Cretan Life

First time drinking ‘Greek Mountain Tea’ (otherwise known as Ironwort but that doesn’t sound like something you’d want to drink) and I had no idea what to expect! My brother and his girlfriend went on holiday to Crete last summer for his birthday, and brought this back with them for me, which was super sweet of them.

I looked around for similar reviews and couldn’t find anything to tell me what it should taste like, or steeping temperature etc. I ended up guessing with boiling because it’s a herbal, and luckily my guess seems to have paid off. I made myself a big pot of this, and I’m sipping away at it with the leaves left in the infuser inside the pot. I used 3 spoons just as suggested, but the leaves were so big and fluffy (and so soft and downy!) that it was a struggle to get them into my measuring spoon and I was a bit worried I’d either under or overleafed. The package it came in said 2-3 minutes, and at first because the flavour was so delicate after that time I thought I hadn’t used enough, but now a good half hour later it’s pretty robust. I think if I weren’t making a pot like this though I would definitely have to use more leaf per cup.

At first tentative sip, I was surprised by how much it tasted like a cup of hot lemon water. After leaving for a few more minutes, something herbal like nothing I’ve ever tasted joined the lemon note, and overall it actually gave a pretty similar impression to a lemon verbena. The longer it’s steeped, the more pronounced the herbal note is getting. The lemon is still there, but it’s like a citrus mist over the herbaceous body. There’s a pleasant tingling mouthfeel after the sip, and a mild sweetness takes over with an almost menthol herbal zing on the tip of the tongue. Now that I think about it, the herbal note does have something akin to fresh mint about it. Fresh mint mixed with something else that’s harder to place… thyme? Nettle? Actually, it reminds me of ayurvedic. Yep, that’s as close to a description of this unique herbal as I’m going to get, I think. Body of verbena and ayurvedic, veiled with sweetness, fresh mint, nettle and thyme, with a very subtle hint of smoke. I’m pretty happy with that for now.

It’s a nice herbal. It doesn’t blow me away flavour-wise, but I’m really enjoying it and it’s nice to try something unusual which I hadn’t even heard of before. I read up on the herb too and apparently it’s really good for anxiety, which is a huge bonus for me! It’s also supposed to be good for upset stomachs, colds etc. so I’ll have to bear that in mind! I do like a tea that can multitask. (: