The colorful label for Root Down Tisane from Swallowtail Tea features a yellow and orange sun on the horizon. It must be a sunset, as this tea is perfect for after dinner or before bed.
This tisane is driven by licorice root. I’m a fan of licorice in all its forms, including as a root in herbal teas. Licorice root is a natural sweetener, adding a bit of spicy anise flavor along with its sugary perk. Licorice is also a throat soothing herb, so it brings a very smooth mouthfeel and soothing sensation.
Beyond the bold licorice, this blend features some cinnamon warmth and just a ghost of mint and orange peel. There are also dandelion root and nettle leaf in the blend, but they are more for color and health benefits than taste. I wish the mint and citrus were just a little bit bolder to add more flavor texture to the brew.
Root Down Tisane would be a great blend for those who are tired of herbal teas having ginger, chamomile, or even rooibos, as none of these ingredients are included. This blend is all licorice and herbs, and is a nice change of pace for a naturally caffeine free blend at bedtime. I’ll have to save the rest of my tea sample for when I need to set down some roots and snuggle in for the night.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Swallowtail Tea (Red Rooster Coffee)
Description:
This signature tisane was artfully crafted as a warming and supportive infusion. Perfect as an after dinner treat.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
The Stuff of Fairy Tales: Organic Nettle Tea from Republic of Tea
Nettle makes me think of ancient forests, fantasy novels, or fairy tales. I imagine a character moving through the woods getting stung by nettle, or collecting herbs like nettle for a tea or potion. The herb’s prickly reputation is featured in folk tales where the hero needs to grasp a bunch of stinging nettles, or make a cloak of nettles to fend of some malicious force or break a spell. (As a side note, apparently there is a world nettle eating championship. Who knew?)
All that magic in mind, how does nettle taste as a tea? The Nettle blend from Republic of Tea tastes slightly green with a strong flavor of creamy vanilla, and just a hint of mint. It’s unclear to me if the creaminess if from the vanilla flavoring or part of the nettle. This brew has a smooth and buttery mouthfeel like certain green teas.
I did a little research and the internet tells me that nettle leaves should taste reminiscent of spinach or cucumber, green and mineral in flavor. I’m not picking up on anything strongly like that in this blend, the vanilla clearly takes over. Maybe I’m in luck, as a spinach tea doesn’t sound all that appetizing.
On its own merits, the Nettle blend from Republic of Tea is a easygoing herbal vanilla brew, with a hint of something green and minty. I’m glad such a prickly herb was transformed into something so soft and comforting.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: Republic of Tea
Description:
Nettle leaves have been known to support the body in a variety of ways. Studies have shown that it can help reduce joint inflammation and can help support kidney function.* Nettle tea has also been popular as a tonic for centuries to help women through all phases of life- from menstruation, through pregnancy and breastfeeding, to menopause. A touch of mint and vanilla makes this tea a joy to sip.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Wellness Tea-Bone Repair from The Virginia Tea Company. . . .
It is the beginning of a new year and I’m sure if you are like me, you are seeing a ton of detox and healthy wellness teas in your social media feeds. I’ve never been a big fan of good for you herbals but I’ve always enjoyed herbals that are full of dried fruit. Recently I’ve noticed my taste buds are starting to change. I’m no longer craving the floral teas like I used to but am finding myself really craving herbs and spices like ginger, spearmint, peppermint, chamomile, and so on.
So today I thought would be a great day to try Bone Repair from The Virginia Tea Company. I am a huge advocate for natural herbal remedies to cure what ails you. Not that I don’t grab OTC drugs when I’m in need, but I do prefer to try out a more natural approach for certain body issues I have.
Bone Repair is a mix of nettle, St. John’s Wort, chamomile, dandelion, ginger root, and peppermint. All are organic. This tea’s description on the site goes something like this:
High in vitamins and helpful bone minerals, these herbs make this tea a wonderful enabler for strengthening your body’s skeleton.
Regardless of the health benefits, I have to say this tea is amazing. Herbal teas to me always have that herbaceous feel to them and this tea doesn’t really have it or maybe I should say that feel isn’t overwhelming.
There is a light sweetness mingled with a hint of spice surrounded by a refreshing cooling mint aftertaste. I can’t say that I’ve ever had such a smooth herbal tea like this before. I have literally had four cups of this tea today alone (resteeping the same bag even!).
I haven’t had some of these spices and herbs before so I can’t say if what I’m tasting is from this or that. All I can say is even if I am not in need of bone repair specifically-this tea delivers a refreshing, soothing, and calming flavor that could be enjoyed any time of the day.
Really happy with this one and I have a feeling that this will be a re-order for me. Plus, there is a cool option to get tea accessories added in for just a bit more. You have to love that option!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: The Virginia Tea Company
Description
High in vitamins and helpful bone minerals, these herbs make this tea a wonderful enabler for strengthening your body’s skeleton.
Ingredients: Organic Nettle, Organic St. John’s Wort, Organic Chamomile, Organic Dandelion, Organic Ginger Root, Organic Peppermint
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Nettle Leaf Herbal Tea from Tealux
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal/Tisane
Where to Buy: Tealux
Tea Description:
It may be a brash statement to say that one prickly green herb is the panacea for almost everything that ails you; but, in the case of stinging nettles, it’s mostly true. If there’s one plant to have on hand at all times that provides a cure for arthritis, an herbal treatment for allergies, relieves hair loss, treats Celiac disease, bleeding, bladder infections, skin complaints, neurological disorders and a long list of other conditions — it’s nettle leaf.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
So after Butiki closed up shop they put together two ‘travelling tea boxes’ for Steepster; one was an educational box with samples of various straight/pure teas and the other was a box of just herbal ingredients so people could try blending their own teas. While I didn’t participate in the Educational box I did get in on the herbal one! Since I was the only Canadian on the list, I was at the end of the shipping list to save people some shipping costs (darn postage; why do you have to be so expensive!?). Along the journey, other herbal ingredients were added to the box including this Nettle Leaf tea from Tealux!
