission very seriously – it contains black tea, yerba mate, chicory, barley and both cocoa and coffee beans. So, what’s so exciting about this tea? Not only it blends real caffeinated tea, caffeinated tisane, coffee beans and cocoa that’s also naturally caffeinated, it contains chicory and barely, both a caffeine-free coffee alternatives. A blend of contradictions? Maybe, but very exciting, nevertheless. Available as loose tea.

Price: from 4 USD for a 0.5 oz pouch

Where to buy: Subrosa Tea website

4. Central Perk – Monarch Tea House

If you love chocolate, Central Perk blend doesn’t include chocolate chips only, it includes GIANT chocolate chips. Plus, there’s hazelnut brittle and freeze-dried yogurt granules to add both flavour, sweetness and creaminess to this cocoa, coffee and black tea blend. This certainly is what a creamy latte should be made of.

Price: starting from 2.49 USD for 0.5 oz

Where to buy: Monarch Tea House website

5. Coffee Lover – Yawn

Pu’erh tea and coffee plus chamomile? Blending energy boosting and calming ingredients deserves admiration. This blend has pu’erh tea base, with a naturally earthy and strong flavour, green coffee beans and coffee granules, chamomile flowers and cocoa. Yawn is a tea brand, a coffee brand and a hot chocolate brand, so it doesn’t surprise to see a tea blend dedicated to coffee drinkers with deep hot chocolate notes.

Price: starting from 1 GBP for a sample loose leaf pouch

Where to buy: Yawn website or Yawn Etsy store

6. Choffee Mint – Twist Teas

Choffee Mint by Twist Teas is a chocolaty minty dessert enriched with coffee, cocoa nibs and husks and even a coffee alternative – roasted dandelion root. This easy to brew dessert tea bend smells and taste delightful. Could there be a better blend for an afternoon tea party when you need more than just a regular cup of tea? Available as loose leaf and in pyramid tea bags.

Price: from 4.50 GBP for a 50-grams loose leaf pouch

Where to buy: Twist Teas website

Read more about Choffee Mint coffee and tea blend.

7. Focus on Yourself coffee and tea blend – Tealyra

Have you ever heard of a ylang-ylang tea blend before?  If you are looking for something super uncommon, Focus on Yourself green tea blend from Tealyra is a tea that truly stands out. It’s a ylang-ylang flavoured green tea blend with green coffee beans, gingko, chokeberries, apple and a sprinkle of sunflower and cornflower petals. A perfect afternoon relaxing blend to focus on yourself.

Read more about Focus on Yourself tea blend

Price: from 4.62 GBP for a 50-grams loose leaf pouch

Where to buy: Tealyra website

8. Yin Yang coffee and tea blend – Or, Tea?

Yin Yang is a blend that represents traditional drinks of multiple countries – coffee, black tea, and yerba mate. It also contains roasted chicory root, a common replacement for coffee, sweet liquorice and milk, caramel and vanilla flavouring. Sounds like a perfect cup of tea-coffee, doesn’t it? Available as loose leaf tea and tea bags in adorable packaging.

Price: from 6.50 EUR for a box with 10 sachet

Where to buy: Or, Tea? website

9. Vanilla Cappuccino Tea – DAVIDsTEA

Ever thought of pairing black tea and fruit chunks with coffee beans? DAVIDsTEA Vanilla Cappuccino Tea has truly interesting ingredients – from rosehips, apple and pineapple chunks to coffee beans and black tea, all sweetened with some stevia. All you need to do is brew it, add some steamed milk and enjoy.  

Price: from 9.98 USD for a 50 grams loose tea pouch

Where to buy: DAVIDsTEA website

10. Peppermint Swiss Mocha Hot Chocolate – Dessert by Deb

Even without coffee beans, Peppermint Swiss Mocha Hot Chocolate would be a decadent herbal blend. With coffee beans, it gives a unique tisane and coffee blend. Peppermint Swiss Mocha Hot Chocolate contains honey bush herbal tea – a delicious cousin of red rooibos, cocoa nibs and two types of mint – peppermint and spearmint. A true indulging guilt-free herbal tea with a low caffeine content.

Price: from 7.00 CAD for a 25-grams loose tea pouch

Where to buy: Dessert by Deb website

11. Banana Bread Coffee Pu’erh – Old Barrel Tea Company

Ripe earthy pu’erh tea, banana chips, ground coffee and coffee beans, cinnamon chips and pretty calendula petals make this tea not only a caffeine-rich tea and coffee blend, but a true dessert too. What can be better than having dessert for breakfast? Banana Bread Coffee Pu’erh is a great tea for sipping after lunch too.

Price: from 15 USD for 2.65 oz loose leaf tin

Where to buy: Old Barrel Tea website

12. Dreamy Creamy Galway Tea – Cupan Tae

Black tea, jasmine and roasted coffee beans? This tea will make you look at jasmine teas from a whole new perspective. Floral coffee tea or a coffee flavoured jasmine tea, whichever way you want to use to describe it, one thing’s for sure – Dreamy Creamy Galway tea is a blend like no other. Available as loose tea.

