Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Ginseng’

Inspection of dried leaf shows tiny bits of ginseng, berries, rosehips, peppermint, and dandelion. Steeping instructions are to steep the tea for 5 minutes in 8oz. of boiling water. Dried leaf smells of ginseng and steeped infusion was a dark brownish-yellow colour with more of a dandelion aroma.

There is a bit of a tang when you first put it in your mouth. I think on account of the berries, rosehips, and peppermint. Then comes the ginseng and dandelion giving a bit of a lemongrass taste, with the mintyness always in the background, and finally a lingering sweetness. I’m not too fond of the sweet and cool feeling left on my tongue after I sip it. I did not like the fruity sweetness aftertaste coupled with the ginseng and out of place peppermint. The peppermint and dandelion seems to interrupt and the ginseng does not go too well with the sweetness.

Just too much going on here. I could not finish my cup. It does have the detox factor going for it. A detox tea can increase your health, energy, and sense of well-being. It does this by removing toxins and contaminants from your body. But then again, I’d probably choose a different detox to drink. Last week’s Hampstead Ginger Green Detox, although not great, is better than this one. I prefer the grassy mellower flavour to this sweet mash-up of numerous strongly flavoured tea components.

You can purchase the White Ginseng Detox directly from the Rishi Tea website.

Celestial Seasoning’s Honey Lemon Ginseng is fantabulous! Aroma is a soft lemon; it does not smell too sour nor too sweet. Whenever I see the combination of honey and lemon, I think of it as the perfect concoction for cold and flus. Now add ginseng to the mix and you definitely give a boost to your immune system. I am partial to ginseng so of course I had to choose this tea. There is an old Chinese proverb that says if you ask 2 men to walk around the world non-stop, the one who looks untired and refreshed at the end of the journey would have a piece of ginseng hidden under his tongue. This once again referring to ginseng’s many health benefits.

A tip for preparing teas: try ripping open the teabags, pouring contents directly into the teapot and steeping from there. This little step will add more flavour to your cup of tea. You can use a strainer to keep leaves and dregs from entering into your cup of tea. I did just that with this tea, pouring 5 grams into my ceramic teapot and steeping with 600 ml of boiling water for 3 minutes.

The taste is not too lemony and although I could not smell the ginseng in the aroma, I could definitely taste it. It has that familiar characteristic I get from many hui gan teas but without the bitterness. I am referring to the sort of “coated” mouthfeel you get like when you drink milk. Having that “coated” mouthfeel makes it less of a thirst quencher. As a matter of fact, it leaves a dry feeling in your mouth, but then again thirst quenching hot teas are a little hard to come by. There is an initial refreshing quality right when you put it in your mouth, then comes the “coatedness” and dry mouthfeel at the middle and back of the tongue and lastly a hint of sweetness and cool sensation felt from the honey and pressing the front of the tongue to the front centre of the roof of the mouth. It seems that when I drank the tea using loose leaf steeping methodology, the taste of the three components were manifested more in layers – one taste, then the next and so on, whereas when I drank it from the teabag, the taste was more blended, that is, no single element came to the forefront, every sip had nuances of all three elements. The elements are certainly easier to identify using the loose leaf methodology. I tend to rip open the teabag and steep the leaves loose whenever I have teabags, but not many people do this as it is messy (because most contain dust or fannings) and more inconvenient. But you should give it a try; the teabag keeps the character, quality, goodness, and flavour of the leaves all contained; cutting it open makes for a better cup.

A notable tea that I will not soon forget. Now I just need to find it in my supermarket!

You can purchase the Honey Lemon Ginseng Green Tea directly from the Celestial Seasonings website.

If anyone’s been following my reviews, they would have noticed a pattern by now. I tend to review teas with any or all of the following ingredients: lemon, ginger, and ginseng. Not to deviate from that trend, this review will be on Special Tea Brew’s Lemon Ginger Snap. Dry leaf is made up of Chinese green tea, lemongrass, lemon myrtle, and ginger. Upon opening up the package, the aroma was a piercing ginger smell. Ginger was the only ingredient I could smell. I steeped 5g in 600ml of hot water for 3 minutes. The aroma coming off the steeped liquor was now more lemony than ginger. Funny that the ingredient that is dominant for a chosen characteristic does not show up as the predominant ingredient in other characteristics. For example, although the dominant ingredient in the aroma is lemon, the taste is predominantly ginger. It was like a lemony swamp, like lemon mixed with muddy grass. It did not smell very appetizing. As for the taste, you are wham smacked in the face with ginger at every sip. It is very overwhelming. Then after you swallow, you can taste the lemongrass and lemon myrtle which in this combination makes it taste dirty. It certainly is more herb than tea. Ginger swamp are the words I would use to describe this tea.

However, having said that, I am glad I gave this tea a second chance by tasting it cold. It tasted much better, not like you’ve just had a face plant in a muddy soccer field of prior, but a subdued bitterness with a much more tolerable level of ginger taste. It is much more drinkable this way I found.

You can purchase the Lemon Ginger Snap directly from the SpecialTea Brew website.

As much as I love discovering new teas from lesser known companies, it’s nice to have a company that I’m know will not disappoint. This blend however, isn’t one that I would think of when I thought of Rishi. Just when I thought I knew the company they surprise me with this one! It look and smells delicious and the list of ingredients is certainly enticing. The strongest scent I’m getting is that of orange and cinnamon, also smells like berries to me though there aren’t any listed in the blend.

Steeped it per the website recommendations and waited a couple of minutes to let it cool. The tea has turned a light red color and the and the scent of apple has become more pronounced. The taste is sweet and tangy and a lot heavier than I expected, it’s really satisfying and the scent alone has given me a boost. Have to say that I do feel ‘recharged’ even with just one cup in my system. Thinking this would be better suited as an afternoon pick-me-up rather than a bedtime herbal.

You can purchase the Red Ginseng Recharge directly from the Rishi Tea website.

Not too long ago I tried this tea for the very first time.  Fruity Herbal Tisanes I can usually take or leave but this one was quite good and I would certainly have it again!  Right away I could smell floral ingredients along with hibiscus and fruit!  Hibiscus usually scares me but Byron Bay did it right in this tea!  It’s an interesting gray-ish/brown color with pink hues.  This is different and actually pretty darn good!  I’m going to try this iced at some point but for now I am going to say proudly that I am a fan of this one!

You can purchase the Energy Tea directly from the Byron Bay Tea Company website.