Today, I am very excited to announce a new tea brand is being featured on the Immortal Wordsmith blog. Giles at Two Spoons Tea, an awesome British brand, agreed to send me a range of samples to review and I’ve selected rooibos as the first. A good rooibos tea can be the perfect accompaniment to a rainy autumnal day!
In this review, you’ll find my thoughts on the flavour and quality of the tea, as well as some details on its origins and the brand itself. Links to buy this tea directly from Two Spoons Tea can be found below as well.
Two Spoons Tea Rooibos at a Glance
Izzy’s Rating
- Origins: Western Cape, South Africa
- Flavour: Malty, smooth tea with a light body and slight nuttiness
This tea is gorgeous. The quality of the rooibos is superb and the tea it produces is deliciously smooth and malty with good tannin notes – none of the medicinal flavour you get from certain supermarket brands.
Full Review – Red Rooibos Tea
- Type: Tagged biodegradable tea sachet (square “pillow”)
- Tea: Rooibos
- Origins: Western Cape, South Africa
- Flavour Notes: Malt, tannins, smooth, nuts
- Aroma: Nuts, caramel, fresh-cut wood
- Milk or Lemon: Neither
- Where to Buy: Two Spoons Tea
Two Spoons Tea very kindly sent me two sachets to review. Unlike most brands, which send you a pyramid-shaped sachet, Two Spoons Tea uses “pillows” which are square-shaped instead! They’re commercially biodegradable, so you can chuck them straight in the food waste bin once you’ve finished brewing.
The aroma of the rooibos has more depth than I’m used to. Even my highest-rated rooibos (part of Teapro’s Rooibos Tea Box) can’t match this one. There’s the usual subtly nutty aroma of the rooibos leaves with hints of caramel and freshly chopped wood. It’s subtle, sweet and smooth.
It brews into a bright sienna red-brown shade that just glows in the sunlight – my amateur photography really can’t do it justice. The aroma mellows a little, giving you more of a classic nutty rooibos scent sans caramel and wood.
And now, the important bit. Flavour. Two Spoons Tea Rooibos does not disappoint. It’s malty with strong tannins but a light body. This gives it a wonderful balance between satisfyingly rich and teasingly bright. There is a slight medicinal tone, which is hard to avoid in rooibos tea, but it’s not at all overpowering.
With a thin yet smooth mouthfeel, this tea is fantastic from the first sip to the last. The only way it could score higher is if that slight hint of caramel in the aroma lingered on once the tea was brewed.
How to Brew Rooibos Tea Pillows
Without instructions from Two Spoons Tea, I began with a 3-minute brew in freshly boiled water (about 200ml for this size cup). If you are brewing a larger mug of tea, let it steep for 4 or 5 minutes instead.
I loved how bright this tea was, but if you’d like some extra sweetness then opt for honey over sugar. The warmer tones of honey will pair so much better with the nuttiness of rooibos.
As this is a caffeine-free cuppa, you can comfortably sip it late into the evening. Don’t let the tannin notes fool you – while they may taste similar to black tea, rooibos is an herbal infusion.
Why Try Two Spoons Tea?
I’d been following Two Spoons Tea for quite some time before I reached out on Instagram to see if they’d like any of their teas reviewed here on the IW blog. This is a British tea brand, based in Buckinghamshire and run by Giles Oakley (Big Spoon) and Mark Lawson (Little Spoon). They’re passionate about great tea and great stories – they’ve got both on their website!
The rooibos tea is sourced from Western Cape, South Africa. I always love to know exactly where my tea comes from and this is one of the huge advantages of buying from a smaller company instead of the supermarket shelves. Another advantage is the quality. If you look at the photo I’ve taken of the rooibos tea inside the pillow sachet, you’ll see that the needle-like rooibos leaves are longer and fuller than the dusty particles you find in most tea bags. I believe this is how Two Spoons Tea can deliver a smoother, more complex rooibos without the medicinal quality. Generally, the larger and more complete the tea leaves you brew, the harder it is to ‘over brew’ and pull out bitter or too intense notes.
The pillow sachet itself is very spacious and gives plenty of room for water to circulate the 2.5g of rooibos (which is pretty generous too) and enable an even, smooth brew. Of course, all the packaging you see in my photos is biodegradable and I’m happy to report that there was no plastic wrapping used to send it through the mail either.
Summary
Ultimately, Two Spoons Tea Rooibos is a very simple yet perfectly executed rooibos infusion. There are no additional flavourings and the rooibos leaves are of excellent quality to my eye. If you like rooibos tea as a caffeine-free alternative to black tea or just a soothing evening drink, then I strongly recommend you check out Two Spoons Tea.
Tea Recommendation
Another caffeine-free tea that I’m thoroughly enjoying this rainy and windy autumn is Aduna Cinnamon Spiced Cacao Tea. If you’ve never had cacao in a tea before, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Like rooibos, it has a lovely richness while maintaining a light and smooth body.