27 Tasting Notes
I love the balance, stress relief, and general sense of well being I get when I drink tulsi. While tulsi’s smooth minty-clovey herbal flavor is vert agreeable by itself, it’s not flat-out delicious. However, it lends itself exceptionally well to blending with other herbs or teas.
While at home I prefer to mix up my own tulsi blends, I actually bought a bunch of this particular “signature blend” to have some tulsi on hand when I’m over at my boyfriend’s place. I’m happy with my choice. He likes this tisane too, though to him it just tastes like tea. :)
The tulsi is still at the heart of the “signature” blend, but it’s blended with a cooling dose of mint, brightened up front by the lemony taste of lemon myrtle, and deepened in the lower register by a warming spicy flavor, mostly the ginger with a lingering bite of pepper especially prominent in the aftertaste. The contrast of the warm spice with the cooling mint might sound a bit odd, but it makes perfect sense tied together by the tulsi and lemon!
When I forget to bring tea from home, sometimes I find myself perusing the tea bags available to drink at my workplace. This is the one option for green tea. A lot of people say that they just don’t like green tea, and since this one is on the better end of the spectrum for the cheap bagged green teas widely available in grocery stores, I can understand why.
It’s a serviceable tea, not actively unpleasant. I drink it mindlessly if I’m desperate for a green tea fix, but sometimes I think I’d be better off drinking water. The flavor is a run of the mill vegetal green tea, but flat, dull. A dried grass sort of flavor, with little nuance, but none of the offensively fishy flavors that I get out of lesser bagged green teas. As long as I keep the steeping time short (the bag recommends 2-3 minutes, but I pull it out just shy of 2) I can avoid the dirty/stale/bitter flavor that comes out when it’s oversteeped.
I bought this tea without realizing that it was full of chamomile. I actively dislike chamomile! However, despite the chamomile blossoms scattered fairly liberally throughout this tea, they blend in to the mix rather subtly. It compliments the fruity added flavoring, but I think I’d like this better without the chamomile add-in. Sometimes I even pick out the chamomile before I brew this tea.
This green tea, like many others, is prone to getting really cooked-greens like if you make the mistake of using water that’s too hot! Even with quite cool water I still get a bit of that spinach-like tone, but the vegetal flavor makes perfect sense mixed with the peach flavoring… a cup of summer-time. The peachy flavoring is sweet and pleasant if bit artificial tasting – like peach candy rather than real ripe peaches. The fruit flavor is on the lighter side – which I prefer. It’s basically gone after the first steep.
I don’t care for it all that hot and without additives. However, with a bit of honey, a squeeze of lemon or lime, and some fresh ginger, it makes an easy-drinking iced tea. I’ll use up my stash of this over the summer, but I’m not interested in restocking.
This is a weak tea – if you’re using one bag, go for a 6 oz. cup, not a big mug! It steeps a pretty pale pink color, but the paleness is telling. The berry aroma is perfectly pleasant, but the flavor is light, more of a washed out rose hip/hibiscus/berry combo with a greenish-peppery-herbal tea underpinning. Not my favorite from this brand, their signature herbal blend does not seem to mesh particularly well with the tart flavorings here.
The loose leaf tea has mostly smaller, ripped up leaves of mint white tea leaves, with a scattering of rose petals throughout as a tertiary accent.
The first infusion, steeped for about two minutes, is a gentle, smooth peppermint-white tea blend with overtones of rose. I’d score this tea even higher if the rose notes were more pronounced. On subsequent infusions, or at higher temperatures and longer steep times, the peppermint really comes to dominate the mix. This tea is perfect for those times when I want a more romantic, easy-drinking take on mint.
A contemplative, soothing tea good on mornings home and winding down in the evening. Pairs really well with desserts -a warm roll or slice of bread topped with coconut oil and raw honey goes great with this tea. :)
Moderately grassy green tea flavor, tinted with the characteristic, vaguely peppery herbal bouquet typical of the Mount of Olives tea (grape and olive leaves, hyssop…) and a subtle hit of floral aroma. The jasmine flavoring is much lighter than usual, but still recognizably jasmine.
This doesn’t really taste like a “green tea chai with pomegranate”, but it does taste good! The base of the tea is like a sheer black tea, lightened with the green. The spice profile is not typical of chais – the herbal flavor of olive leaf and hyssop, the anise, and a lingering hint of cinnamon-warmed rose come through most for me. It has a bit of natural sweetness to it. Once I stopped expecting this to taste like a chai, I rather enjoyed it. I liked it best as-is, no creamer or sweetener.
