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In response to Mastress Alita’s prompt for National Absurdity Day, I unearthed this very old tea. (I think the detox label was keeping me away.) It turns out I don’t have many weird teas in my collection, but this one had ingredients I’ve never tried, including spruce, heath milkwort (whatever that is), and gentian root. As recommended, I steeped around 4 g of material in 355 ml of water for 7 minutes and then resteeped it for 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of fennel, mint, eucalyptus, earth, and spruce, roughly in that order. It has a peppery quality that, along with the fennel and mint, reminds me of something you might drink for a cold. There’s a lot to pick apart in the taste. The dominant note is of mint, followed by spruce, eucalyptus, some floral elements, earth, pepper, rosemary, and fennel. I was expecting this tea to be bitter, but it’s actually quite mild and pleasant. It has a slight creamy, mouth-coating finish and some sweetness, maybe from the fennel. The second steep was slightly less intense, but had most of the same flavours.

This is one of the more sophisticated herbals I’ve come across. I find most tisanes to be either too sweet or too predictable, and this was neither. I’m not sure all the ingredients needed to be there, but they were nicely balanced. Too bad this company is no longer selling tea, as I’d consider buying this again.