Sipdown! (3 | 401)
Okay, so a friend of mine on Instagram received a sampler from this company for review, and I was so intrigued by the ingredients that I had to order their sampler for myself. It’s a Hong Kong-based company focusing on traditional Chinese medicine-based herbal tisanes. Now, I’m not personally interested in the wellness benefits (if any) of the blends, but I just found the ingredients so interesting and the packaging so pretty that I couldn’t resist! The tisanes are packaged in individual 500 ml servings in clear bags so you can see all the large and pretty whole fruits and flowers inside. So here we go!
I chose this one randomly tonight, and it contains chrysanthemum blossoms, dried goji berries, and dried longan fruit. I followed the instructions and rinsed the ingredients first before steeping for 20 minutes. My teapot of choice is slightly smaller than 500 ml, but I figured it was close enough and I really wanted to use a glass teapot with a built-in strainer so the fruit and flowers were free to float around. It’s crazy how much the longan plumped up! I’ve never had longan but it seems quite similar to lychee, which I love.
So, on to the taste! The chrysanthemum is definitely the dominant flavor here. I’ve had the pleasure of trying a chrysanthemum tisane before, and it has a very unique herbal-grain-hay-peppery sort of flavor that’s difficult to describe. Perhaps a hint of cooling menthol as well? I don’t get much tartness from the goji, but I definitely taste the dried longan’s syrupy sweetness. Really, it’s actually a bit too sweet for me, it’s amazing how much natural sugar the longan fruit contributed. It tastes as though I added a very mild honey.
Overall, I’m enjoying the pot as I relax this evening. It’s not something I would drink regularly, just because it is a bit too sweet for me. I do enjoy the interplay between the honeyed notes and the slightly savory chrysanthemum though. Happily I have some chrysanthemum samples from Teavivre to content myself with!
(Please note that my rating is only in regard to the taste of this tisane, I can’t comment on any potential health benefits.)
Flavors: Chrysanthemum, Dried Fruit, Floral, Grain, Hay, Herbs, Honey, Menthol, Musty, Pepper, Sweet
I’m glad you got some flavor out of the chrysanthemums. They just taste like lawn clippings to me ;)
This is only my second time trying chrysanthemum, but to me they have such an interesting peppery taste!
If only a tea could help my eyes…