Organic Relaxation

Where the hell did my yummy cup of num-num go?!?!? I ordered a larger bag (she says hoping that no one notices that her tea-buying ban for May fell through, ahem. Hey, it was for a good cause with the giveaway and all. Uh, yeah. The giveaway: that’s the ticket! Riiiiight.) and was all excited to try another cup last night. Last night didn’t go well. It was nowhere as sweet as my sample had been and as the cup cooled I was getting what denisend referred to as “wet sock.” And I don’t think it was the power of suggestion.

I bravely tried another cup tonight adjusting the temp to 180 and upping the steep time by a minute. (I can’t recall what temp I had it at last night). I also tried to pick around the dreaded chamomile so only a few flowers made it into the cup. What the hell?!?! Oh this tea is ticking me off. It started off “wet sockish” but as I’m typing and the cup is cooling I’m starting to get glimmers of the tea I had fallen in love with. I’m removing my rating (originally 90) until I figure this fickle tea out. Next time I’ll try boiling and 4 minutes again. Or maybe I should drop the temp and steep it longer? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa::gasp::aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!

If I can’t figure this tea out soon, then the rating’s gonna drop drastically. This tea’s goin’ from TG to M on this steep. Grrr.

ETA: I actually found the sample packet with a bit of this tea left in it that I threw into the second steep. Before tossing it in I smelled the packet. Okay, so there’s something different between this sample and the larger bag. The packet has almost none of the “musty” smell that the larger bag has. I wonder if this is a result of the qty of chamomile or something else in the mix. I dropped the temp to 175 and kept the time at 5 minutes. It’s a lot more palatable, but I’m still somewhat disappointed.

I’m working my way through some samples and swaps, so dumped this into my cup before reading the ingredients. BRILLIANT IDEA! One of the ingredients is valerian root. I have too much to do before bed (like, a whole day worth of stuff!) so hopefully it won’t make me sleepy.

Also, in general I don’t like chamomile or rose petals.

There’s a bunch of little tiny rooibos looking things that got through my filter and into my cup when I brewed it (but there’s no rooibos; I’m not sure what it is, but there are several ingredients here that I’m not familiar with). I use a SUPER FINE filter, so I’m surprised that stuff got through. A ceramic filter would be a disaster with this tea.

The aroma is like chamomile, but when I breathe deep while sipping, I get a bit of wet sock. Ewww.

The first taste to hit my tongue is the dreaded chamomile, but the aftertaste is a sweet, sourish floral. If the entire tea tasted like the aftertaste, I think I’d like it, but the chamomile and wet sock odor is making it difficult to enjoy.

I may not finish this cup. We’ll see.

This blend is a bust! It tastes 100% chamomile . So why not just save some money and purchase chamomile? Oh well…. luckily , this was only a free sample. And obviously I am backlogging from this weekend…

The loose material this tisane is made up of is very colorful. Lots of rosehips, some chamomile and valerian root are the most prominent visuals here. The aroma however, is most heavily of chamomile with some light rose scent and a bit of fresh sweetness.

The liquor brews to a medium caramel with some dusting seeping through the infuser making the brew itself a bit cloudy at first. The aroma is light consisting primarily or chamomile. The rose scent is considerably lessened and the sweetness I noted in the dry aroma is also notably subdued.

The flavors are more astringent than I expected. There’s no drying of the tongue by a heavy chamomile presence linkers through an unusually long tailing finish. The softness of the rosehips is present, but none of the flavor.

This blend seems primarily of chamomile even if it’s only one of a number of ingredients. I would recommend this blend to fans of chamomile tea, mint tea and rose petal teas.

This tisane, first of all, is aesthetically pleasing: the rose petals, chamomile, and lemon myrtle are fragrant before water is even added. Once added, then the decision becomes whether to drink or to just inhale. Of course I did both. Relaxation ensued promptly.

However, I wouldn’t drink this herbal unless my bed was in close proximity (read: sleepy).

Every night, I used to drink this tea like it was the elixir of life, but, then they changed the ingredients and now it’s way too flowery and sweet to enjoy. And it used to knock me out at night but now it’s just a mild relaxer. I guess some will like it but I miss the old recipe from Teas Etc. Now what am I supposed to do with the 2 lbs. I ordered last fall?