Tops

This tea smells completely different from the dried lemon grass I sometimes get at the supermarket. The dry bagged tea smells incredibly fresh, almost green and slightly floral, with a hint of fresh cut cedar wood. The tea brews to a dark yellow. The flavour is a slightly spicy green fresh taste that lacks the sour taste that dried lemon grass can have. The flavour has a hint of lemon verbena, and the flavour of candied lemon rind. The spice references cinnamon a little in that it is mild and sweet. All together the tea has a fresh clean taste with a hint of lemon.

The company that produces this tea is kind of interesting because it has a mission statement to use local ingredients whenever possible and even grows some of the spices it uses on its own 20 acre farm if you’re interested there is more info here:

http://topsjamaicanteas.com/index.php

They have an interesting selection of herbal teas many including ginger and pepermint. ( They use to have one that had both of these which was a perfect anti-nauseant to have when flying) and some with local or regional herbs.

Anyways onto this particular tea. Hibiscus and ginger might be some people’s nightmare but this is actually quite nice. The sorrel is really not that tart at all. I think that this must be a sweeter, milder variety of hibiscus. The tea brews up a beautiful shade of ruby red as could be expected and it smells almost like a honeyed ginger lemon tisane. Both the hibiscus and ginger are relatively mild here and there actually is a hint of honey. The ginger is sweet and only mildly spicy and probably adds a lemon scent to the tea and the hibiscus is actually sweet only adding a little fruity tartness. It almost references cranberries. Its actually quite nice!