L'Herboriste Nº108

And back to the Palais des Thes with an herbal selection this evening. Brews nicely to a pleasant light amber cup with the classy muslin teabag.

Heavy on the verbena, (though it tastes more like lemongrass) with a minty aftertaste that grows more prominent as the tea cools, plus some sneaky rosehips. The verbena/lemongrassy note overpowers to the point where I cannot really detect any significant orange. The strength is reasonable when brewed as suggested- not too weak, not too strong.

But, it tastes like any tea you’ve ever had after a fancy spa treatment. It’s totally generic to the point where I feel like I’ve tasted this dozens of times before from airport lounges to Starbucks to indie tea shops in Kyoto. It’s blonde wood and fluffy white robe “wellness.” It’s totally boring.

But, sometimes boring is nice when we’re too tired to be adventurous, so there is a time and place for everything. It’s a good quality blend, but at $22USD for about 125g, I think it’s way it’s overpriced.

For my ratings, I do consider price as part of the overall score vs. just straight tea quality. I will judge a pricey tea more strictly than a cheap one, though quality and taste are the most important factor. If this were a $4 box of Celestial Seasonings, I’d give it a higher score. But this tea’s worst sin is just being so….utterly generic.

I had this tea at the end of 2021, yes, more than a year ago, at my father-in-law´s place, and I still hadn´t checked this one in. This is another of the Palais des Thés teabags I had picked up at one of the Accor group hotels where we stayed on our way from Spain to Belgium or back, and another illustration of the difference that a well selected tea provider can make, when you´re away from home.
The combination of verbena leaves, orange peel and mint is truly nice and refreshing. As none of these three main ingredients overwhelms the other two, it makes an elegant cup of tea and even if the blend is herbal, I believe also the most fervent black tea drinkers (like myself) can enjoy it…a lot!