This is one of a few ingredients in the box that I’ve either never had or never had plain; the latter in this case. Before mixing it with anything else, I wanted to try it on its own to know what I’m working with flavour wise – this also gave me a good opportunity to review it! I brewed up about sixteen ounces of this and had half of it hot, and the second half iced. Steeped up this has a very dark, swampy olive green colour. It’s both pretty and kind of intimidating. It reminds me a lot visually of what steeped up mulberry leaf looks like.
I started off by trying out the hot half of the two versions. I found that while this tasted very, very grassy with a bit of sweetness and also a bit of bitterness that along with those bold flavours was an equally bold medicinal kind of taste and aroma. It reminded me a little bit of the smell of a dentists’ office – an environment I’ve had a lot of exposure to recently. Of the two halves, this was definitely the one I least liked.
And on the note of ‘medicinal’ stuff – apparently there are a whole lot of health claims for drinking nettle leaf tea. I want to be really clear that I’m no expert on the health claims here nor do I necessarily believe all of them; and that’s definitely not why I’m drinking this tea. My personal belief is that any ‘health benefits’ I get from tea is a great added bonus, but I completely drink tea for the taste – and I review it for the sense of community, and to learn from other people’s experiences.
The iced version of this was very similar; incredibly grassy with sweet and pleasant bitter notes – however I didn’t taste anything especially medicinal and the aroma seemed less powerful too. It was just the taste of very obviously herbal tea. I’d definitely drink this plain again were it iced; I’m not so sure I’d be as willing to try it hot again unless it was sweetened, and I don’t normally sweeten my tea so that’s probably just a safe no on that front.
At least it gave me some good ideas of what to blend this with for my next herbal mix! Or I might just finish it off plain too; this was one of the ingredients in the box that was actually in a reasonably small quantity.
Awakening Tea from The Algonquin Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal/Functional Tisane
Where to Buy: Algonquin Tea Co.
Tea Description:
Blends nutritious and supportive herbs with stimulating herbs, producing a balanced, uplifting tea that energizes without the side-effects of caffeine.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
This is tasty … for an herbal tea. And that last part is the problem. I’m not big on herbal teas. I never have been. I’d rather drink Camellia Sinensis. And unfortunately with the Postal Teas 9th edition box – all three selections were herbal teas. Herbal teas from Algonquin.
Now, granted, all of these Algonquin herbal teas were unique and quite different from anything that I’ve ever tried. And that’s both a blessing and a curse because while there may be an ingredient or two that I recognize in this blend, for the most part, I’m drinking herbs that I’m not really familiar with so it makes it difficult to recognize and reconcile what I’m tasting.
But I still tried it because that’s what I do. I taste teas and then I write about what I’m tasting.
In this blend, the most easily identifiable ingredient and flavor is the mint. It’s crisp and adds a nice, refreshing element to the cup. There’s ginseng – not a favorite herb of mine. I can taste the earthiness of the ginseng. Nettle is in this too and I’m glad to report that while I get hints of the bitterness that goes with Nettle, it’s not a strong or dominant flavor.
Then there are some other ingredients that I’m less familiar with, like alfalfa (oh, sure, I know what it is, I just don’t recall having it in a tea any time recently), astragalus, angelica, joe-pye and calamus. It also has labrador, which I’m pretty sure I’ve had before, but again, it’s not something I’m familiar enough with to taste it and say, ‘yep, that’s labrador’ with complete confidence.
The combination of these ingredients is supposed to be a stimulating and energizing tea without caffeine. OK, but, I kind of like my caffeine. The only time that I’m not up for some caffeine (tea caffeine, that is, not coffee!) is when I’m getting close to bedtime. So, I can’t say that I really want an herbal, caffeine-free stimulant. I like my stimulants caffeinated, thank you.
Overall, it doesn’t taste bad. It tastes minty with an herbaceous and earthy background. Mint is the top note. It’s tasty. If you’re looking for a caffeine-free stimulant, you should try it. If I were looking for a caffeine-free stimulant, I might first consider that I’m trapped in a bad dream. But if after determining that I’m not in a bad dream and I’m not having some kind of mental breakdown and I still – for some unfathomable reason – want a caffeine-free stimulant, this is something I’d consider.
I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to learn that the 9th edition box from Postal Teas was all herbal selections. While I did enjoy these herbal teas for the most part, herbal selections just don’t excite this tea drinker all that much.
That said, these teas from Algonquin were alright and I drank them and didn’t hate them. There were definite “pros” to them. For example of the three herbals that I tried, there were no hibiscus in any of them! Nope, not even a little bit of hibiscus. Big bonus points to Algonquin for crafting herbal blends without that horrible hibiscus stuff. And I also appreciate that they’re unique. There are ingredients that I’ve not been exposed to, and like I said, that’s both a blessing and a curse. I would like to be able to taste something and say “oh yeah, that’s the __.” But, I can’t really reconcile some of the flavor notes because there are ingredients that I’m not so familiar with.
But the benefit is that it’s something different. This doesn’t taste like the average herbal blend from ABC company, you know? So like I said, blessing and a curse.
Overall, I’d say that while my experience with this 10th edition of the Postal Teas subscription was not the most exciting and thrilling of boxes that I’ve received over the past 30 days or so, I didn’t dislike the teas that I drank from the box. And that’s a “pro” too.
