Ginger Sage Winter Spa Blend

IT’S HERE!!! Yes, this note is to this tea, but also my anxiously awaited YIXING POT! It’s BEAUTIFUL! I cannot get over the delicateness of it, how small and amazing it looks! I would love to season it tonight, but my darn presentation is tomorrow, and I am definitely not in the mindset for it, I want it to be special and I want to be free of all worries. I will be tomorrow thankfully, so I will season it then! I think I managed to include a picture in the comments.

Anyways, onto this tea review now! The dry smell of these leaves is very heady! I get a lot of the sage and ginger, and definitely a bit of burdock. It’s very spicy smelling. The blend of herbs also look absolutely beautiful, a myriad of petals and colors, it looks as if it has been crafted in a far away land.

The wet smell is at first very rose! Like a lovely perfume of it, with underlying scents of spice. I brewed this between 3 and 4 minutes, don’t know the exact time. The liquor is a light yellow color, and once the leaves are removed, the rose smell has been muted, and the spiciness is replacing it. This smells VERY healthy and like it will destroy any cold virus in its path! Mmm the spiciness is almost intoxicating!

Oh this is SO NICE. Perfect calm. It’s a very light tea, was not expecting quite so light after the aroma. The ginger is there, and I love ginger so this is excellent, I think I’m tasting the basil in there too (never have had Tulsi) and definitely some lemon. And a sage-y aftertaste, and a small hint of sweetness, probably the gogi berries and rose mixing maybe? I am very tempted to add a bit of honey like Bonnie did, just to see what happens. I am going to drink this cup straight first though for a bit, and maybe add it at the end, or have it in the next cup.

Overall, this is very good. Very light, and caffeine free to boot, I can see myself drinking this quite a lot. I’m happy I got 2 ounces haha, as it seems like a good evening tea, and especially good for if my throat is sore or I am sick to my stomach or basically anytime. Also would be interested to try mixing it with some of my Laoshan green or my little bit of Laoshan Black that I have left (might save that though). Thank you Verdant for another wonderful blend, and also for my teapot!!

ETA: Ok, I added a wee bit of honey near the end of the cup – the flavors seemed to come out a little bit more maybe. Hmm, I will have to try adding honey right at the start when the tea’s a bit warmer to see the results.

Right before David Duckler jetted off to China, gathering more tea for Verdant and to see old friends, he added this new Alchemy Blend. It seems that this kind of herbal blend is what you might find in Chinese tea stalls this time of year when people begin needing a remedy to boost their immune system.
I’ve been well so far this year, but my poor daughter and her 8 children have been on a merry-go-round of flu and colds. As soon as one child gets better, another one gets sick. (I keep my hand sanitizer in my pocket and had a flu shot!)

When I saw this blend, I bought a packet for me and one for her.

Another thing that really intrigued me was what I read about how you could customize this blend by adding your own tea to it.
You could add Black Tea, Green Tea or Pu’er and create a custom flavor blend you like. I knew what I was going to blend first for as my favorite. I just had to give this a try!

Today my herbal blend arrived! Off to the business of experimenting!

UNO
First I made a straight brew. You can’t tell by sniffing the dry tea how it’s going to taste so don’t be put off by the strong smell.

The actual liquor was soft and slightly sweet with a light lemon ginger taste. (Very light on both) Even the sage was light tasting and added a pleasing warmth that I liked.
I was thinking about how and when I would drink this blend. Before bedtime and if I wasn’t feeling well. I’d brew it longer though if I had a cold, and add honey. Aha! Honey was missing!

I added some clover honey and it was meant to be! The blend was outstanding! The sage, ginger and lemon tasted lovely with the honey and were soothing in all the ways you want an herbal to be. Fabulous!

DOS
For the next test, I made a whole POT of tea+blend with a teaspoon of Laoshan Black and a small little nugget of Pu’er.

OH SHUT UP!

For those of you who love the Emperial Breakfast Summer Blend…just imagine a slight ginger and lemon added and BAM! WOW! This was so good! I can’t imagine this being any better!

TRES
I mixed up a little Laoshan Green (probably too little green tea) and got a spicy reaction that was unexpected and a camphor sensation. I’ll have to try that one again.

The best, awesome taste for me was the Black Tea and Pu’er but you could really experiment and see what you like the best!

Quatro
That’s up to you!

UNO, DOS, UNO DOS TRES QUATRO…. http://youtu.be/QAvaJ0o_-9o

I LOVE this idea. My kind of BLEND to KEEP on hand all WINTER!

