Secret Garden

I made a cup of this for my youngest daughter too, her ballet recital this year was an interpretation of the Secret Garden, so she was excited to try a tea called “Secret Garden.”

This is actually much better than I anticipated it being. The rose is strong, but I like the combination of rose and peppermint, it is quite agreeable.

This actually reminds me quite a bit of one of my own tisanes called Meadow Nocturne. Mine had a few different ingredients: honeybush instead of rooibos, and I also added a little bit of hibiscus and rosehips to enhance the body of the cup a bit. I also added a light amount of vanilla flavoring to the tisane. So this is lighter, a little earthier, and a little less sweet than mine, but, they are very similar otherwise.

And I am finding that I really like this. This is one that I could see keeping on hand for when I needed some help to relax and fall asleep, because I enjoy the flavor. It doesn’t taste overly medicinal, it just tastes delightfully floral and sweet and quite lovely.

I finished my stash of this last night. This is a relaxing caffeine free tea. See previous notes.

I have been on the hunt for a rose, lavender and peppermint herbal blend for a while, so when I got home from my meet with Mercuryhime and saw that she’d put a whole ounce in my goodie bag I nearly squealed with joy. Secret Garden, are you the tea I’ve been looking for?

This is not a pure rose/lavender/mint blend—there’s chamomile and rooibos in there as well. The chamomile I don’t mind at all since it’s good for getting sleepy, and there’s so little rooibos it’s not enough to trigger a headache. So far so good! I made up a cup of this last night and actually fell asleep before I could finish it so I guess that is definitely a good sign.

This is a really floral blend. I mean it has 3 floral elements! The rose is quite strong but there is not a ton of lavender, just a soft backing note. The chamomile is more in play than the lavender I think. The mint is almost as strong as the rose, which being a peppermint fan I love! And then finally there’s my old enemy Mr. Rooibos, which thankfully is doing little more than making the cup kind of red. There are some woodsy notes that I associate more with honeybush and no gross medicinal taste (or headaches, yay!).

All in all, a success! I would eventually like a blend that is just mint, rose and lavender… though probably it would be easier and cheaper to blend it myself. Thanks Mercuryhime!

I make my own herbal blend of lavender, chamomile, peppermint, and red rooibos. It’s a lot like this blend minus the rose petals, but it’s so much different. I feel like there is almost too much rose in this one. If you like rose then by all means go for this, but if you don’t I wouldn’t go near it.

One thing I do with my personal blend is keep all the ingredients in separate containers so that way I can put in a decent ratio as compared to this tea where everything is thrown together. I feel like if I would buy rose petals and put into my own blend at a different ratio that it would be so much better.

Alas, I know it doesn’t make sense to send all the ingredients separately, but I feel that it’s just better that way. I will stick to my own blending instead of buying this. I may buy rose petals and add as necessary though to mimic this blend eventually.

Secret Garden has been a staple in my cupboard for the last 4 years. Staying power like that just doesn’t happen much with me because I tend to crave variety, but I’ve always found this tea to be very soothing. I’ve always liked the combination of rose and peppermint and there is just enough lavender present to add to the flavor, but not be overpowering. The chamomile fits in well with the other ingredients and surprisingly, I can hardly taste the rooibos at all. In fact, I completely forgot it was there until I looked at the ingredient list.

When I opened up my steepster box I was a little underwhelmed with this tea. It smelled like perfume. Sadly it taste like it too. I wanted to give this a chance but it was to floral for me.

If anyone wants to trade for this let me know.

Ooh, I love this. If not for the fact that I can see rooibos (both in the dry tea and the fact that the brew is red), I would barely know this is a rooibos at all. It really is a garden, with chamomile, lavender, mint, and rose blended perfectly so that I can taste each one. This is a super-relaxing herbal and I might have to get some for when my headaches are bothering me or I can’t get to sleep. Delicious!