Fired Up Fennel

Dry leaf nose: Aromas of fennel and anise, with a light sweetness and a hint of chili.

Liquor: Golden clear.

Flavour: Very sweet and medium bodied. Strong fennel and anise flavour with a sweetness added from the licorice. The chilies make the liquor hot and spicy, especially if you get a whole one in the steep. Very interesting: feels soothing, yet hot on the throat and palate.

Well, all I can say is BLECH!

I shouldn’t have even tried this, as I vehemently HATE fennel and anise and anything that tastes remotely like black licorice, but…

It’s really cold out and windy out tonight*, so I walked into my store looking for something to warm me up and make my walk home a bit more tolerable. I didn’t know whether I should go with something spicy or just something comforting. So the SA brought this over and immediately I say to her “I hate fennel” and she states that she does too, but that this tea helped her stay warm over the weekend when it snowed and the store had no heat. Fair enough, I thought, but I sniffed a few others (mostly the other new Ayurvedic teas) as well. I was deliberating between this, Turmeric Snap, and New Delhi Delight. While the New Delhi Delight smelled warm and earthy from the cumin, I wasn’t sure I wanted to drink it, and I probably would have been happiest with the Turmeric Snap with the Ayurvedic blends.

That said, it is quite warming, and as I paid my $2.50 or so, I am drinking it all up…I can’t stand to see it go to waste. I will definitely have to cleanse my palate later, and make a tastier brew.

I’m not rating this, as I don’t think it is fair to, based on my bias toward the ingredients.

*for us wimps out west on Vancouver Island at least…

EDIT: since I rated Turmeric Snap on accident, I am rating this, and not a high one, but it is noted I have a bias towards the main ingredients.

Man, I’ve had a lot of tea today!

And I think I’ve found a winner from the bunch in this fiery sweet tea.

I love licorice, and licorice things. Fennel, anise, stevia (which I find a bit licoricey, do you?), I love it all. And this tea is just that, fennel seeds steeped with some tiny, wicked hot chilis.

This is the kind of kick I love! The tea is sweet from the fennel, but warms my throat with capsaicin heat. I got two little peppers in my infuser, so I figure my heat level was pretty high in this cup, and I definitely wouldn’t want it to go much higher, lest the heat turn to fire. I also wouldn’t steep it much longer than the 5 mins I did this time. But this is interesting and exciting enough that I can definitely see myself drinking a cup of this in the afternoon for a kick, or maybe even after a workout.

I guess this makes me a happy kapha, hey?

Not a tea I’d choose for myself, but my roommate brought some back with her after trying it at her local DT during Reading Week. So what the heck, may as well try it!

Both steeped and dry, the tea smells licoricey (anise), and is weaker in the hot tea. The taste is quite mild to begin with, and ends very sweetly, which is a bit surprising and odd. Reminds me of… . an icky experience I shouldn’t mention. Just the sweet aftertaste, I mean. I’m not tasting any heat though, which is contrary to what other people have noticed. There was only one chili in our pot though, so maybe that’s the reason.

Anyways, as I don’t care for licorice, this is definitely not a tea for me, but I imagine that if black licorice is your thing, you’d be all over this one.

When I was a kid and feeling sick, my Grandma used to make me a fennel tea with a touch of sugar. This one reminds me of that. Only my Grandma would never even think of fennel and chili peppers.

I loved the strong licorice flavor. It’s not everyone’s favorite but it is absolutely one of mine. It did remind me a lot of my Grandma’s tea but the taste was just so much bolder which I loved. It was kick in your face fennel. It was just so sweet and spicy and I loved the subtle kick that the chili peppers gives the tea. I made sure that I had at least one whole chili pepper in my steeper. I have a very high tolerance for heat and spice so it didn’t bother me but someone with a lower tolerance may have issues.

I was actually a bit surprised that David’s Tea went with fennel, anise and licorice for the complete kick you in the face licorice taste experience. It’s a very polarizing flavor and I am thrilled they were so bold with it. I love it. I am a big fan of anything licorice, fennel or anise and I love spicy everything. Basically, there couldn’t have been a more perfect tea for me.

Ugh. I knew this one wasn’t going to be for me but I tried it anyway. I love black licorice. Just apparently not in a cup.

Not going to rate this because I screwed it up but OMG it was awful. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to let the tea steep because we were on our way out the door to meet family for breakfast so I decided on an herbal tea since the “leaves” can be left in. Well not this tea. Ugh. After 20 minutes I could finally take a sip of it while driving (it was also in my Timolino mug so it stays super hot) and all I could taste was the chili pepper. So spicy. And I like spicy food but this was uncomfortably hot. I think I even burnt my tongue.
Looking forward to trying this one again when I can steep this one properly. Hopefully it will be better.

So I was a little weary when I found out David’s was going to revamp their ayurvedic teas. Then I had the Fired Up Fennel and I think I found my new post-lunch tea!

I am a Pitta-Kapha and I find the fennel, anise, chilis, and licorice perks up the body and mind.

I do wish this tea would include tulsi like the previous formulations, but I am very happy with this tea for kaphas!

I loved the smell of this tea, the fennel is very strong in the scent, I couldnt smell the spice at all. Once brewed this tea still smelled delicious, with a slight spicy smell. One I tasted it I could barely stand to have any, definitely couldn’t finish the cup. The fennel taste was strong and tasty but the chili kick was unbareable. I don’t usually mind spice but this was a bad spice kick. I even had my fiance try it and he loves spicy things and even he thought the spice was far too much. I am going to try this tea again without any chilis in it to see how it tastes without the chilis. I definitely wont be buying this tea again.

This tea is strange – there is really no getting around it. But its strangeness makes it interesting, and I like that. When I first encountered it in store, I thought it smelled good, but food good – I couldn’t really imagine how it would translate into a tea, and it kind of terrified me. I’m not sure if it’s just me, but I really don’t smell the licorice at all, and without the licorice it smells like curry – really delicious, but I didn’t want to feel like I was drinking liquid Indian food. You definitely taste the licorice though – the whole curry flavour of the fennel and chili peppers hits the back of my tongue, while the front is all smooth, sweet licorice flavour. Strange, but strangely delicious. I’m not sure that I’d be able to drink this often, but I definitely plan to keep some around. This seems like it might work magic on a cold without tasting like the general immune system-boosting teas you normally end up drinking – a plus, in my books. Next step: throwing a scoop of this into the rice cooker with some basmati…

Exactly like it sounds: fennel spiked with chili pepper. I steep it for 10 to 15 minutes to bring out the chili.

This tea has a really nice smell to it. I like fennel and spices, so had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately the chili peppers were a bit too much for me. They BURNED going down. I ended up removing most of the peppers from the dry mix so I can finish the rest of the tea.

It would be a good tea if you really like chili pepper.

spicy! very spice. too spicy.

Tried first today, having m second cup now. I think it is fantastic but if you don’t like black licorice, or spice, STAYYY AWAY. If you do, this is heaven, no other word describes it