French Super-Blue Lavender

GOOD GOD IS THIS LAVENDER.

Holy… what the… oh em gee.

First off, my hat’s off to Harney for the sheer beauty of this. The lavender blossoms are an absolute joy to look at. Seriously. The prettiest tea I’ve laid eyes on. They feel silky and petal-like, as if they were just plucked. A gorgeous, violet color. And the smell… it’s so in-your-face lavender that it’s almost spicy and pungent. I used a scant teaspoon for fear of my life.

So I steeped this one up, expecting the water to turn a brilliant lavender-blue, as shown on Harney’s website. Blue is my absolute favorite color. Instead, sadly enough, the tea remained very, very clear. Only when I poured it into my porcelain mug did I see that the clear-looking water was actually tinted purple. Hilarious-looking. And smelling ridiculously of lavender.

Don’t think this is some dainty, lady-like tea. It seems like it at first glance. You’d picture this tea as a beautifully dressed Victorian woman, nibbling on crumpets and flouncing around the town square. Well, if you thought that, YOU’RE WRONG.

This is STRONG. This is so strong it’s practically manly. It could probably drag freight trains by its teeth alone. So fearsome that it would guzzle Everclear – straight. And wear a lumberjack shirt. And possibly appear in Inglorious Basterds. It’d best Rocky in a fight. It farts in bacon and beer’s face. That brawny. The lavender gives you a one-two punch of spicy floral insanity. This lavender means business. Serious business.

I mean, for as clear as it looks, it’s just lavender. Very, very lavender. The spicy, heady beginning fades into a taste that’s akin to… lavender bath products. And then that fades into an overall very sweet floral note. We’re talking chamomile sweet here.

I’m so fascinated by it. I keep taking sips and mentally going “WOAH” and then shaking my head, trying to clear the taste out of my mouth. It’s almost peppery at points. It’s intense.

I have no idea where to go with the rest of the review. This tea is ridiculous. I doubt I could ever stomach another cup again, but if I decide to get in the ring with this beast again, I know for sure that it’ll win.

So, this tea was what made me sure I wanted to place my newest order with Harney & Sons instead of the four or five other companies I had been waffling between. I love just about any tea that has lavender in it, and the idea of a pure lavender tea excited me. I’ve had plenty of blends before, but this tea is just fluffy dried lavender buds and a few pale green leaves.

Now, the official website shows the tea as brewing up to a pretty shade of purple. I can tell you right here that it does not. This stuff is a strange, kinda sickly gray. I mean, it’s sort of purple tinted, but it’s nothing like the picture. And it’s like nothing I’ve ever drank before. But the aroma is heavenly. Deeply soothing, floral, and clean. Lightly sweetened, it’s exactly what I was hoping for. A very bold and slightly buttery, tingly lavender flavor.

But I understand that this is not for everyone. If you don’t like herbals and don’t like lavender, stay far away. But I’m definitely going to re-order and blend it into stuff. Yum.

I’ve always liked lavender—it looks and smells sweet. When I saw this tea on their website, I just had to have some. The dry purple buds smelled fantastic! Steeped for ten minutes, I was expecting a deeper color, but didn’t see it. This is straight lavender tea, so the wet tea buds smelled awesome!

In the cup I noticed a darker purplish color with a strong lavender aroma, although not as strong as the wet buds. Others have noted a soapy quality in the cup flavor. I can understand that description, but do not consider it soapy. That is just how lavender is…….some things are what they are. The aroma was awesome and the flavor was smooth, perfumey lavender goodness. I really enjoyed how it soothed my throat and stayed with me in the aftertaste.

If you don’t like lavender or scented teas you probably wont like this tea. For me it is soothing, smooth and delicious! A high quality, super lavender tea. This is a perfect herbal at night, when I sometimes avoid caffeine. A truly satisfying tea! :)) The tea still lingers on my palate—now—long after the cup is gone.

Cupped and Reviewed: Wednesday, December 21, 2011.

NOTES**** Tried steeping this at shorter periods. First cup about 200 degrees for 3.5 minutes, which resulted in milder flavor and perfume aromas. Second cup, 212 degrees for seven minutes, still very flavorful and aromatic. I think two shorter steeps is the way to go on this one, especially if you are overwhemed by the flavor and aromatics of lavender tea.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays everyone!!. Here’s a video if you care to watch it. It is one of my favorites! I just love her voice. :))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF70A6t4EiU

Cupped:Thursday, December 22, 2011.

