Rooibos

Almost no tannin to bind, so milk turns it into a dessert rather than a tea.

The bush already throws honeyed aldehydes. The jar only raises the volume.

Rooibos carries real guaiacol and vanillin. The pod confirms a rumour.

It arrives half sweet already, so a little goes further than in any black tea.

Warm bark against woody sweetness; nothing bitter in the cup to get in the way.

Fat and sugar hold the dusty note down where it reads as caramel instead of hay.

Peel oil supplies the top note this tea has never had. It is all base.

Dried-fruit lactone on both sides. Poach the fruit and the tea disappears into it.

Two things that taste of concentrated sun. No acid anywhere, which is the risk.

Cocoa supplies the bitterness the tea refuses to bring to its own party.

Smoke over the spent leaves; the sweetness lands on the fat instead of the meat.

Earth on earth, but the tea is sweet enough to keep the root from going flat.

Barrel vanillin and bush vanillin are the same molecule from two continents.

Toasted milk solids and dusty hay share the same nutty furanone. Infuse it warm.