Moonlit Mesa

Heeey White Antlers, where are you? Thanks for this herbal tea!

Tastes like twilight in the high desert. Look to the stars and breathe in the sky. The unmistakable aroma of scrubby shrubs, dry grass, juniper, hard earth still retaining the heat of the day. Stray rosehips and lemongrass.

<3 fond <3

Excellent cold brew, almost syrupy. Very nice hot as well, a classic herbal tea taste and body.

Another pouch from derk. Thank you.
Steeped as suggested, 1.5 tsp, 100°C, 5-7 minutes.

I had to seach what “cota” is. In Czech it is called Marunek or Rmen. Never had it as a herbal tea.

It had somehow generic lemony taste, I was expecting some notes from juniper but nada. No pine notes too! Have I took bad teaspoons? Do I need to have more cota in, or more juniper? Should I crush the berries when brewed? So many questions, some tea left for trying. Won’t rate so far.

Something different, and something good. Lemon lands first but is swiftly obliterated by smokey dry pine. It’s easy to think of brush piles around this stuff. The juniper shakes loose at the end, and that berry note neatly caps the experience. It’s unlike any other tisane I’ve ever had. Plus, it’s snazzy looking stuff. Holds its own paired with lunch and dinner, too.

This tea is weird. Not in a bad way, but if you go into it thinking it’ll be an ordinary herbal, prepare to be thrown for a loop. I distinctly remember my grandma bringing me back “Native Tea” from the Southwest as a souvenir when I was a little kid, and I absolutely loved it, but my mother thought it tasted like burnt grass and threw it in the bin.
Well, this tea is a less burned and more pine-heavy version of that tea I remember, so surprise! What I got hooked on as a 5 year old was cota and I still like it however many years later. The dry cota needles are so pointy that I had one splinter up into the skin of my foot when one escaped onto the floor, and they’re long and stiff which makes them hard to measure.
Once you brew them, though, dang. Southwestern Christmas in a cup. Light yellow liquor that reminds you of an unsavory liquid and the leaves are good to brew again and again until you get tired of drinking the stuff. Juniper berries are the perfect complement to the dry pine of cota. You know how gin has that dry taste to it? Yeah, so does this tea. The juniper builds on that and makes it taste slightly less like sipping on a liquidated alcoholic-but-not pine tree.
I have to say, though, I do love this tea. It’s delicious in a terribly weird fashion.