For the Love of Food: Vanilla Rooibus Tea with Cacao & Mint

If you ever come to Seattle, one of the places that you absolutely have to visit is Remedy Teas on Capitol Hill. I am obsessed with this tea house. They carry over 150 organic loose leaf teas in the cafe, including white, green, oolong, black, rooibus, yerba, and a variety of herbal teas. If you are a tea drinker, this place is pure heaven.?

One of my favorite combinations was a seasonal holiday tea they featured several years ago that tasted like chocolate peppermint candy. Let me tell you, I bought out the store. Literally. And over the next eleven months I drank it all.?

Then the following Christmas I anxiously awaited for this seasonal tea to return, but they never brought it back. Several months ago I found myself craving this tea again and I finally decided it was time to just make my own combination. So I did. ?

Rooibus is a sweet, caffeine-free tea from South Africa. I love drinking it as an afternoon treat and this combination is perfect with a little almond milk and stevia. ?

I was pleasantly surprised by how cost effective it is to make my own loose leaf blend by purchasing the ingredients separately and then mixing them together. A small tin of this blend can usually run around $15, but I found that purchasing the ingredients in bulk and making this myself cut the cost to a little less than 1/3 of the price. I found the ingredients at my local health foods store, but I also provided links below to order online if your store does not have a bulk section or does not carry these items. Since vanilla beans are quite pricey, I kept mine whole and added it to the tea blend to help infuse the tea with vanilla flavor. Storing the tea in a?tea tin?kept the vanilla bean fresh enough that it still has plenty of flavor to reuse in future batches of tea.?

Vanilla Rooibus Tea with Cacao & Mint

Makes about 15 cups of tea

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Assemble the ingredients and store in a?tea tin.

The general rule of thumb when brewing loose leaf tea is 1 teaspoon of tea per cup of water, but I tend to like stronger tea so I usually add 2 - 3 teaspoons per cup of water. I am by no means a tea expert, but here are some other helpful tips I typically use for brewing rooibus tea:

• Always use fresh, cold, and preferably filtered water for boiling. (This will help your tea to taste the best.)
• The recommended temperature for making rooibus tea is 205?F, which means you can usually bring the water to a rolling boil and then steep the tea right away. (Some teas are better at a lower temperature so you have to wait a few minutes after boiling.)
• For steeping the tea, I usually opt for my trusty?Bodum teapot?or?tea filters?if I am using a travel mug on-the-go. Lately I've been using a?tea infuser,?which allows me to steep the tea directly in my mug. For some reason this has felt easier than using a teapot, but it's all personal preference.?
• Rooibus tea should steep for 3 - 5 minutes, and then the leaves should be removed. ?It's also recommended that the cup is covered during steeping, but if you use the teapot or tea infuser, this usually has a lid of its own.?
• Finally, enjoy your tea! Add some milk of your choice and your favorite sweetener (if desired) and serve hot!

Source: http://www.fortheloveoffoodblog.com/2013/03/vanilla-rooibus-tea-with-cacao-mint.html

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