Tick Tock Original Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 90g
The complaint people make about caffeine-free boxes is that they are scented water. Redbush is the answer to that. It has real substance, woody and faintly sweet with nothing added to make it so, and a mug of it fills the same space in an afternoon that a proper cup does instead of sitting alongside as a consolation. It is naturally caffeine-free: the plant is not tea and never had any caffeine in it to take out, which is a different proposition from a decaffeinated box and the one that matters to anyone avoiding caffeine outright rather than cutting down. Tick Tock makes rooibos and very little else, and this plain box is where that specialism shows least dramatically and most honestly, with nothing laid over the top of it to make it interesting. Where it will not satisfy is briskness. There is no bite anywhere in the cup, so if what you want is the edge of a strong builder's brew, no amount of anything will produce it here.
Tick Tock Original Rooibos, in brief.
Tick Tock Original Rooibos is plain redbush in forty bags from a brand that makes nothing else, picked into the Teas.co.uk curator selection as the unflavoured benchmark against which the vanilla and earl grey rooibos versions should be judged.
Naturally caffeine-free rather than decaffeinated, so nothing has been stripped out of it. Brew it five to seven minutes in water straight off the boil and squeeze the bag: there is almost no tannin in rooibos, so it cannot turn bitter however long you leave it.
Tick Tock Original Rooibos is plain redbush in forty bags, from a brand whose whole range is rooibos rather than a tea company with rooibos as one line among fifty. Rooibos is not tea at all in the botanical sense: it is a shrub, Aspalathus linearis, and it grows commercially in only one corner of South Africa's Western Cape. The needles are cut, bruised, left to oxidise until they turn the deep rust colour the name describes, and dried.
What that gets you in the mug is the thing rooibos is genuinely useful for: a drink that looks and behaves like tea, takes milk perfectly well, and contains no caffeine at all. It is not a compromise decaf, because nothing has been removed from it, and it does not have the thin, hollow quality that decaffeinated black tea sometimes has. It is simply a different plant that happens to make a very good hot drink at nine in the evening.
Curator notes: the tasting profile is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description. We run same-day UK dispatch on every order placed before 2pm Monday to Friday. Common questions are answered in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Tick Tock
Tick Tock is a redbush specialist. The whole range is rooibos in one form or another, which is unusual on a British shelf, where rooibos is normally a single line tucked into a large tea company's catalogue.
Rooibos arrived in Britain largely as an answer to a question about caffeine, and it is still mostly bought for that reason. But the more interesting property is what happens when you leave it. A black tea left to stand turns tannic and bitter, which is why every packet tells you to remove the bag. Rooibos has almost no tannin, so it keeps getting stronger and sweeter and never turns. You can forget it on the side for ten minutes and come back to a better cup, which is not true of anything else on the shelf.
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
What You Are Actually Buying
- Forty bags, 90 grams: 40 cups, one bag each, at about 2.25 grams a bag. That is the pack's own count rather than any arithmetic of ours.
- Naturally caffeine-free: not decaffeinated. Nothing has been stripped out, because there was nothing there to strip. This is the practical difference between rooibos and a decaf black tea.
- Plain, not flavoured: the original rather than a vanilla, earl grey or fruit version. If you have only met flavoured rooibos, this is the one that tells you whether you like the plant.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100 degrees Celsius, freshly boiled.
- Steep: five to seven minutes, and longer if you forget it.
- Milk: works well and rooibos takes it better than most herbals, because there is body underneath. A splash brings out the vanilla edge.
- Sugar: rarely needed. Rooibos is naturally sweet, and that is the main thing people notice on first trying it.
- Storage: sealed, cool, dark and dry. It keeps well, and it is far less fragile than an aromatic black tea.
- Resteeping: a second steep gives a pale cup. Not worth it when a longer first steep gives you everything anyway.
- Best with: evenings, after dinner, with children's bedtime routines, and any time you want a hot drink without the caffeine.
Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Tick Tock Original Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 90g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Tick Tock
Packaging: Follow the current UK pack and local-authority guidance; components can require different disposal routes.
Our commitment to the planet
Sourcing and packaging details are printed on the current UK pack; the brand page carries the fuller story.
The taste profile
How does it compare
Rooibos is the most forgiving thing in the cupboard, and almost every instruction that applies to tea can be thrown out. It wants full boiling water and a long steep, and it will not punish you for either. The only real mistake is treating it like black tea and pulling the bag at three minutes, which gives you a pale, thin cup and a poor impression of the whole category.
The Mug
The Pot
Made with this tea
The Evening Mug
How to make The Evening Mug with Tick Tock Original Rooibos.
- 1 Tick Tock Original Rooibos bag
- 250ml water at a rolling boil
- A splash of milk, optional
- Pour 250ml straight off the boil onto the bag.
