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It’s probably fairly obvious, but the name of this one translates to ‘nostalgia blend’. It’s flavoured with elderflower and contains a flower called ‘catfoot’ which I’ve never heard of before (but which sounds adorable). I’m not sure what this is supposed to make me nostalgic for, but there you are. Perhaps whoever thought of using elderflower here grew on Granny’s home made elderflower cordial or something.

I’ll be honest here. It stinks. It reeks to high heaven of star anise, despite not containing any. And it’s not a sort of ‘ooh, that sort of reminds me of something’ sort of smell. It’s more like star anise pods jammed up your nostrils sort of smell. It absolutely pongs. Especially when one is not at all very keen on star anise.

So I was worried.

As it turns out, though, elderflowers and star anise are very similar flavours. I can absolutely tell it’s flavoured with elderflower. But that same note feels like it can go both ways. A light a summer-y elderflower or a heavy, sticky star anise. This sounds really weird but it seems to very much depend on the attitude with which it’s approached.

I haven’t the faintest how this catfoot (my fingers keep wanting to write cat food here) is supposed to taste. I suppose it’s possible that this stuff is anise-y in flavour and that this is actually what’s at play, but because it really feels like I’m looking at two sides of the same coin here, I’m going to blame the elderflower.

I really wish something lemon-y had been added to this. Some lemon grass or some lemon flavouring. I feel like this would have elevated the elderflower-y aspect and freshened it up, while curbing the anise-y tendencies. I’ll have to try it with a bit of lemon juice, I think.

I don’t think I would buy this again, but who knows? Sometimes the strangest things can grow on you given the chance.