This is incredibly gingery tonight. Really delicious, especially since I gave into the talk about pancakes and ate too many pancakes for dinner.

With a touch of honey.

I only have one serving of this left and I’m super sad! My fave herbal blend of all time…will definitely be re-ordering ASAP. Wonderful winter evening drink.

I’m not going into much of a detailed note on this one as I see that there are a few reviews that go into pretty good depth with it. I will say that when I first tried this tea I was not impressed. I didn’t care for it at all and was ready to give it away. I tried Bonnie’s advice and mixed it with a puerh. That helped a little bit, but I still didn’t care for it.

Over the weekend my husband got sick and has passed it onto me. I started drinking this last night. I did it western style. I put a generous amount of farmers market honey at the bottom of my cup and proceeded to brew this. This my fellow Steepsterites, this is the nectar of the gods when you are sick. It tastes so much better, it makes me feel a little bit better even though I know I am not. And the nice amount of honey sitting in the bottom of the cup that hasn’t mixed in is just delicious. I get the feeling I may finish this before I have the chance to pass it off!

I’m leaving the rating off of it because I don’t like it when I’m healthy, but it’s good when I’m sick…so I’m not quite sure how to rate it, so I’m just leaving it off.

I’m still missing the 2 oz bag of sichuan caravan. I know I bought it a month ago, I know I haven’t drank it yet. I’ve looked through all of my tea shelves, boxes, etc & it is nowhere to be found. I’m pissed. Today is a day that I know I would really benefit from that tea.

So I’m drinking this instead. It has a lot of good & healthy things in it. I want caffeine too, so I mixed in some Laoshan Black (you don’t want to know how much). I’m gonna make a cup of this to go, & some decadent black tea also.

Can you tell I’m grumpy? I need a hug…

The dry tea is beautiful to look at. Peices of chopped sage, ginger and tulsi, gogi berries, flower petals. The dry tea smells strongly of sage and ginger.

The tea brews a light, but bright yellow liquid. It smells of sage, tulsi basil and tart lemon.

The taste is very strong sage and ginger. There is a tartness to it, which might be the lemon or gogi or both. I am also getting a very strong taste of the tulsi basil, and it tastes a bit salty to me. I got this same taste with Verdant’s Holy Basil Spa blend. The rose is helping to make the tea very smooth.

Definitely is a warming tea. I think it would make a great stuffy nose tea for sure. However, I would like to try it iced as well.

At first, drinking this tea surprised me. I was all, “what is THAT?” with the first few sips, and put it down because it seemed so darn odd to me. I’m thinking it was the sage, but really, I’m just guessing.

Now that it’s right cooled, it’s an amazingly delicious cup – little to compare to those first few hot sips. Sweet and savory, herbal licorice and berryish, I quite like this, and can see myself drinking it often.

Ehm…. this one’s just a liiiiiiittle too weird for me. And my mom. I knew as soon as I opened my (thankfully) sample packet that it was not going to be my thing. It smells quite spicy, and a weird sort of savoury that doesn’t appeal to me. Can’t say I’ve ever had sage in a tea, so that could be part of it, although there are a few “new-in-tea”-to-me ingredients lurking in here.

My mom thought it tasted much like drinking liquid turkey stuffing. She thought perhaps it would taste good consumed alongside a turkey meal. I… thought it tasted less spicy and less strange than it smelled, but… definitely savoury, and rather weird.

Both of us did agree that the aftertaste is quite pleasant, once you get past the sipping and swallowing stages! I think it may be the ginger that leaves a nice spicy aftertaste.

I think I can get why people mix this with a pu’erh or something, but I just don’t think this is something that’s going to appeal to me in any form. Just too strange.

This is one that the beau really wanted to try but I was hesitant about. Once I received it and smelled the dry leaf, I remained hesitant and the beau became a little more cautious. Last night we finally steeped it up and it turns out, neither of us likes it. I can’t adequately describe the taste other than medicinal. There is some ginger and lots of herbiness. It’s more savoury than I am used to and has too many ingredients, many of which I am unfamiliar with on their own so it becomes a jumble of tastes all at once.

If I can remember it when I am sick I will drink it then. Otherwise, it is not for us. The smell put me in mind of a foot lotion from Lush. Yes, kinda smells good. No, I don’t want to drink it. I think it will probably help when feeling poorly but other than that, blech. Sorry Verdant!