Red Espresso

Growing up in a multi-ethnic household that includes parts of Asia, the one thing we always had on supply in the household was tea. It’s something that I’ve carried with me into adulthood. At any given time, you can open a cupboard in the kitchen and there will be at least a dozen types available. And that’s not including the contents of a small tea chest on the counter top.

I prefer loose leaf tea, partly because of the waste factor of tea bags. However, I’ve yet to find the perfect diffuser—one that doesn’t allow loose leaves to escape but it also easy to clean—especially when it comes to the finer types of tea like mate or rooibos. (If you’ve found one, please do your your tea aficionado duty and let me know where in the comments.)

Photo credit: CoffeeGeek from Flickr

Photo credit: CoffeeGeek from Flickr

On a recent trip to Toronto, I was very excited to try a red espresso latte (made from red rooibos) which I’d heard about from being a tea geek. I was instantly hooked.

Shortly after tweeting about my new found warm beverage love, the kind people at red espresso sent me a sample of their product.

If you’ve had rooibos tea before you’ll know that it’s kind of messy. Not so when you make an espresso. It’s exactly the same process as making the coffee version and the “grinds” simply get compressed into an easy to clean block. It’s great on its own but my favourite way of drinking it is still in latte form.

With lots of people cutting back on or quitting coffee, red espresso is a great alternative. It’s also a nice change for tea drinkers to get the experience of an espresso without the caffeine. That’s right. There’s no caffeine. Additionally, it’s high in antioxidants and I find that no sweetener is required (unless you want to use a dab of honey). Unfortunately, there’s only one café in the city that serves red espresso. The Wired Monk gets extra points for that distinction.

Personally, I’m looking forward to concocting a red espresso eggnog latte for the holidays. Maybe that sounds better in theory than it will in practice but I’m willing to bank on it being pretty yummy.

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Am I getting old? Is it just me?

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