Herbs Teas & Treasures

I have a cold today, so I decided it would be a good day for this. I’ve taken echinacea before in pill form, or in cough drops or herbal blends but I’ve never tried it plain before. It’s actually rather pleasant. It has a mild taste that’s a mix of herbs and hay. It’s not at all bitter. I enjoy the flavor enough that it’s something I wouldn’t mind drinking regularly, so I’ll definitely keep some in my cupboard for when I’m feeling under the weather.

I love ginger. At a local Thai Restaurant I almost always order the Ginger Lover’s entree. Molasses Gingerbread is probably my favorite cookie. Gingersnaps are definitely up there, though. I always use loads of ginger in my stir fry. Unsurprisingly, I also like ginger in chai. I originally bought this in order to test it for perfecting my own chai blend. I make a point of trying ingredients for blends plain so I can hopefully learn to pick up on any subtle nuances between the products of various companies. This was my first time trying cut ginger, and it was a bit of a surprise. It’s surprisingly heavy. Maybe I shouldn’t be so surprised since it is a root, but there is a major difference in size between an ounce of rose petals and an ounce of ginger. I did add a tiny bit of sweetener when I brewed this, since I always put it in my chai, but no milk so I could taste the flavors clearly. It was noticeably sweet, which surprised me since the ground ginger I’ve tried in the past definitely complements sweet things, but isn’t noticeably sweet in tea. Candied ginger is a little too sweet for me in tea, especially if I want a generous kick of spicyness from it. This seemed like a happy medium. It had a mild candied-ginger sweetness, then a nice fiery aftertaste. I can’t wait to try it in a blend!

We’ve been having a problem with flies lately. I finally figured out last night that a couple of windows weren’t getting closed properly and I think that’s how they were getting in. Hopefully once we hunt down the ones that are in the house now, that will take care of the problem. This tea is lightly flavored, and quite pleasant, but not super exciting. The most prominent flavor after the tea itself is peach, but it’s very mild which is a bonus in my case as I find many peach flavored teas to be unpleasantly strong. There are other flavors lurking amidst the peach, but they are hard to pick out and mostly just seem to round out the flavor a little. If I had had more than a few sips of this, I might have more to say but unfortunately I stepped away from my cup for a few minutes and came back to find that a fly had drowned in my tea. A sad waste of a good tea. I may have more to say about this when I try it again.

My cupboard is currently heavy on flavored honeybush and chai, and I’ve really been craving floral tea, so I grabbed this to try. Unfortunately, one teaspoon of these really don’t give a lot of flavor. I’ve definitely had more flavorful rose petals in the past so that’s a bit disappointing. I’ll have to try again with a tablespoonful, but I probably won’t buy rose petals from this company again. Do any of you have a favorite company to buy rose petals from?

It’s been too long since I had peppermint in my cupboard. It gives me heartburn during the second half of pregnancy, so it’s been somewhere between six months and a year that I last had it stocked. It’s one of my favorite herbals, so it’s good to have it back in stock again. This particular blend seems to be a fairly mild peppermint. Tasty, but it could stand to be a little stronger. Still, it makes a nice cool drink on a hot day. Something is currently wrong with our air conditioner, it is cooling the air but not as much as normal. It’s really hot out right now, so even though it’s about ten degrees cooler in the house as outside, it’s still quite hot in here. That makes peppermint doubly appealing.

I love allspice in chai, so I decided to try it on it’s own. It has a pretty good flavor. It’s sweet with a mild and complex spiciness. It reminds me somewhat of clove, but sweeter and much milder. It did have a bit of an odd mouthfeel. It almost felt a bit slimy. It wasn’t bad, but I definitely prefer it in a blend. I’m working out my own chai recipe, which is rather fun. I think mine is going to end up being something halfway between masala chai and mulling spices: allspice, cassia cinnamon, clove, and ginger.

This isn’t for me. It has a mild, lemon-pepper flavor that reminds me a bit of cardamom. It tastes a bit medicinal and unpleasant to me.