Kunlun Mountain Snow Chrysanthemum Flower

Ah dashboard where have you gone?
Reading tea notes this morning made me want to grab a sweeter tea, but I decided to go for savory instead. And since it’s morning, I still need caffeine so a scoop of awesome tea went in the strainer too.
I’m amazed by how a small scoop of flowers can have such a large dill taste and pungent smell. It stands up nicely to the Assam I added with just a hint of bitterness underneath the spicy dill.
I find myself gravitating to teas with an ‘interesting’ taste profile, maybe because I rarely add sweetener, or maybe because I just have a strange palette? After trying my first snow chrysanthemum in a tea shop in San Fran, I knew some sort of this flower would need to be in my cupboard!

Always tell myself to not read reviews before drinking something. Definitely should not have read nefore this one. To say this is uniqud is an understatement. It does taste of dill. I wouldnt say pickles, not a fully mature dill pickle anyway but more so the dill used for sweet relish, coleslaw…. dill in bread? Some German dish? Ugh. It Definitely reminds me of a dill dish but i cant quite put my finger on what it is. There is also a slight sweetness like stevia. All around weird experience. Drank the while cup trying to figure this out. Can’t say I really want to do this again though.

I tried a cup of this from the TTB, and it tasted 100% like pickles. Cold, it’s drinkable, but I’m not a big pickle fan, and this is pickles all the way. I would not want this again.

Reposted from Random Steepings; thanks to Shae for identifying the correct tea listing!

There’s a bag of snow chrysanthemum in the TTB. It says Mountain Herbs but I’m not sure what company that is, unfortunately. Still, I was intrigued. I brewed it up and found it herbaceous, a little sweet, and with a distinct anise note. It’s like chamomile’s edgier sibling. Interesting, but just not my speed.

K is for… Kunlun Mountain Snow Chrysanthemum Flower.

These are beautiful. A gift from Michelle. I used five buds in a clear mug and steeped for four minutes. The water turned dark as soon as it hit the dried flowers. They opened fully and swirled around the top of my cup as they steeped. I thought I smelled dark chocolate covered cherries in the dry flowers, also lemon, but both the aroma while steeping and the taste after hints at dill (just as Michelle said). There’s something else I can’t place, like the feeling you get when you walk into an antique store full of leather furniture and old books. It’s not a musty smell, not at all, but it seems very familiar. Each drink feels as though I’m about to take a sip of pickle juice as I’m leaning in, but the flavor isn’t so strong as the scent. The description said that honey would increase the flavor, but I’m not really finding that to be the case. If anything, the honey is overpowering the taste. It also says that rock sugar is often added, so I may try that next time instead. Michelle mentioned that she frequently adds this to chamomile or Assam. I feel like this herbal has a lot to offer, both on its own and as an add-in to other teas. I’m intrigued by it and really glad I’m having an opportunity to try it. Thanks, Michelle!