I don’t have much experience with tulsi or gotu kola and I was intrigued enough to buy a big bag of this tea for $6 or so. I might have been hoping that the flavour would be a less sweet version of Coca Cola. I steeped about 3 g of tea in 355 ml of 190F water for 4, 6, 8, and 10 minutes.
The dry aroma is of basil, cloves, herbs, and cola. The first steep is heavy on the clove, with basil, herbs, caramel, and what I presume is the gotu kola in the background. The flavour is sweet, earthy, and spicy. The next couple steeps are very similar, though the clove fades into the background and the basil becomes more prominent. By the end of the session, the tea is grassy, herbaceous, earthy, and sweet. I probably should have stopped at three steeps, as the last one is kind of watery.
So, does this taste like Coke? Sort of, though it’s too clove heavy to be convincing and is missing a citrus element. This tea is pleasant enough to enjoy on a snowy evening. At least it doesn’t have licorice, hibiscus, or chamomile, which are ubiquitous in most herbal teas.
Flavors: Basil, Caramel, Clove, Cola, Earth, Grass, Herbaceous, Spicy, Sweet
