Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Revolution Tea
Tea Description:
It’s time to relax with Revolution Tea’s Golden Flowers, a delicious blend of whole Egyptian chamomile flowers, marigold flowers and peppermint leaf. Naturally caffeine-free, Golden Flowers is Revolution Tea’s most popular herbal blend. Caffeine Free.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea confused me a bit! I opened the pouch and brewed it without reading the above description, so, I thought that this would be a “pure chamomile” tisane. But it isn’t. This is a blend of chamomile, peppermint and marigold petals. So, imagine my surprise when I took a sniff of the dry leaf and could smell peppermint.
I thought maybe my olfactory nerves were playing tricks on me, so I went ahead and brewed the sachet in my favorite sunflower teacup. I poured freshly filtered water that had been heated to 195°F and allowed the sachet to steep for 6 minutes.
Usually, I’ll let a tisane like this steep for up to 10 minutes, but, since I was a little taken aback by the aroma of the dry leaf, I wasn’t too sure if there might be hibiscus hiding somewhere in this tisane and I didn’t want to take a chance at infusing that too long!
Once I finished brewing the tea, I took a sniff of the brewed, golden amber liquid. Yep, either my olfactory nerves are going bonkers or I’m smelling mint.
I took a quick sip., and I could taste the mint that I was smelling. Peppermint. Yep, that definitely tastes like peppermint. So either this was a blend that also had peppermint in it, or it was the best tasting pure chamomile I had ever tasted. I kind of thought it was the former because if Revolution Tea had in fact discovered this special chamomile that tastes like peppermint, then I kind of think that someone else in the tea business would have caught on and “discovered” it too. You know?
Anyway, once I was able to pull up the description of the tisane, the fact that I could smell and taste peppermint made a whole lot more sense. This is a blend – not a pure chamomile tisane.
And it’s a really tasty blend! The peppermint is strong but it’s flavor has been tempered just enough by the presence of the chamomile so that it doesn’t taste too herbaceous nor does it taste like I’m drinking mouthwash. As someone who isn’t always crazy about the flavor of chamomile, I’m happy that the peppermint is there because I find peppermint to be a whole lot tastier than chamomile.
The marigold petals, well, they really don’t do much. Marigold petals are usually utilized by tea blenders to add some visual appeal to the dry blend. I can appreciate this practice, because I like it when a tea is not just flavorful and fragrant but also beautiful. Although I will say that since this is a sacheted tisane, it’s not really necessary to focus too much on the visual appeal of the dry leaf because it’s not so easy to see.
But since I don’t really taste much from the marigold, I have nothing to really complain about with this addition. It doesn’t really alter the flavor in a noticeable way – this is something I learned in my days as a tea blender, because I tested it back then. When I would flavor and blend teas, I tested every aspect to make sure that I was crafting the tea exactly the way I wanted it.
But maybe … this is the way Revolution wants it and as I said, I don’t really taste the marigold so it’s not a problem one way or another. I do like what I do taste: I like the combination of peppermint and chamomile. I like that I’m getting the relaxing and soothing properties of the chamomile along with the delightfully cool, crisp flavor of the peppermint. It’s a winning combination.
