# Rooibos Tea, AKA Red Espresso



## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

With today's delivery from Cream Supplies came a leaflet explaining Red Expresso.

http://www.redespresso.com/

I'm fairly new to this game, so I'm wondering whether anyone has tried making it with their espresso machine, and what the results were like. I realise it's not strictly coffee but as it's being targeted at the same market I'm very curious.


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## RolandG (Jul 25, 2010)

Not me - although I've tried tea espresso (black tea) in North Tea Power (Manchester). Very different, not really to my taste, but I can see how others might enjoy


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## love-coffee (Apr 26, 2011)

Seems a daft idea to me.

Tea is tea coffee is coffee and Rooibos is a herbal infusion, which for me is best avoided in any form.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Fair enough. I hope to try it at Caffe Culture. Seems to me there's a growing market for tea-based lattes, chai etc. I guess it's a cafe thing rather than a coffee thing, and this forum's more about the latter.


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## Howard (Sep 28, 2010)

Had a sample bag of this recently. Made some according to the instruction on the pack and got a fairly 'weak' (hate that term) beverage. Tried updosing to around 17g and remembered reading somewhere about running the pump for a second then switching it off to give a bigger pre-infusion effect (please don'tdo this with coffee!) and got a really interesting drink that could only be described as 'tea espresso'. Just for a laugh, made a 'tea cappuccino' - revelation! Please don't judge me on this, but I really liked it! Definitely going to get another bag at some point to try on customers.


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## CoffeeClassics (Apr 19, 2011)

That sounds really interesting, I too will have to check it out at Caffe Culture


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## AndyL (Apr 10, 2011)

I have tried Rooibos and honestly I thought it was horrid, I knew I was going to hate it as soon as I smelt it. To be honest though I like tea to be tea and coffee to be coffee as I think was said above. The only other drink I make on my coffee machine is hot chocolates, lots of them! They're for my wife who is pregnant with twins and she really can't get enough of them.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

I found a bag of ordinary rooibos and rasberry leaves at the back of a cupboard and even though the grind was clearly too big I tried them in the portafilter last week. Tasted crap and made a total mess







But I'm still going to try the proper product.


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## CoffeeClassics (Apr 19, 2011)

Permission to be a girl and say Congrats on the twins AndyL, hope all goes well (I personally perfer babies to coffee!!) Check out NCT for support through pregnancy, birth and into parenthood (I'm a volunteer for them)


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## AndyL (Apr 10, 2011)

CoffeeClassics said:


> Permission to be a girl and say Congrats on the twins AndyL, hope all goes well (I personally perfer babies to coffee!!) Check out NCT for support through pregnancy, birth and into parenthood (I'm a volunteer for them)


Permission granted. thanks for your kind words and I will certainly check out NCT.

Andy

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Cool! Congrats.


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## CoffeeClassics (Apr 19, 2011)

In case you are interested folks, I did try it at Caffe Culture - thought it looked fab, amazing crema, but it tasted grim, couldn't drink it. Ended up walking round with it for ages trying to find somewhere to sneakily put it down!

And Andy - you are welcome 

Clare

http://www.coffeeclassicsdirect.co.uk


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Turned out the stand at CC2011 wasn't the Red Espresso brand, it was a competitor. Their USP was that it was in a pod. Tasted poo. Maybe it was the same one you tried, Clare.

But I also tried David Rio's Chai drinks. Nice. Much better than Drink Me Chai, IMO.


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## Howard (Sep 28, 2010)

Yeah the stuff at Cafe Culture was a competitor to the 'Red Espresso' I've tried previously and it was pretty poor.

When will people realise that pods in espresso machines just don't work - not for coffee, not for tea, not anything!


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## CoffeeClassics (Apr 19, 2011)

Yes, that'll be the one I tried.

Interesting your thoughts the Chai drinks Mike, as we are looking at stocking them. Haven't got around to trying them yet, in the box of goodies I came back with under my desk still! Funnily enough all the biscuits have gone though...... 

Clare

http://www.coffeeclassicsdirect.co.uk


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Yeah, I'm looking at having hot and cold chai on our menu when we open. I tried three types, DrinkMeChai, David Rio, and Big Train. Personal preference of course, but David Rio came out tops. I'm getting samples of each sent though, so I can experiment with different recipes.

We were rubbish at getting freebies cos we were flying straight off on hols, but we got a bunch of biccies too







))

Just wondering, did any other products stand out to you as something for the future?


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## philwbass (Sep 4, 2009)

I love rooibos and drink several cups a day. I did it initially to cut down on my caffeine intake as I used to have many cups of tea and coffee a day. I drink it in addition to coffee and tea and have grown to love it. I'm fascinated to taste it as an espresso...interesting


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

philwbass said:


> I love rooibos and drink several cups a day. I did it initially to cut down on my caffeine intake as I used to have many cups of tea and coffee a day. I drink it in addition to coffee and tea and have grown to love it. I'm fascinated to taste it as an espresso...interesting


If you PM me your address I'll send you the two sample pods I got from them - I've no intention of using them.


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