The first time I brewed this, I forgot it was sitting there and it ended up much too strong and herbal. Because I knew it had sat too long, I was willing to give it another chance.
The second time I brewed it, I carefully timed it for three minutes before tasting. The stuff was awful- all I could taste was the dandelion leaves. Who puts dandelion leaves in with such light flavors as white tea and cucumber, anyway? I ended up dumping it out after half the cup. Figuring that the herbs should be mostly exhausted but the actual tea in the blend should still have some life, I stick the teabag in for a second steeping, four minutes this time. The dandelion leaves were pretty weak by then, and I could taste some of the white tea and lime, but it was still a little on the herbal side.
I ended up emptying all the tea bags into a tin so I could rinse them before trying to brew a drinkable cup or to use as something to put excess honey in when I’m sick so I don’t have to ruin a cup of something actually good. Drinking a rinsed cup as I type, I find that a single hot rinse is enough to lessen the flavor of the dandelion leaves, but not enough so that anything but a hint of limepeel comes through.
