Harmonic Arts Botanical Dispensary

Day 7 of the homemade advent calender with the theme of plain herbals

I bought this a while back in the hopes I could make a copycat version of Earth’s Herbal’s Rootbeer Tea but never really got around to finding all the ingredients.

I have had this many times and never once enjoyed it much. It tastes good in a blend or when you ferment rootbeer, but not as a straight tea. I may have oversteeped it this time, however it never seems very tasty brewed for shorter sessions either. It tastes like a mixture of roots, sort of Earthy, decaying wood, musty clay soil, and licorice extract. Metallic or at least minerals, but mostly like what you expect a dried woody root to taste like. I can see how rootbeer might use this as an ingredient, but as-is it isn’t great. The astringency is similar to cheap, oversteeped green tea in that it is drying in the mouth and slightly bitter/tingly, which I didn’t expect at all.

I was rummaging through the GCTTB for something non-caffeinated when I came across this. My only real exposure to mullberry is eating the dried fruit in snack mixes and hearing my freind’s story about making herself sick from eating too many fresh ones when she was visiting Asia. A quick Google revealed that (aside from being silkworm food) white mullberry is touted as a means of helping regulate blood sugar. While I’m not one to buy into the latest ‘natural’ health fad it isn’t half bad just for drinking.

The smell is very vegetal and distinctly “green” much like an actual green tea, the flavour is actually quite tea like as well, though it’s more reminiscent of a roasted green oolong, particularly since a distinctly sweet note comes out after the brew has a chance to cool. I actually found it really enjoyable. I’d recommend this for someone who wants a drink that’s tea-like without any of the actual caffeine.

Mushrooms. Yep. And, oddly, tart lemon. Well, I’m not drinking it for the taste.

Earthy. Mushroom-y. Really odd tea, but I was expecting that considering the ingredient list. (What medicinal tea tastes ah-MAY-zing?!)

Sipdown (230)!

Turns out a smidgen of honey is all this one really needs!

I made a hot mug of it last night to drink while closing the store, and it was pretty good. With the honey in it, this actually tasted quite pleasantly nutty. Sort of like honey nut cheerios, but without the starchy/grainy cereal component. Other than that, it was its normal grassy self; you know, green tea like but not actually green tea? Now that I’m reflecting on it, I think it could be argued that this resembles Dragonwell in many way but with more body and a touch of a herbaceous quality.

Overall, this one really isn’t a favourite by a long shot and it certainly wont be missed in my cupboard either, but I don’t think I ever really had a “bad” cup of it either.

I lied, one more cup of tea before bed. Caffeine free though. I’m working on rebuilding my caffeine tolerance to the point of where it was a few years ago when I was drinking 15+ Western sized mugs of tea a day, sometimes three or four cups brewed up at the same time. I haven’t done that in over a year though, and my tolerance has severely deteriorated since then…

Baby steps, though.

The liquor colour of this is so pretty; it’s not nearly as dark at DT’s Mulberry Magic brews up but just like that one this mulberry leaf brews up a very distinctly “green” colour. It’s not as bright and yellow as a chartreuse; but not as dark as an olive or khaki green either. Somewhere in between, I guess? It’s pretty.

The taste is VERY vegetal with such a strong sense of umami to it. It’s like a big mix of stewed greens, spinach, kale, green bell pepper, and artichoke. I almost added honey to this ‘cause I’m still kicking the last of this cold, but decided against it at the last minute and I’m glad I did because I can’t see how the sweetness of the honey would have fit in with this flavour profile. It’s not bad though; I like the almost more savory quality of it, the earthy undertones, and very subtle natural sweetness.

It is A LITTLE weird though because the finish almost tastes a hint spicy to me; not unlike the softer, lingering spice of eating a small piece of jalapeno pepper. That’s sort of weird to me, ‘cause I’ve NEVER got that spicy quality from mulberry before. The wide array of vegetal notes? Definitely. Spice though? Not even close. Makes me wonder where that’s coming from…

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUaExjMc3IY&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=2

From OMGsrsly!!!

My package from OMGsrsly arrived last night, so I broke out a few of the teas right away including this one. I just drank DT’s Mulberry Magic blend a few nights ago so I wanted to try the straight mulberry leaf right away so I could kind of mentally compare.

My biggest fear was that this would taste nothing like Mulberry Magic and whole way I think Mulberry Leaves taste would be called into question but there were definitely similarities. While this isn’t as sweet and “cookie” like at DT’s blend the more earthy, vegetal, and grassy notes all hold up. In fact, the grassyness in particular is quite a strong flavour making me think that the added ingredients in DT’s blend are masking a whole lot more than I initially thought. If I had to pick between the straight mulberry leaf and DT’s blend I’d still probably pick DT’s blend but I also really liked drinking this one straight and will happily finish the rest of the generous sample that OMGsrsly sent me.

Also, I did make a whole pot of it and shared a few cups with my mom and sister. Brenna, my sister, hated it and said it reminded her too much of green tea (which she hates just like me) but my mom liked it enough to have two cups. Her big ‘observation’ was that it’d probably taste good with milk, which I don’t totally disagree with.