Sympa-Tea

Since I liked the THC-free sample, I picked up a sample of the real product. While brewing, it smells of turmeric, ginger, and something else I didn’t pick up in the sample, probably marijuana.

I was right. The strong turmeric and ginger flavors mostly mask the THC flavor. I get a bit of a THC note at the end of the sip and in the aftertaste.

It says “feel the effects in 30-90 minutes.” Yup, starting to feel it somewhere in that range, lost track of time, lol. This is the one designed for pain. They have another one designed for sleep, but since I had already sampled this flavor, I went for it to compare.

The THC aftertaste lingers a long time, much longer than the other flavors. Huh, it’s getting harder to type. I think I’ll be going to bed early. This stuff makes me sleepy mostly. A bit floaty too.

Autumn Harvest! Spice night! This was a free sampler from the San Francisco Tea Festival. Normally the teas from Kikoko are cannabis-infused (this particular one normally contains 20mg CBD and 3mg THC) but the samplers were not infused so they could be given away at the festival (otherwise I would not have been able to bring it back to Idaho, heh). I have an intolerance to THC, anyway (tried it once for migraines and had a very nasty body rejection that ended in a most unpleasant cleaning of my bathroom… ugh). Sort of wish they offered CBD-only versions of their teas, as I would be sort of interested in trying something like that, but I digress…

Since derk described this one as a spice bomb and I’m a bit of a spice wuss, I made this as a coconut milk latte (I’ve always enjoyed how turm pairs with coconut milk as a flavor combo). This gives the spice blend a nice golden milk flavor, though it does have a little added depth. The turmeric is the dominant note, with that slightly earthy citrusy flavor. It somehow tastes a bit like a cross between orange zest and lemongrass for the citrus, but it’s very pleasant. The ginger is leaving a dull heat in the back of my throat, and I can taste a much more muted licorice root flavor there as well, and I imagine it would be much stronger and unpleasant to my personal tastes if I wasn’t using the sweet and creamy coconut milk to balance out the spice. The ginger, turm, orange peel, and licorice root is what is leaving the most impression; I’m not sure if I’m just not picking out the other spices, or if they are just being dulled since I went latte. In any event, this is a pleasant cup for my personal tastes, putting the spices into the zone that is giving me a bit of heat but not burning my mouth, and balancing the turm nicely with the sweet coconut, so I’m quite happy. It’s very soothing as a caffeine-free chai before bed.

This tisane was a San Francisco tea fest freebie from Kikoko, a vendor who makes cannabis infused teas. I didn’t stop by their table since I don’t use cannabis or CBD but they were offering cannabis-free tea tastings. This packaged sample is also cannabis-free for obvious legal reasons. From their website, it looks like Kikoko’s products are available in several dozen San Francisco Bay Area dispensaries.

This Sympa-Tea blend is basically a turmeric ginger chai. The sachet contains very fresh and potent-smelling chunks and granules of roots and spices including ginger, turmeric, orange peel, black pepper, star anise, cinnamon and licorice root. It also contains evaporated cane juice and gum arabic. The aroma and taste are very spicy and bright. I can pick up on every ingredient with ginger, turmeric and black pepper being the most prominent and star anise and cinnamon in the background. The orange peel brings out a bright note and the licorice is subtle on the swallow which is spicy hot! Definitely don’t give this a try if you’re spice averse.

For those that love the spice, Kikoko really nailed the blend and if I didn’t respond adversely to THC, I’d be all over their normal cannabis infused version. Not leaving a formal rating but I give this cannabis-free sample a 90+.