Price: 11 GBP for an 80 grams gift box

Where to buy: Cupan Tae website

13. Rum Arabica – Tea from the Manor

Rum Arabica is more than just a coffee and tea blend. It’s a cocktail tea blend made with red rooibos, cocoa husks, coffee beans, blackcurrants, cinnamon and rum flavouring. This herbal tea is alcohol free, low in caffeine and just perfect for an afternoon sipping. Rooibos is naturally caffeine-free, so expect lower caffeine content.

Price: from 4.75 GBP for a 100-grams loose tea pouch

Where to buy: Tea from the Manor website

More inspiration on coffee and tea

• 3 ways to blend tea and coffee
• What is Dirty Chai?

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What is Blueberry Muffin tea?

Blueberry Muffin is a flavoured rooibos tea from the US based tea subscription company Simple Loose Leaf. Just like many other Simple Loose Leaf blends, this blend is a very simple tea, too. It has only 3 ingredients – red rooibos tea base, mallow blossoms and flavouring. With its pretty purplish-blue colour, blue mallow blossoms blend in perfectly.

Red rooibos is made from South African shrub Aspalathus linearis. It was first introduced for its potential health benefits, but later it became one of the most important ingredients for making herbal, caffeine free blends. Red rooibos is a perfect alternative to black tea. Although it doesn’t have the same flavour as black tea (it’s naturally slightly sweet and earthy), just like black tea, it’s strong enough for making tea lattes, iced teas and tea syrups. Blueberry Muffin smells delicious. In fact, it does smell like a fresh batch of blueberry muffins – soft and buttery with a touch of vanilla and zestiness.

How to brew this tea?

We brewed this tea following instructions on the packaging with 2 teaspoons of tea leaves per cup of water for 5 minutes at 100 degrees Celsius. Brewed tea has the same scent as dry leaves, only softer and gentler, with a pretty red colour. The flavour is light and soft too, with light buttery and light earthy rooibos note. Although the flavour isn’t overpowering, and this tea is an unmistakeably red rooibos blend, it has just enough of a buttery flavour and, interestingly, a long blueberry muffin aftertaste. Rooibos tea will never be bitter (unless it contains bitter ingredients such as lemon peel), so don’t be afraid to brew it longer or use more tea leaves. This tea would be perfect for making iced teas or hot tea lattes. For making an iced tea, try steeping it with some fresh crushed blueberries.

This tea doesn’t contain any sugar. Since red rooibos is naturally slightly sweet, unless you prefer drinking really sweet teas, you don’t need to add any condiments. It’s great pure, but it will go well with some honey or brown sugar too. Blueberry Muffin is a calorie-free liquid dessert that would be great for tea drinkers who like rooibos tea but want to enjoy something unique and prefer caramel, buttery and vanilla teas. It would make for a great daily tea too.

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What is Rooibos Aloe and Honeydew tea?

Rooibos Aloe & Honeydew is a red rooibos blend with red rooibos as a base, liquorice root, pineapple cubes, melissa, candied aloe vera, honeydew melon cubes and some flavouring. It’s not so often you see aloe vera and melon in a tea blend, so we were really excited about this one.

This tea smells delicious. It’s exactly what you would expect from a honeydew tea (not that there are many out there), with a deeper red rooibos base note. It’s difficult to talk about aloe, as aloe is quite neutral.

Aloe is popular for its soothing properties, especially when applied topically on sunburnt skin and wounds (Source: Natural Medicine Journal), and it’s also available as a supplement (Source: NCBI).

This tea contains honeydew melon cubes too, which is also not a common ingredient in tea blends. Just looking at the ingredients, we expected a lot from this one – unique flavour, freshness, and enough natural sweetness because of the liquorice. Liquorice is a popular ingredient for sweetening tea without adding calories but does have some bad reputation. It’s not recommended for people with high blood pressure or heart and kidney problems, but likely only in high amounts (Source: NIH).

How to brew this blend

We brewed this tea using a teaspoon of leaves per cup of water (150 ml) at 100 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes. And tasty it was! This blend really is all about honeydew in every sense. It tastes like a real honeydew; it smells like a honeydew and it’s naturally sweet. You have to take a real deep sniff to feel the rooibos, even though it’s a main ingredient of this blend.

This tea tastes great hot, and cold, but we preferred it iced. Even though it’s light, you can use only one teaspoon of tea leaves for making an iced tea and it will still be strong enough, and sweet enough even without a sweetener. Honeydew really shines through, and when served cold, it has an incredible lightness and freshness too. If you are worried about all that extra sugar, don’t be. Nothing But Tea states the amount of sugar and calories per 100 ml, which is truly negligible – 0.3 grams of sugar per 100 ml and 4 kcal.

You can re-steep the same leaves one more time. Liquorice will be stronger in the second infusion, especially if you steep it longer.

This is a caffeine-free tea, so it’s great for any time of the day. Who might like this tea? Tea drinkers who usually drink fruity rooibos teas, tropical green tea and like honeydew melon flavour.

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