Schisandra Chinensis

This tea is from the here is hoping traveling teabox.

This tea may have health benefits. But it is gross.

The infusion is a light yellow color.

There is no tea in this infusion nor is there anything resembling leaves. It is just dry peppercorn looking berries.

The dry berries smell like cedar chips and vinegar. I am not joking. This is repugnant and fierce. I can appreciate that infussion.eu is trying to spread chinese herbal medicine and know that there are interesting supposed benefits. However, you REALLLLLLY need to want the benefits in order to choke this down.

The prominent note is SOUR. It gets under your tongue with a ZING! (And not a good zing.) It is very vinegar and dill tasting. Perhaps you could use this to make pickles!

I am glad I got to taste this but will stay away from this herb in the future. If you are going to try this herb please be aware that it gets more pungent as the cup cools.

I finished the sample from the traveling tea box – but I do hope that others can try this and let me know if I am crazy in my taste!

Note: I was googling the various health claims on this tea and found that this tea is not suggested for people who are pregnant. I am not a dr, however, I am just relaying what I read on the interwebs.

The catuaba that Infussion sent me as a free sample didn’t seem to wake me up this morning, so I thought I’d try steeping these… they are supposed to do that to. I thought about mixing these with the catuaba, but I wanted to steep them by themselves first to give them a fair chance. They look like tiny blueberries. I steeped them for ten minutes with just boiled water. The steep color is a pinkish pale color — for some reason I thought it would be red, but I guess that is what hibiscus is added to tea for, and this tea is only berries. Sadly, the taste is like hibiscus anyway. It seems like a mixture of blueberries, cranberries, hibiscus, rosehips… and something else that I can’t place. They are very tart and sour. The berries seem like they should be an ingredient in a blend and not just by themselves. I don’t think this significantly woke me up either. This isn’t really my thing, but I’m sure it is the best for what it is.

This was a sample, kindly sent by infussion, and I admit that while it was my pick, it took me a while to get the courage to try it.

I was unsure of dosage – I used maybe 20 berries for 3 dl of boiling water, and let it steep some 6 minutes maybe. It´s a very pale infusion, but I think it is just strong enough for me. Any stronger would be way too much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omija_cha

This is supposedly 5 flavour berry. Magical seeing the dark berries. Omija cha. I wanted to try this, thank you infussion!

And it is a very very strange thing to drink. So far, am unsure what I think though I can already say on its favour – it´s better than hibiscus!

I can not say I detect all 5 flavours – no salt IMO, but there is a pungency which reminds me of pepper. There is a woody quality as well, a bit like juniper or cedar. And a lot of tartness, sourness – but I don´t find it unpleasant at all, I do mean it I find it much more palatable than hibiscus.

This could be a lot of fun in blends, particularly fruit blends.

I tried eating the berries, and it is uh, interesting, but no way could I eat more than a couple. It sort of reminds me of sour plums, both the tea and steeped berries – which luckily I like.

o my being scared to try this i almost forgot i had this sample in my kitchen. Well i’m curious because it is suppose to be very healthy but… if i read the other reviews its going to be a strange thing to drink. Anyway i’m thanking infussion.eu for those 3 samples from there where 2 i really really liked!

I’m opening the package and i see dark brown berry’s. They are pretty big and smell strange. Using 2 teaspoon off leaf for my rather big infuser with boiling water and i’m letting it sit there for 10min like suggested…

The color of my brew is a yellowish light brown like substance and smells funny! The drink while still very hot tastes sour like expected but its not that bad like i expected. Its a bit like lemon juice bit then again its no lemon juice! I’m surprised. i’m comparing this to gini or a tonic you drink on a hot summer day…

Then again its not something i love, but for anyone willing to try this very weird and strange sounding berry. I really would say try a sample!

This is wild stuff. It has many benefits supposedly, I cannot say yay or ney on that but it is so different it is intriguing. To me it is really sour, I can suck on lemons and enjoy the flavor plain, so maybe this is just perfect for me- but I like it. in a weird, unique way. I believe you are to steep it 10 whole minutes.

A sample from KittyLovesTea, and another one I neglected because I was scared of it. I read some of the reviews below, became even more scared, and then decided to give it a go anyway. I mean, it’s better to know.

I wasn’t really sure how to treat this one, so I dumped a teaspoon (about 35 berries) into my infused, and added it to a cup of freshly boiled water. I forgot about it for a few minutes, so it probably had about 4-5 minutes brew time in total. The liquor is a pale yellow, and it smells…vaguely fruity, and a little medicinal. I sniffed it suspiciously before taking a sip, you see. So I know.

First taste isn’t actually too bad. It does taste subtly fruity — I agree with the sour plum another reviewed picked out. There is something a little vinegary about it in the aftertaste, but it’s not terrible. For some reason, I was expecting a much stronger flavour, but it’s actually quite palatable. I’m coming round to the view that it’s rather nice to drink something completely different once in a while. Something you’re probably not going to come across ever again — a challenge for the tastebuds.

I wouldn’t say this is something I’d drink often, or even seek out. I’m pleased to have had the opportunity to try it, though. I’m not getting five flavours from it (which might be a blessing in disguise), but it’s a nice enough vaguely fruit/berry flavoured cup, if a little odd around the edges, Something everyone should try once.