- Leave it five to seven minutes, and do not worry if it is longer.
- Squeeze the bag as you take it out, which with rooibos is correct rather than a mistake.
- Check the colour: deep rust red is right, orange needs more time. Add milk if you want it.
What you'll end up with: A naturally sweet, soft, caffeine-free mug with real body. The only way to get this wrong is to treat it like black tea and pull the bag at three minutes.
The Forgotten Pot
How to make The Forgotten Pot with Tick Tock Original Rooibos.
- 5 Tick Tock Original Rooibos bags
- 1 litre water at a rolling boil
- A pot with a lid
- Add four bags for the cups and a fifth for the pot; over-dosing rooibos carries no penalty.
- Pour on a litre of boiling water and put the lid on.
- Leave the bags in and forget about it for as long as you like.
- Pour as you go; the last cup will be stronger and sweeter than the first rather than bitter.
What you'll end up with: The trick no black tea can do. A pot of rooibos on the side of the table is still good an hour later, which makes it the right drink for a long evening.
Iced Rooibos with Orange
How to make Iced Rooibos with Orange with Tick Tock Original Rooibos.
- 5 Tick Tock Original Rooibos bags
- 600ml boiling water
- 1 orange, sliced
- Plenty of ice
- Honey to taste, optional
- Brew five bags in 600ml of boiling water for ten minutes to make a strong concentrate.
- Squeeze the bags out and sweeten while hot if you want to.
- Cool, then top up to a litre with cold water and add the orange slices.
- Chill and serve over a full glass of ice.
What you'll end up with: Iced rooibos does not go cloudy or bitter on standing, which iced black tea does within hours. A jug of this keeps in the fridge for two days.
Spiced Rooibos Latte
How to make a Spiced Rooibos Latte with Tick Tock Original Rooibos.
- 2 Tick Tock Original Rooibos bags
- 120ml boiling water
- 200ml milk or oat milk
- A small piece of cinnamon, 2 cardamom pods
- Honey to taste
- Steep two bags and the spices in 120ml of boiling water for eight minutes to make a concentrated, spiced base.
- Squeeze the bags, strain out the spices and sweeten lightly.
- Heat and froth the milk.
- Pour the milk over the base and dust with cinnamon.
What you'll end up with: A caffeine-free chai in everything but name. The long steep is what makes it strong enough to read through milk, and rooibos is one of the few bases that will take that treatment.
Rooibos-Poached Pears
How to make Rooibos-Poached Pears with Tick Tock Original Rooibos.
- 4 Tick Tock Original Rooibos bags
- 800ml water
- 4 firm pears, peeled
- 120g caster sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick, 3 cloves
- A strip of orange peel
- Simmer the water, sugar, spices, orange peel and tea bags together for ten minutes.
- Lift the bags out, squeezing them, and keep the liquid at a bare simmer.
- Poach the peeled pears for twenty to twenty-five minutes, until a knife slides in easily.
- Reduce the remaining liquid to a syrup and spoon it over the pears.
What you'll end up with: Rooibos is the right tea for poaching because the colour is deep and the tannin is absent, so the fruit takes on a rust-red blush without any of the harshness black tea would give it.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Rooibos (redbush) | the whole of it; the declaration is printed on the current box | Everything in the cup: the deep rust colour, the natural sweetness, the soft body and the woody, faintly vanilla-ish note. |
| Tannin | almost none, inherent to the plant | Why it cannot turn bitter, why you can squeeze the bag, and why a forgotten mug is a better mug rather than a ruined one. |
| Caffeine | none; naturally absent rather than removed | The reason most people buy it. Nothing has been stripped out, so there is none of the hollowness a decaf black tea can have. |
| Pack | 40 tea bags, 90 grams | One bag a cup, 40 cups a box, at about 2.25 grams a bag. The pack's own count rather than any arithmetic of ours. |
Pack: Tick Tock Original Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 90g; plain unflavoured redbush, naturally caffeine-free. Store sealed, cool, dark and dry. Read the ingredient list, the allergen advice and the best-before date off the current UK box.
Components shown are those we can state honestly from the product name, the pack weight and the bag count.
Sourcing & blend. Tick Tock Original Rooibos comes from Tick Tock, a brand whose entire range is redbush rather than a general tea company with rooibos as one line. That focus is the brand's own argument and not a statement about where this box was packed. The tasting profile below is our own editorial assessment against the current pack format and the brand's published description.
What's in Tick Tock Original Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 90g, and what isn't:
- In: plain rooibos, 40 bags at 90 grams, with the full declaration printed on the box.
- No caffeine: naturally absent from the plant rather than removed by a process, so this is not a decaf.
- No flavouring, fruit or petals: the original rather than a vanilla, earl grey or fruit version.
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Source: Teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Tick Tock Original Rooibos, 40 Tea Bags 90g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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