Happiness

Tea: Happiness - 8508
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $6.50 / 50g
Vendor Description: Blend of green tea and green rooibos flavored with fresh fruits and flower petals. Refreshing and graceful. "Happiness" is a perfect tea for celebratory occasions with its elegant flower petals.

This tea has probably the most ambiguous name of all teas. When I first opened the sample pack for this tea, I didn't know what to expect. This tea brings a new meaning to the label of being a blend. It is a combination of green tea with green rooibos. Not only that, but to add to this mix there are a number of different flower petals. When I first poured the pouch out I really didn't know what was in there, there was so many constituents.

The blend of rooibos, tea, and flowers gave off a rather strong floral scent. At first I thought that the mixture had the scent of a pear. The aroma was a bit muddled amidst all of the different scents though.

The liquor gave off a strong floral aroma as well, very similar to the dry leaf. This was one of my first times brewing loose rooibos so I had a bit of a difficult time pouring it from my gaiwan. The green rooibos and the green tea did not mix particularly well. The two tastes are easily distinguished from one to another, although it is easy to tell them apart, they don't clash with one another. The rooibos has a very quick and strong flavor on the front end, while the green tea develops over time and tapers off. The tea doesn't really reach its peak until after the rooibos flavor tapers off. Combined the two flavors gave off a very fresh green flavor. The two flavors ended with a high sense of astringency that you find after the long tapering flavor of the tea portion of the flavor.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: This tea/tisane is very unusual. I haven't tried anything like it before, but I can't say that its uniqueness is that much of a good thing though. It's a tasty tea, although I don't know if it is something I would want to keep around. If you like rooibos and flavored teas this might be good for you.