So I received the Butiki sponsored herbal box this week, and it was such a dramatic influx of tea – most of it I just added to my cupboard under the header “Butiki Sponsored Herbal Blending Box” or something like that, anyway. Some of the things in the box were really clearly labelled from specific companies though, so I’ve added those things into my cupboard separately – such as this tea.
This is one of a few ingredients in the box that I’ve either never had or never had plain; the latter in this case. Before mixing it with anything else, I wanted to try it on its own to know what I’m working with flavour wise. I brewed up about sixteen ounces of this and had half of it hot, and the second half iced. Steeped up this has a very dark, swampy olive green colour. It’s both pretty and kind of intimidating.
Of the hot and iced versions of this, I disliked the hot more than the iced. I found that while it tasted very, very grassy with a bit of sweetness and also a bit of bitterness that the hot version had an almost unpleasant medicinal tint to the flavour.
And on the note of ‘medicinal’ stuff – apparently there are a whole lot of health claims for drinking nettle leaf tea. I want to be really clear that I’m no expert on the health claims here nor do I necessarily believe all of them; and that’s definitely not why I’m drinking this tea. My personal belief is that any ‘health benefits’ I get from tea is a great added bonus, but I completely drink tea for the taste – and I review it for the sense of community, and to learn from other people’s experiences.
The iced version of this was very similar; incredibly grassy with sweet and pleasant bitter notes – however I didn’t taste anything especially medicinal. It was just the taste of very obviously herbal tea. I’d definitely drink this plain again were it iced; I’m not so sure I’d be as willing to try it hot again unless it was sweetened, and I don’t normally sweeten my tea so that’s probably just a safe no on that front.
At least it gave me some good ideas of what to blend this with for my next herbal mix!
