Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos

Description

Luxury Ingredients: Rooibos, Almond pieces, Calendula petals, and Natural flavors.
Ingredients From: South Africa
Region(s): Cederberg
Shipping Port(s): Cape Town
Grade(s): Choice Grade #1
Growing Altitudes: 1500 – 2500 feet above sea level
Manufacture Type(s): Rooibos : Traditional process, Rolled and fermented.
Infusion: Reddish orange to full color (depends on brewing time and quantity used)
Antioxidant / Caffeine Level: Medium / Caffeine Free herb

Is there any other street in the United States that conjures up as many exotic images as does Bourbon Street in the heart of New Orleans’ French Quarter? From Voodoo to Jazz and Burlesque to Mardi Gras, Bourbon is the street where anything can, and does, happen. (Don’t believe it? Pick up a copy of A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole – considered by some to be the most accurate depiction of the French Quarter ever written. And it’s hilarious!) Or if you prefer, take a trip to New Orleans and experience the street for yourself.

It was during one such visit that our Master Taster came up with the idea for this blend. While perusing the shops of the French Quarter one evening, he caught a whiff of toasty Vanilla drifting from an alley. The smell was so hypnotizing he felt compelled to follow it and soon discovered that it was coming from a small makeshift voodoo shrine someone had constructed. He decided to capture the enticing character he had experienced and blend it with pure, caffeine free, South African Rooibos to reflect the African roots of the voodoo he had stumbled across. The result is an exceptionally smooth herbal tea with mysterious character and subtle notes of fresh vanilla. Enjoy a cup today. (Or we’ll turn you into a goat!)

Hot tea brewing method: Bring filtered or freshly drawn cold water to a rolling boil. Place 1 slightly heaping teaspoon of loose rooibos, 1 tea bag or 1 Q3 portion pack for each 7-9oz/200-260ml of fluid volume in the teapot. Pour the boiling water into the teapot. Cover and let steep for 3-7 minutes according to taste (the longer the steeping time the stronger the brew). Add sugar and milk to taste.

Iced tea brewing method (Pitcher): (to make 1 liter/quart): Place 6 slightly heaping teaspoons of loose rooibos, 6 tea bags or 6 Q3 single serve packets into a teapot or heat resistant pitcher. Using filtered or freshly drawn cold water, boil and pour 1¼ cups/315ml over the rooibos. Steep for 5 minutes. Quarter fill a serving pitcher with cold water. Pour the brewed rooibos into your serving pitcher straining the rooibos or removing the bags. Add ice and top-up the pitcher with cold water. Garnish and sweeten to taste. A rule of thumb when preparing fresh brewed iced rooibos is to increase the strength of the hot rooibos brew since it will be poured over ice and diluted with cold water.

Iced tea brewing method (Individual Serving): Place 1 slightly heaping teaspoon of loose rooibos, 1 tea bag or 1 Q3 portion pack into a teapot for each serving required. Using filtered or freshly drawn cold water, boil and pour 6-7oz/170-200ml per serving over the rooibos. Cover and let steep for 5 minutes. Add hot rooibos herbal tea to a 12oz/375ml acrylic glass filled with ice, straining the rooibos or removing the bags. Not all of the tea will fit, allowing for approximately an additional ½ serving. Sweeten and/or add lemon to taste. A rule of thumb when preparing fresh brewed iced rooibos is to increase the strength of hot rooibos since it will be poured over ice and diluted.

ANTIOXIDANT BENEFIT: More antioxidants are extracted from tea (L. Camellia Sinesis), or rooibos (Asphalatus Linearis), the longer it is brewed….and the more tea or rooibos that is used, the greater the antioxidant benefit.

Ideal Brewing Temperature: 100ºC/212ºF. Minimum Brewing Temperature: 90ºC/194ºF.