Tisanerie Mandala

Steeped this one up last night!

It’s such an absolutely beautiful looking blend (still my favourite mango pieces I’ve ever seen in a tea) but I always forget how simple it tastes. Mostly of lavender, but thankfully a more heady floral lavender with some sweetness to it versus something more savory or soap leaning, which can sometimes happen. The coconut adds some nice texture to the mouthfeel and a hint of sweetness but is otherwise easily missed. Not really any mango taste, despite the gorgeous appearance. Very relaxing aromatic blend, though!

Tried to make this again, but since I found it so thin last time I just used a fillable teabag and left the bag in the cup instead of removing it at a set point. I think this improved the overall experience; there was definitely a sweet spot where I was getting rich lavender and coconut and a hint of sweet, fruity mango. The mango really never gets to a strength that matches with the dry leaf smell, though. Unfortunately that sweet spot does pass, and the last few sips of the mug were far too heavy on the lavender and had a slightly sudsy type of taste before of this…

This is one of the teas that I picked up at the tea festival.

It was from a smaller booth that looked like a more “mom and pop” type of shop, focusing on herbal teas but also carrying a small selection of non-herbals. They had their teas in small little glass jars to smell – so we of course smelled all of them. If I’m being completely honest, most smelled pretty bad. However, this one jumped out to me and the person I was with as being basically the only nice smelling thing on the table – and it smelled really nice! Very sweet and coconut heavy, with a soft lavender and hint of ripe mango. I was fascinated by the idea of those three ingredients together – so I bought a small pouch to try out.

Another interesting thing about this blend is simply the cut/shape of the mango bits – I’m guessing this company is literally dehydrating and cutting their own mango pieces in order to create them, since it’s such a peculiar shape and not as consistently cut as something that would be machine cut. They’re neat though! And, they do kind of look like they could be sunrays – which is, I think, what “Fingers of the Sun” is supposed to be referencing.

Steeped up this is a bit disappointing – I knew it wouldn’t taste exactly like it smelled and I expected the taste of the mango to be pretty minimal since this is a flavouring free blend and dehydrated fruit actually contributes VERY LITTLE flavour in tea blends (it’s generally just there for visual). I thought that I’d be able to taste the coconut at least though – but I really just got a cup of nice, sweet and smooth lavender. Still tasty and at least lavender is very soothing – but ultimately not quite the same as the aroma/what I expected.

Definitely still glad I gave it a shot, though!