Elderberry & Echinacea

Sipdown (2588)!

Something about this was surprisingly herbaceous and savory and I don’t think it was just from the echinacea, which is a pretty unpleasant tasting herb generally speaking. All in all though I thought this was pretty palatable for a clearly very functionally targeted blend. I mean, the combo of elderberry and echinacea is definitely a bit of a powerhouse duo for immunity and it’s a tough thing to get those two really bold flavours to want to cooperate with each other.

I did think the berry notes were really dense and jammy, and almost more cassis/black currant like to me than the somewhat floral leaning and tart taste of elderberry. However I just read the ingredients list and see there’s actually black currant flavouring in the tea, so I do feel a little vindicated in my observations here.

Don’t think I’d seek this out again – especially when I’ve recently discovered a lot of other much more pleasant Pukka teas. However, if you were looking for an immunity focused tea blend I do think this isn’t a bad option. Certainly better than many other grocery store teabags targeting that function that taste sickly sweet because they over corrected when trying to mask the taste of the herbs or of feet because they haven’t tried to mask anything at all…

I’ve been working through a bad chest cold all week (I’m suspecting a bad case of bronchitis, but I haven’t had the time or money to get that confirmed) so I’ve been drinking TONS of tea. I went through my entire 100g tin of T2’s “Mulled Wine Magic” over the week and have instant regrets, because they are gone now and I’m too tired and out of it to go looking for a hibiscus chai spice blend replacement that ships from the US. So then I decided to turn to this tea, only to discover I only had a single teabag left. Siiiiiiiigh. Where did all the tea go?!

I always expect elderberry teas to be more like hibiscus teas for some reason… dark and syrupy berry. They never are and then I have to reassess my expectations. I do like this though. The echinacea is the main flavor and it’s such a hard one for me to describe… It’s a little floral, but leans more on the herbaceous side than the flowery side. There is a bit of a minty flavor to the tea but it is not strongly menthol and doesn’t overpower the other flavors. I don’t actually taste anything I’d attribute to “berry” or get any fruity notes from it. It is very licorice root sweet, which I know would be a turn-off for many, but I like licorice root and it is greatly appreciated now while by body is trying to cough my lungs straight out of my ribcage. Sweet, minty, floral, could do a lot worse for a sick tea, but the flavor is probably not for everyone.

January 2024 Steepster Sipdown Challenge — A grocery store tea

Sipdown! (22 for January | 22 for 2024)

I grabbed two teabags of this from the recent round of TeaTiff TTB and steeped with 13-14 oz of boiling water in my Nordic Mug at work. Sat steeping on my work desk for about an hour.

Was hoping for a very fruit forward tea – instead I am tasting licorice? I don’t know, maybe the echinacea? It does have this weird taste similar to DT Pomegranate Echinacea tea which again was a tea I was hoping was fruity but just tasted weird. Echinacea is not an ingredient I have experience with so I suppose I need to taste on its own to isolate if that what I don’t like?

Anyway, it’s not a bad tea I suppose for being a bagged grocery store tea. Wasn’t what I was expecting.

The berry flavor is pretty pleasant. Unfortunately, I don’t know that I’m as big a fan of the echinacea and other herbs in here. They make it a little too savory and herbal. I’ll always try a new Pukka flavor in a TTB though!

A comforting, fruity tea, like a bowl of warm, tart berry jelly you can eat with a spoon. Well maybe not quite that sweet. I do tend to grab this when I see it in a store because I know it is a soothing cup, even if it is pricey for a bagged tea. I can use one bag in 12-16 oz of water and not be disappointed with a weak tea.

Layered rich, warm and spicy-sweet aroma with a strange something – I think it’s the echinacea. The sweetness on the tongue is more mellow than expected, considering licorice root is the first ingredient listed. It is also liquidy brown sugar tasting rather than cloyingly sweet. Its thickness hits on the sip where it transitions to the taste of echinacea-mild orange peel mixed with subtle tart and earthy berry-type flavors and then swallows with the elderberry syrupy flavor and mild ginger mixed with licorice root; lingering tart aftertaste.

Simple conclusion: good enough bagged herbal tea but…

I have received this UK produced tea from a postcrossing member located in Ontario, Canada. And well, I am located back in Europe. Okay, a big carbon footprint behind this tea.

Anyway, I am always happy to get a tea that I haven’t tried yet. And this one seems summery for me. The suggested brewing time is up to 15 minutes, so I did around 6 maybe? It wasn’t changing colour too much, so I kind of forgot about it.

It’s okay and quite sweet. Licorice sweet. But it’s mellowed by elderberries, which are kind of tart. And it’s somehow decently herbal. In last sips roships took the place.

Ah well. Quite common a bit of fruity tea. Not even sure if I should consider it as fruit or herbal tea. Probably the latter.

Very fruity, warm, pleasant aroma.
A lot of fruity notes in the taste, especially elderflower. Licorice and ginger are thankfully subdued, because I’m pretty tired of sensing them in almost every Pukka tea.
Nice, warming brew with no pretenses to be anything more.

I enjoyed this one more than I was expecting. It has a rich summer berry aroma and flavour, with a hint of anise. I was also getting these red wine notes which were very pleasant – and I don’t usually like/drink wine.

What stood out, however, was the texture. It’s soooo juicy. With wine and slightly tart berries you’d expect it to be drying… but it’s the opposite. It bathes my mouth in moisture with every sip and leaves me feeling very refreshed.

The aftertaste lingers for quite a while, getting slightly sweeter as time passes.

Can’t say I detected any elderberry or echinacea though. You could say the flavour was a little generic, but it’s definitely not bland.

Full review with pictures, in case anyone is interested: https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/pukka-elderberry-echinacea-tea-review/

Pukka Days of Christmas#10

This is the only Pukka tea I have in my cupboard. As I noticed that I only wrote one tasting note about it, 2 years ago, I see if it needs correction ;-)
Well, elderberry clearly on the foreground, but I think I can appreciate the complexity of this blend more now. Indeed, no dominant hibiscus (great!) and the licorice, ginger, beetroot, aniseed or even peppermint of the list of ingredients make up a good whole without standing out, maybe only the peppermint in the finish. Nice for a fruity herbal infusion, which you can drink year round (it might make a great iced tea as well).