After Dinner

Pukka Days of Christmas#22

What a strange experience. When I opened the pouch of the teabag, it smelled like a type of stock cube which bars in Belgium offered to make an instant stock (instead of instant soup) to have on a cold winter´s day. The brandname is OXO, so this reminds me of oxo. Also the colour (very dark reddish brown, like the pouch) is unusual. This all might seem very unappetising, but it does help digestion, I think.

Very dark in comparison to other Pukka teas, thanks to roasted chicory root.
Smells with fennel, cardamom and a bit of licorice.
And the taste? Surprisingly rich, malty, a bit toasted, with strong licorice, fennel and cardamom notes, and with subtle orange peel in the background.
One of the best Pukka teas I’ve ever drank.

So, I’ve been away a fair while – been travelling a fair bit this year both domestically and internationally. Going forward I am going to make an effort to post more often. I recently went on a trip to Washington State in the Seattle area to visit some family and friends. It was an amazing visit but I caught a nasty bug on a plane. Acute sinusitis. While at the hospital for that I somehow contracted salmonella as well which totally destroyed my intestines ( which I’m told will take several months to heal) and gave me GERD. I can’t lie down lest things come up and I get heartburn, and I can only eat very few things right now. While shopping for us, my husband ( who knows I am a licorice and fennel fan) picked this up for me. All of the ingredients are great for digestion, plus are among my favorite flavors : Roasted Chicory, Anise Seed, Sweet Fennel Seed, Licorice Root, Cardamom Pod, Orange Peel, Ginger Root. I have other teas with these ingredients and love them. But this particular combination is absolutely divine and really helps after meals for digestion and to relieve wind. If you have digestive problems or just enjoy these flavors, I recommend you give this a try. It’s earthy chicory and sweet black licorice flavor are a great combination on the tongue. The citrus and spice is hinted but just adds roundness as opposed to coming up front. One of my new favorites and I will keep this in stock from now on. Steeped in boiling water for 5-10 mins.

I couldn’t drink this. There is a flavor in this and also in Pukka Licorice and Cinnamon that I strongly dislike. The common ingredients in both teas are roasted hickory root, sweet fennel seed, and cardamom pods. I haven’t yet determined which is the culprit as I am unfamiliar with all three ingredients.

I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying this tisane! I’ve always had it in my mind that I’m a decided non-fan of fennel and licorice in teas, but I’m realizing that maybe what I really don’t like is when those ingredients are used to add sweetness in blends where they really don’t belong. Anyway, this is quite strong on the fennel, and rather sweet. I could’ve done with more cardamom—I love cardamom—but I’ll take what I can get. I’ve been trying to expand my decaf collection lately, and this is something I can see keeping around.

Yum. Good for digestion. A kind of decaf chai for after dinner. Nice cardamom flavor.

Deilig ettersmak.