Rooibos

Last fall while in Spain, my friend Kayleigh and I frequented a small store called Tea Shop. It is a chain and it is fabulous. They are similar to Teavana in the States selling tea and accessories and offering free samples. Behold how good and pleasant it is to offer poor college students free samples of delicious teas.
Tea Shop sold only loose-leaf teas. (Ah, delightful!) And for Christmas, they made special teas with cinnamon and orange peel and vanilla and deliciousness. This came in four varieties: black, white, green, and red. Red? Huh? What is this red tea of which you speak?
That was basically my reaction to it. Well, Kayleigh told me that it was rooibos.
Ah! said I. Then a puzzled look overtook my face. What's rooibos?

Rooibos is: " a member of the legume family of plants. The rooibos shrub can grow up to 2 meter in height. The erects red coloured rooibos stems contain many dark green needle shaped leaves. The rooibos shrub produces small yellow flowers in spring through early summer. Each flower produces a one seeded small bean. Roobos has a long tap root, sometimes up to 2 m in length, enabling the plant to survive periods of drought." And it is from South Africa and can only be grown there. (Source)

So I bought some cinnamon Rooibos tea from Arbor Teas recently. And it smelled like wood-chips. No me gusta. I brewed a cup but made it too strong and didn't like it.
Then I made another cup today. But I didn't fill my tea ball as full and I didn't let it steep as long.
Now, I recommend it.
I also recommend cinnamon black tea from Arbor Teas. And the chamomile tea I was drinking while blogging the other night, that's also delicious.

Basically: drink more tea.