Organic Greek Saffron Herbal Tea with Sage, Lemon Verbena & Selected Herbs

Something my aunt picked up on her trip to the motherland.

The bag smells really good, like hair freshly washed with a lightly scented lemon shampoo. Kind of a musty quality but clean. The liquor smells the same but with an added depth probably from the saffron and rooibos. I can also pick up on the peppermint and a faint whiffs of rosemary and sage. It kind of reminds me of a Ricola throat lozenge.

On first sip, it also has the sweet medicinal quality of Ricola but then it turns savory and deep with a brightness from all the lemon-tasting ingredients. Thankfully the lemongrass is not perceptible as a separate ingredient. It’s also quite oily from the herbs and light to medium bodied. Tastes a lot like a light, fresh vegetable broth made with a little fresh rosemary and sage and a few drops of lemon. Leaves a nice clean feeling in the mouth afterward.

I’m really enjoying this and will stuff a few bags into my already overflowing backpack to take home.

A sample from Miss B (and one of my final two…I eventually found the bottom of the box!) This one is bagged, which is convenient today since I’m covering reception (boo!) for the morning and can’t “faff around with infusers and shit” as is my usual modus operandi. I also don’t have any milk, so it’s really a good thing all around.

This one brews up a pretty spectacular yellow/orange, very reminiscent of saffron. It smells sweeter than I thought it would, given that the main ingredients are saffron, lemon verbena, and sage. I’m thinking maybe honey/mead?

This is backed up by my first sip, which is sweet and very honey-like. I can taste lemon, although it’s not a strong flavour. The combination of honey/lemon is putting me in mind of throat sweets and/or that glycerin medicine that you get for a tickly cough. I can’t taste sage at all, which is a shame. I was hoping that would be a more prominent flavour, and that maybe the overall effect would be kinda savoury…not so, sadly.

This is enjoyable enough, but I’d not be in any particular hurry to drink it again. Maybe my tastes are changing, but it’s a little too sweet (and medicinal) for my liking.