Verbena Mint Organic

This is the last of my Mighty Leaf bagged tea samples. I know it says to steep for 5 minutes, but it was a very dark reddish brown after only 3 minutes, so I decided to take the bag out early. The mint is very strong here in the aroma of the dry leaf and the brewed tea. It smells like spearmint to me. I hope I can taste the verbena under all that spearmint. The whole reason I wanted to try this was because it has verbena in it!

My favorite Bath and Body Works scent is Coconut Lime Verbena. Of course as soon as I fell in love with it, they discontinued it. :( So I immediately went to Ebay to stock up, and now I have at least a 5-10 year supply of shower gel and body spray. :D Honestly, it mostly smells like coconut and lime to me. I don’t even know what verbena is. So when I spotted this tea, I thought, here’s my chance to find out!

Well, to make a long story short, this tea tastes like funky spearmint. I love how the description says “soft citrus notes of verbena leaves balanced with a beautiful hint of mint.” Hint of mint my butt. This is overpowering mint! There does seem to be some kind of citrus punch in the beginning of the sip, but it’s quickly covered by mintaplooza. It’s really off-putting to my palate. Eck, I just can’t finish this cup. Sorry, verbena mint tea! You are not my cuppa!

Last night we went out for dinner with a friend we hadn’t seen for a long time. The food was alright, the tea was disappointing, but good company always makes a mediocre meal so much better. The hubby and I tend to prefer Japanese or Indian or other restaurants of the like, but the friend we were visiting with is a self-proclaimed fussy eater; we let him choose the eatery. I remember the last time he came to visit at our house, I offered him some tea, and when I showed him my cupboard of selections he said they all smelled like flowers –hahaha! He wanted a bagged Red Rose or Lipton, which I had none of, so he eventually settled on an earl grey Tazo that I acquired from some hotel. When I asked him what he thought, he took another sip and all he said was “flowers”. XD

So the restaurant he selected was The Cactus Club, which I tend to find is a bit hit and miss, with more misses than hits. But I was happy when the waitress brought over a tea menu for me. I needed something without caffeine, so I thought Mint was a wise choice. She brought over the hot water and the tea bag and I was pleased to find that it was something I hadn’t tried before. Unfortunately, the tea blend was just not my thing. The description on the back of the package says that the verbena leaves are balanced with a hint of mint, but it was not a nice balance at all. The mint was buried in verbena, and ironically, when our friend asked what I thought of the tea, it was my turn to say “flowers”.
I’m surprised at the higher ratings this tea has received so far; I guess it’s just not for me – meh!

This is such a great, refreshing tea! I really like the combination of lemony verbena and crisp mint. I didn’t even need to add any type of sweetener, this tea has a nice natural sweetness to it. This tea is the perfect accompaniment while reading Inkheart.

So it’s almost 2 am, and we just stopped for the night in Nashville, TN. I am unwinding before closing my eyes. I brought along some teabags for convenience. I got one bag of this with the Mighty Leaf order I got recently.

Unfortunately, I’m getting some of the wet washrag taste I get from so many herbal infusions. I’m not getting any of the citrus notes that the wrapper says I should.

Oh well…. I should get to sleep anyway! :)

This tea reminds me of when I was little, and when my mother would make me mint tea to calm my stomach.. a little touch of honey makes this a deja vu sort of experience for me :)

Another from the ML Collection sampler. I gave this 3 minutes instead of the recommended 5, as it had already brewed up to a typical mint tea swamp-brown in that time, and it smelled pretty strong to boot. I’m not ordinarily a plain mint tea fan, so the verbena was definitely the attraction for me here. Unfortunately, mint is pretty much all I can taste. It’s the kind of flavour that could overpower anything given half a chance, and it’s definitely given more than half a chance here. There’s a tiny hint of lemon, particularly in the early sips, but it’s hardly there and it’s soon knocked out completely by the mint. Not the tea for me.