Organic North African Mint

I’m on my second round of this. I meant to grab Salted Caramel but I pulled this one of the shelf by mistake and I regret NOTHING.

I love the spices in this. It’s perfect.

So I was perusing my cupboard this morning, and I’ve been feeling like sweeter teas lately but I didn’t want to use another sachet of Paris. So I decided to try to change my sweet craving haha and i haven’t had this tea in ages, so I put this in the timolino today. Yes, a far cry from a sweet tea, but maybe I’ll start drinking some of my spicier green teas down now. This is indeed spicy and fresh, which is nice as I’m getting in a spring mood so I should drink more fresh teas. Also good to get out of my high caffeine mode I’ve been feeling lately haha. Must be stress that’s making me want sweet, decadent black teas lol:p anyways, see previous notes on this tea :)

ETA – this is doing the job! I now want fresh teas, the spring davids collection might be helping too, i want to try the Honeydew mate so bad! Making a shopping list… Uh oh lol

Made this one as a cold brew today. I was craving chai but I was trying to stay away from black tea today. When I had this one the first time, it really reminded me of chai, because it has chai spices in it I guess.

Cold brewed for about 7 hours. It is quite good. I think it is better this way than hot.

There is a light vanilla-ish taste in the base. It is not necessarily distinguishable as a green tea. I can taste the chai spices, cardamom, licorice, ginger, cloves. The black pepper is very strong. I can taste the peppermint but it is very light, and I have to think about it to actually taste it. It is slightly sweet, a little artificial tasting, but the sweetness is not overdone.

I’m finishing up my day with this one, since it tends to calm my tummy and headaches, both of which I have at the moment. I’m just not hungry today, which is weird and tells me I’m sick. I’ve made two full meals for myself today and couldn’t finish either. Blegh. This tea is still delicious and tasty, but I’m just not in the mood to finish my teas today, I guess.

My stomach feels so much better after drinking this. Sadly, I now feel like I want to go to sleep. Mate time!

YAY!!!! First sample from the swap box Shmiracles sent me!!!! I’m so excited! There are sooooo many teas in this box! You really outdid me. I thought we were shooting for 10. I think I gave you 13. And then I open this deceivingly small box to find 20 samples!!!! Wow!! You are amazing, girl!

So, on to the first one! :D I do have to ask though…What does this tea have to do with North Africa? When I think of houjicha, I think of Japan. When I think of chai spices, I think of India. And when I think of peppermint, I think of Christmas and the North Pole. LOL! No Africa in any of that! But let’s just get brewing already. :P

The dry leaves looks like chai and are chock full of spices and big cardamom pods. Mmm, I LOVE chai! This smells heavenly! And I don’t even remember the last time I had houjicha. It’s been too long. I loved houjicha long before I loved sencha, matcha, white tea, and even oolong! Okay okay, it’s done steeping and now I can finally get to the taste!

First sip…hmm, all I can really taste is chai spices. It probably didn’t help that I just ate three slices of pepperoni and sausage pan pizza. LOL! But I was starving!! I couldn’t wait any longer! Man, I am talkative tonight. I apologize for my ramblings. Just very excited! Second sip…now I’m getting a hint of mint amongst all the spicy goodness. But the houjicha seems very quiet still.

Well, even just as a cup of chai mint tea, it’s yummy! I’m surprised I like the introduction of mint in chai. I think it works because it’s a very small amount of mint compared to the other flavors. Now if only I could get the houjicha to shine! Houjicha has such a nice roasted toasted taste. The base here feels more like a backdrop to the mint and chai spices so that you’re not drinking a purely herbal tea. No roasty toasty elements to be found, sadly.

Oh well, if I didn’t know what houjicha was supposed to taste like, I wouldn’t know what I was missing. So overall, I’m enjoying this cup for what it does taste like. ;) Wow, my brain is just kooky tonight. Is any of this making sense? LOL! Thanks Shmiracles!!!!

Got this as a sample in one of my orders. When? Beats me!

I feel like I’m coming down with a cold or something, but it could be allergies, so I just need something mellow and fennel-y. That always helps me.

I dug around my tea bins at work and found this one; gave it a try. The dry leaves smell totally different than the brewed tea, which is random. Dry, the leaves remind me of mint and fennel. Brewed? I’m thinking of…pizza. I told you it was random!

The tea itself reminds me of a tea I used to drink when I was little, an herbal concoction my late grandmother would drink to cure hangovers. (She was Irish…) I’m also enjoying more of a vegetable-y aroma, like grass or summertime outdoors.

Not sure how to rate this one. I’ll hold off on the rating until I brew up another cuppa.

This is the second cup I made to soothe my stomach this morning. Turns out all I really needed was breakfast but yet again, this is brewed so might as well enjoy it. Alas “enjoy” isn’t the word I would really use to describe this cup. This, like Le Digestif, tastes more like herbal medicine than a tasty cup of tea. Especially since I turned to tea in order to enjoy all the flavors I could not otherwise have since I am on a diet, this really is not something I would ever reach for when I have soo many other delightful treats in my stash. I suppose that is why this herb-y, mint-y tea is on my swap list.

I have quite a bit of this one left in my tin and was running low in my stocks of the usual cold brewing suspects so I thought, why not give it a shot?
I cold steeper overnight for about 18 hours. The result is a rather ugly shade of yellowy brown, but the smell was the usual spicy smell so I got past the colour…
The result is good, but compared to this tea hot brewed, nothing special. The spice really comes through first, while the mint is almost an afterthought (and it kind of coats the throat wierdly…).
Overall, not a bad experiment, but I think that I will save this for hot brewing.

Thank you VariaTEA for sending this sample my way. I love mint teas, and this is a nice one. I really like the cardamon and the pepper in this blend. It gives it a kick that’s quite enjoyable. I do prefer gunpowder green over the Hojicha because I think the smokey note goes so well with the mint. Still, this is a good blend, and I’m happy I finally got to try it.

Also, this is my first DAVIDs tea!