Ayala Herbal Tea Rooibos Cinnamon Rose Petal

This drink plays out like first time you see a classic midnight movie as a child. It's incredible strange and weird, and when you first encounter it you're not exactly sure how you feel about it. Everything in your body tells you that it's wrong and that you should not continue along this path in your life, yet there is a little spark of interest deep down inside and if you nurture it a great love could bloom.

There were four of us gathered when this drink was opened. Each of us took a sip and we all had the same reaction of this is just not good. One of our friends proclaimed that it tasted like your grandmother doused herself in bug spray, then to cover the smell spritzed perfume all over and then forced you to lick her arm. I did not have such a strong reaction, but my tongue was not pleased. Then for some reason I took another sip, and things started to look like they weren't all that bad. My body had accepted the flavor as something unusual, but unusual doesn't equal bad. Sure the baby from Eraserhead is one of the weirdest things ever thought up/constructed and at a young age it's completely terrifying, but it's also an incredible image in cinema. I'm not saying this drink will have such a profound effect on the beverage world, but it is out of the ordinary and it has merit.

The problem was that we all went into this expecting what we universally accept as iced tea. The thing is that this bottle does not contain any traditional tea and it is an herbal infusion. Once your brain isn't expecting black, green or white tea it can begin to properly process the flavors this drink contains. The main herbal flavor in this comes from the rooibos, which is actually a legume from South Africa. It's also known as red tea, so there is a chance that you may have had it before without even realizing it. After that comes the floral taste of the rose petals. This is where the majority of the weirdness of this beverage comes from. In the western world, we're not accustomed to ingesting flowers, and while it's not a terrible thing it does take some time to become acclimated to it. Underneath it all lies a light cinnamon flavor that rounds everything out.

At first sip, I thought I wanted nothing to do with this tea, but now that I'm near the bottom, the floral taste that seemed so overpowering in the beginning seems more like an afterthought. This beverage is very interesting, and if you're looking for an adventure, pull one of these from your local grocer's shelf and then head down to the independent theatre in your town and check out whoever the new Lynch, Cronenberg and Waters are for the current generation.