I selected this tea from a garden centre yesterday and my husband bought it for me as a birthday gift. We only went to the garden centre because they have a large aquarium and we have recently purchased a tank so we needed to stock up on little fish (we got 6 Cardinal Tetra and 2 Skunk Corydora). I have never tried echinacea tea before so I thought it would be lovely to try it, it even says on the bottom that it is great to drink in winter. In February now and where I live had been getting colder and colder each day so I thought it would count as winter conditions.
My family had booked a restaurant for my birthday so with the tea purchased I rushed out of the shop and headed on home to start my ritual of wondering what to wear and what make up to use (this takes me hours to decide and in the end I am never happy with the result) so as you can imagine I was busy all night. Then when I was being picked up to head on down for dinner I opened my front door and found that 4 inches of snow was settling on the ground and it was still pouring down. The rest of the night the snow became more violent in the wind and more and more settled onto the ground. On the drive home there must have been 10 inches of snow everywhere and it meant it was one slow and arduous drive back.
Waking up this morning and feeling a little rough from my Jack Daniels last night I remembered that I had bought a winter tea. Either I had good timing buying the tea or the heavens has opened up and given me a birthday gift as now I can drink this tea as designed. So as I sit here with my faithful cat friend by my side and wrapped up in two blankets here is my analysis.
Colour: Golden brown honey.
Smell: Very peppery and herby.
Side Note: The tea bag floated (no matter how hard I tried to sink it).
Taste: Similar to cardamom pods but not quite as strong and with a peppery kick that tickles my lips. It reminds me of Indian Masala tea but on a weaker scale. It’s very warming which is why I imagine it says to be used as a winter tea, as I drink more and more my body seems to be tingling all over with relaxation and warmth. It is a very odd feeling and appears to be making my stomach feel full. For me the taste is not desirable but it is certainly interesting and with quite a few tea bags left I will drink this again but after this snow has cleared it will not be for a while.