As promised, a green tea follow-up to last weekend's post on scented rooibos teas. This will be our last post until Wednesday. If you're celebrating Christmas, have a perfect holiday and I hope Santa is very good to you. If you're not celebrating Christmas, enjoy the temporary respite from rampant commercialism.

As I said last week, I drink a lot of green tea. Most of the green teas I buy are unscented/unflavored, but I do have a cup of jasmine tea every day, and floral-scented or fruity teas are nice to have around in the afternoon. Here are a few favorites…

Read the rest of this article »

I have a number of addictions. Perfume comes first (of course); tea is probably a close second. I drink green tea all day long, sometimes as many as 8-9 cups. I taper off the green tea around 5 or 6 pm and switch to various herbal blends. Rooibos tea (pronounced “ROY-bus”, aka red bush tea) is one of my favorite evening teas.

Rooibos is available in a green (un-oxidized) form, but is more usually sold oxidized, and the color of the leaves (and the steeped product) is a deep reddish-brown. It's caffeine-free and rich in antioxidants; more importantly, it tastes good. Wikipedia describes the taste as sweet and slightly nutty, I would describe it as smooth and woody, almost bark-like. You can drink it plain, but it blends beautifully with all sorts of fruits, flowers and spices, and perfume fans who love getting samples in the mail will be happy to hear that many tea merchants have sampling programs. Here are a few scented varieties of rooibos worth trying…

Read the rest of this article »