Be Cool

A lot is going on in this brew. And the ingredients are easily recognizable, they do not blend with each other. I can smell apple, licorice, anise, mint. The overall aroma is both refreshing and warming.
So is the taste. There is a minty coolness, licorice-y sweetness, and solid contributions from the rest.
Nice brew in itself, but I need to steep it along with some clean black tea.

Found a Winter Collection box of Kusmi tea and had to grab it! This was the only herbal in there, and it was surprisingly delicious. Also, it put me to sleep on Christmas Eve, which is exactly what I needed!

Be Cool is a part of the Kusmi Tea Wellness collection, of which I have the sampler tins. Essentially this is a licorice-mint blend with some embellishments thrown in for good measure. It tastes good and refreshing and is touted as having various functional health benefits.

I always wonder about those claims. I do not doubt that, in the long run, the consumption of massive quantities of antioxidants and vitamin C will be good for the body. But what about a single cup of tea? It seems to me that in order to reap the alleged benefits of these sorts of teas—marketed as health-inducing elixirs—one would have to imbibe them religiously over a lengthy period of time.

Fortunately, this one tastes good, so I’ll certain finish my 20 gram tin. Will that be enough? That is the question.

I just realized that this was my seventh new tea in a row! This calls for a public announcement of my intention to test and review as many new teas as I possibly can without breaking the series with an old cupboard stand by. How long can sherapop keep up this Blazing New Rating Pace???? The race is on…

Wish me luck!

(Blazing New Rating #7)

GCTTB 2

I am a spearmint kind of girl, but I settled for this pepperminty blend this evening. On first sip I can definitely tell there is something wrong. This is not peppermint. There is a bit of mint flavour but something is really throwing it off. Is that verbena I taste? Why yes it is, but that is not what is making it weird. I like verbena. Hmmmm. I almost wondered if there was chamomile in here. Chammomile = gross (in case you didn’t know that already). So I cheated and pulled up the ingredient list. Ahhhhhh, licorice. (No chamomile). Why would anyone mix licorice and mint. I obviously would not. There is some sweetness to the tea which does help to balance out the bitter black licorice flavour.

I am able to drink this one but had I looked at the ingredient list first, I would not have tried it.

It’s been a nice relaxing day for the most part and I’ve spent the majority of my time playing Civilization V with my husband. Though we haven’t done much today we’re still feeling cream crackered (cockney rhyming slang for knackered/shattered/tired) so I chose this herbal blend as a potential last pot of tea before bed time.

The loose blend smells strongly of peppermint and anise and sort of general herb like smells. It is thick but the mint is sweet enough to stop it being too stodgy and unpleasant.

The peppermint is the strongest flavour which adds a nice refreshing sweetness amongst the anise and licorice. Though I’m not a fan of licorice (in tea anyway) the peppermint lightens it to make it at a nice strength for me personally, sort of getting the flavour of the licorice without the thickness of it. I can sort of taste the apple if I put my mind to it, shares some of the sweetness from the peppermint, but again that’s only if I push myself to do so.

Aside from that the other ingredients blend in rather well, nothing sticks out or tastes out of place so all in all it’s a very pleasant herbal tea. Very relaxing and refreshing, somewhat matching the blends given name. One of the nicest herbal teas I have had in a long while, was a hit with my husband too. (which is amazing as he rarely likes pure herbals).

Note to self – Might be worth keeping regular stock of this one and using as a night time tea.

I like liquorice, but I’m clearly not a fa of this herbal tea.
I have very good herbal teas mixtures, and this one is not part of it.

I expected it to be awful as I dont really like liquorice or peppermint.

I actually really like it but only if its steeped for a short time in not too hot water otherwise its awful. Nice, refreshing, smooth flavour. It has very strong minty smell but the taste is more mild. It leaves sweeter liquorice aftertaste which I find very pleasant (I hate liquorice candies for example)