Day 7 of the 24 Days of Tea.
If we’re going to talk about things I go out of my way to avoid in tea, mint is pretty high on that list. It’s probably just one step below licorice (or fennel or anise or whatever it wants to disguise itself as) so I wasn’t thrilled to find this was today’s tea. I’ve yet to find a mint tea I’ve enjoyed…
Well this isn’t actually half bad. Kind of luckily, since I’ve never been interested in this tea, I’ve never looked at the ingredients so I didn’t know what to have in mind. Mint, obviously; I expected that to dominate over the green base. Mint is certainly the dominant note in this, but it’s better than other mint teas I’ve had. I’ll make it clear that I actually like mint itself, I just don’t find the taste transfers to teas well (at least not the ones I’ve had) and I find DAVID’s mint is particularly bad overall. This does actually taste like real mint. I can almost imagine myself chewing on the leaves, and it’s really rather nice.
Well it turns out there’s a lot more to this tea than just mint. Of course, I still didn’t know that when I felt the characteristic sickly sweet, cooling back of the throat sensation of fennel. Yes, fennel! My most hated of ingredients! I thought this was my imagination until I came to the tea’s page and it was staring right at me in the ingredients list. I felt almost betrayed.
So given the mint and the fennel, this should be pretty close to my least favourite tea, but it isn’t. Maybe DAVID’s finally got their mint right. Maybe I lucked out with the fennel because I had this on a day I woke up with a slightly sore throat and was already contemplating a tea with licorice. Maybe everything else in this tea just balanced it all out. Whatever it is, I’m actually enjoying the cup I have in front of me. Not “buy it again” enjoying it, but “I’ll enjoy the rest of the sample” enjoying it for sure.
Flavors: Fennel, Mint
Preparation
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That’s interesting you got a fennel flavour. I got a whole whack of cardamom!
Weird, I didn’t get cardamom at all!
In fact, I don’t even think I saw a cardamom pod in my sample (or at least the half I used yesterday), that might do it.
Strange! It’s funny that I didn’t even realize there was fennel in there until you mentioned it. I still have half a sample left, so I’ll be on the lookout for more flavours next time.
Personally, licorice root probably is what I like least about this blend but luckily it’s subdued. I’ve been feeling under the weather lately so this tea has helped with that.
I’m thinking of keeping the rest of this around for when I eventually do feel sick because I think I’ll appreciate it more then.
That’s interesting you got a fennel flavour. I got a whole whack of cardamom!
Weird, I didn’t get cardamom at all!
In fact, I don’t even think I saw a cardamom pod in my sample (or at least the half I used yesterday), that might do it.
Strange! It’s funny that I didn’t even realize there was fennel in there until you mentioned it. I still have half a sample left, so I’ll be on the lookout for more flavours next time.
Personally, licorice root probably is what I like least about this blend but luckily it’s subdued. I’ve been feeling under the weather lately so this tea has helped with that.
I’m thinking of keeping the rest of this around for when I eventually do feel sick because I think I’ll appreciate it more then.