This tea is very nice, I wasn’t sure what to expect because I’d never heard of gynostemma before. It also didn’t come with directions, there’s lots of gynostemma teas and they very quite a bit in how long they should be steeped, how much you should use, etc. For this particular tea, I used about a teaspoon for 8 oz of water. My first time making it, I let it go for 2=3 minutes, thinking herbal tea takes forever, but, while I was steeping it I came across some sites that said they steep their gynostemma for less than a minute! One page said 20 seconds. I quickly poured that into a cup, and the taste wasn’t unpleasant, but, it wasn’t that great either. So, honestly not sure whether i didn’t let it brew long enough, or let it brew too long… I figured my next cup I can always try the real quick steep and if it’s not good, just steep the next one longer.
The second time making it, I steeped it probably about 35 seconds. The first steep of this second batch was fairly light in color, but, it had a very pleasant and sweet taste. The second steep released a lot more color into the water, but, I suck at describing color, just it was a lot more obvious it was ‘tea’ in the second steeping. The taste was more noticeable. It’s a really delicious tea and this continued onto my 4th and 5th cups. Each cup has a slightly (but not sugary) sweet taste to it. Given how quick it is to steep as well, it’s a great tasting convenient cup of tea that supposedly gives lots of health benefits. It’s definitely ranking up there in my favorites.
