Herbal Infusions Tea

I love a eucalyptus tea! I taste the herbaceous flavor and a bit of fruitiness. Slightly too much herbaceousness, but it’s pleasant cold. My second cup was less herbaceous, more fruity. This is refreshing and different from other fruity teas I’ve had, though not quite well-balanced enough to order again.

I listed this as a sipdown last time I had it but then I found one more serving so not sure what happened there. Nevertheless, this is an actual sipdown and it is basically the same unimpressive cup as last time. A touch of orange. Mostly rooibos. A big ole cup of meh

Sipdown (238)

I have been lazy with my teas lately which means throwing the tea into a tea bag, pouring hot water over the teabag and then just forgetting about it. This has been sitting for I don’t know how long and it tastes like…not much of anything. Some rooibos. Some orange. Nothing remarkable. It sounded tasty though so thank you for sharing, Evol Ving Ness!

This tea tastes exactly like pfeffernusse cookies. Exactly. Especially the ones dipped in chocolate. Good thing, because I happen to have some chocolate handy.

http://www.daringgourmet.com/pfeffernuesse-german-iced-gingerbread-cookies/

Solid blend. I am surprised actually as I was expecting some sort of false generic tasting chai blend with a gaddawful abundance of cinnamon, but it turns out that it is truly lovely.

Steeped up—nice. Hints of cherry and chocolate and coconut and a bit of gingery spice in a smooth black base. Slight catch in the throat at the back of the sip as you would expect from the ginger.

The second steep is also more of the same deliciousness, just a bit weaker.

The dry leaf is very chai-like, a bit tinier bits of spice and such than what I am used to. The black leaf is plentiful, thankfully, and then that is interspersed with what appears to be shredded coconut, spice, and possibly cocoa nibs. But who knows, really, as there is no ingredient list, as per usual for HI blends. Thankfully, I am not allergic to anything that I am aware of, but people who are might want to avoid HI in general.

Oh yeah, and Canadians might want to avoid HI teas too as I was charged in US funds by a company that is based in my city here in Canada. So yeah. Never again.

Too bad. This is a nice one.

This is the second one of the Herbal Infusions Twelve Days of Christmas kit that I’ve tried.

By chance, I came across the collection online on Black Friday, the only day that it is listed for sale.

I liked the sound of the teas, and I liked the idea of supporting a tea company in my own city.

So I made the purchase, and suddenly, I am made aware that I am being charged in American dollars. Yeah, really.

I am being charged in US funds AND I am being charged rather high shipping fees, considering that the tea is being mailed within the same city and comparing shipping charges of other tea companies in my city. Ok then.

Furthermore, nowhere on the site before checkout confirmation did it mention that the cost of tea is in American currency. Nowhere on the site am I seeing shipping rates listed.

Not a good first impression.

All this to me seems a colossal failure of communication. And more than a bit of an ethics issue.

I did contact the company about my concerns. No change.

A couple of days after ordering the collection of teas, I returned to the site to review the teas I would be receiving. Gone. No trace of the Christmas teas listed. The collection is only sold on BF, and only listed then apparently. Yeah, whatever. I am not a big fan of gimmicks, but perhaps working on creating a buzz works for some people.

When I did receive the teas a week or two later, there were no ingredients cited on the packages or on a separate itemized list in the box. Fortunately, I do not have any allergies or firm dislikes. Not a huge issue for me. However, still.

Anyway, on to the tea. The first tea that I tried out of the box was just fab. I will write about it later.

I had to look up a Pavlova recipe because though the dessert was vaguely familiar, I had to refresh my memory of the flavours involved: meringue, fruit—mainly berries, and cream.
Promising, promising.

And of course, there are no ingredients listed on the packet. Nor any steeping parameters.

The scent of the rooibos was raspberry cream. There were a couple of cream-coloured chips, which I assume are meringue bits.

I steeped with water resting a few minutes past boiling.

The flavour is raspberry and a bit of cream. The smell is a bit of cough syrup. Occasionally, the cough syrup taste creeps into the tail end of the sip as well.

The second steep was more of the same. I poured it out.

Maybe more meringue and more cream? Maybe some raspberry bits?

Raspberry vanilla seems like a nice change from other rooibos flavours. The idea has potential. The execution could use some work.