Tea Reviews | It's All About The Leaf

Posts Tagged ‘Herbal tea’

So this is an interesting herbal tisane. Of course I’ve heard of a mulberry bush but I’ve never seen one and had no idea people used it for tea. A bit of research and I found that it has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years. Most notably, used in the treatment on Diabetes, sounds like it shares some of the same qualities as Stevia. This particular tisane is organically grown and processed by a small, woman-owned company in Northeastern Thailand.

The dry leaves are whole and very aromatic, they smell just like a roasted Chinese red tea. Prepared the tea using the recommendations on the Tula Teas site, rinsed leaves, “old man” boiling water, steeped for three minutes. It steeps to a nice, light green colour and the scent magically changes from that of a green to a fruity herbal. It tastes like blackberries mixed with salmon berries but with a slightly nutty after taste. Second steep brings out more of a raspberry flavour and it is sweet but not overly so (like Stevia).

Now, Tula Teas suggests icing this tisane with a bit of milk and sugar. I am interested enough to try that later, not sure about it though. I added some milk to the hot brew and it wasn’t for me. I think it is sweet enough without adding anything else.

You can purchase the Green Mulberry Leaf directly from the Tula Teas website.

As I peered into the sample bag, I was struck at the beauty of this blend. It needs to be stored in a glass container just to admire the tapestry of colors. Think miniature potpourri.

The smell of the dry leaves reminds me of spearmint gum.

7 minute brew with boiling water

Burgundy colored brew

The first sip is sweet and minty. I really enjoyed this cup of tea. Sweet, but not too sweet. The mint is nicely balanced with the other flavors.

You can purchase the PITTA BALANCE directly from the Shanti Tea website.

This tea is a dream.  But I don’t mean that in the standard “yay – happy – life is great” meaning of dream.  I mean the actually discordant random chaining of events your brain comes up with late at night, possibly after eating too much late-night pizza.  Let me explain.

The packaging on this is beautiful.  They send their tea in an amazing brown and pink high-end gift box complete with big satin pink bow.  I should be at a spa for packaging like this.  In the dream, there would be cherubs and happy music.  Until you untied the bow and opened the box.  Then the lighting would change, and possibly add a whole bunch of discordant notes to the score.   My first though: it looks like chamomile and pot.  Lots of small little bits of green with twiggy parts, and flower heads.   And now I’m lost for words.  Really.  Wow….

Now, as I’m at my work in this dream, I’ll risk running afoul of my HR department and brew this up.  (Think they’d believe me if I claimed “No, no!  Really!  It’s just tea!”  I know we’re a drug-free workplace!” ??)  Opening the plastic, the aroma is quite strong.  The main scent is chamomile with an underlying hint of something green and something sweet, but undefined.  Time to add the water. In the dream, the scene would shift quickly to a Japanese tea shop because –  WOW – it looks almost like matcha.  It’s very thick, opaque, and GREEN.    As it brews, it’s turning more brown.  It’s reminding me of murky swamp water.  Um.. I don’t like where this dream is going.

After about 3 minutes, I strain the tea, and try it.  And now we’re in a nightmare.  Very chamomile but with a cloying natural floral sweetness I can’t place, and an almost chemical aftertaste.  I cannot finish this cup.  It’s like drinking a hippie’s herbal perfume experiments gone wrong.  I try cooling it down, and watering it down, but no luck.

If you think that chamomile is the best thing in the world, you may like this tea.  But I’m sorry – this tea scares me.  I can’t drink any more of this.  I don’t even think I’ll pawn this off on someone.

But I will keep the box.

You can purchase the Inner Peace directly from the Sacred Rose Tea website.

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.

Smell from the bag is sweet, ripe raspberries.

I followed the directions on the sample packet: empty entire contents of bag into 8 ounces of boiling water and steeped 5 minutes.

Ahh, isn’t that pretty? Pink tea with fruit notes. But where is the green tea? The raspberries seem to overpower the tea base.

This brew is tart and tangy. It makes me feel like I am drinking hot Kool Aid. I don’t understand how Rishi can call this green tea. I taste no tea at all.

I tried for a resteep and was forced to pour out the hot pink mess. All I could taste is hot water and even that was not very good.

This should have been tagged as an herbal tea, then I might have liked it better. But with the mention of green tea on the bag and then not being able to taste the green tea base, I am left to say that this tea is not very good.

You can purchase the Organic Fair Trade Raspberry directly from the Rishi Tea website.