Reviewed: Sunday, December 25, 2011.

Ricky’s relatively recent note on this made me remember I had a sample of it, and I thought that since I can’t risk any more caffeine tonight I might as well go for purple water.

The little purple buds looked like seeds to me. Tiny and oblong shaped. The smell of the dry flowers is terrific. It’s like any other lavender thing you’ve ever smelled. Yardley’s English Lavender comes to mind, but think soap, lotion, anything else — without the soapiness or lotioniness.

I steeped this and poured it into a glass cup. WHERE’S MY PURPLE WATER?!?!?!? In glass it was pretty much light grey, with a blue-violet tinge. I put the cup on white paper. Same. I poured the remaining tisane into a white cup. Same! Boo hoo. I am relegated to imagining my purple water. It’s like a cruel joke of some kind. I’m spinning in a time vortex back to junior high school where my school’s colors were purple and grey, and they gave me the grey pompom and forgot the purple. Purple fail!

But onward. The tisane smells floral, a lot less lavender-specific in its floralness… florality… whatever. It has a hint of that flowery polleny thing I didn’t like about the chrysanthemum tea. That makes me nervous.

Fortunately, the flavor is far from scary. It’s sweet. It tastes like lavender without being soapy. It has a minty sort of volatility that’s almost menthol-like, and a smooth, silky feel.

I love what lavender can do in teas when it’s part of a well-executed blend. It’s terrific in, for example, Earl Grey. On it’s own, it’s interesting, and it’s not unpleasant. But I have determined that plain lavender is not how I’ll choose to spend my tea, or even tisane, drinking time. I’m torn on how to rate this because it smelled great and didn’t taste bad to me at all. It’s just not my thing.

I was curious to see what the flowers looked like after steeping and whether they’d open up. They didn’t. But if anything they smelled even more intensely of lavender. It’s a beautiful smell.

The Final Sipdown: Day 1.3

The smell of this is knock you out strong. I thought that lavender was supposed to be calming? This smells like walking into one of those stores that sells dried flower arrangements and hand-painted wood signs that say things like, “If you don’t like chocolate, get out of my kitchen,” except the heater’s been on the blitz all day and it’s made the scent of the lavender and cedar potpourris about 20 times stronger than they should be. You know, like g-ma’s closet sachets took steroids and are staging a world takeover. As a half-test and half-joke, I took the empty sample packet and held it in front of my sleeping dog’s nose to see if he would do anything. I scared the living poop out of him and he jumped off the bed. He’s back up there now and fallen asleep again, but I’ll admit that that was mean. Sorry, Tucker.

Moving on. Taking the smell as a very loud hint, I decided to steep this lower than I usually would an herbal. The tea [not really tea] itself seems to be comprised entirely of dried lavender blossoms. If you’ve ever had lavender-infused anything, you’ll be familiar with the flavor of this tea as it does, indeed, taste of lavender. It smells of lavender, too. I’ve never known anything involving lavender, be it soap, lotion, cookies, artisan chocolates, or detergent, to be subtle, and this is no exception. It really comes through when I swish it around or as it goes down. There’s also a hint of an almost bergamot-like citrusy flavor running through it as well. The aftertaste, however is almost…minty. Kind of strange, but extremely refreshing.

Anyhow, the description for this tea doesn’t joke around. It is strong. And, it probably goes without saying, but if you don’t like lavender, you probably shouldn’t even be reading this log. If you’re not opposed to lavender and are prepared for a tea saturated in it, or are up for a rather singular experience, then I would suggest picking up a sample. As for me, I’m not entirely sure I’ll want to be drinking this again anytime soon, but I will leave you with these last three things:

1. The aftertaste really is nice. I’m enjoying it quite a bit.

2. It could be the late hour, but I find myself slipping into a rather relaxed drowsiness [as opposed to the typical drooping fatigue I get when I need to go to bed] and this tea may be the reason. I might, just might have to eventually get another sample packet from Harney to test drive this guy on those nights when I am plagued by insomnia.

3. Pretty. | http://bit.ly/cs5l1d

Samples Downed: 3

So I was expecting BAM STRONG LAVENDER FLAVOR EVERYWHERE. But instead I got a lovely, relaxing, floral flavor. After reading reviews I thought this one would be too much, but it’s very soft and sweet. I’m slightly disappointed that the liquid in my cup is gray/blue and not a purple. But I feel this is the perfect tea to drink before bed. I’ll be sleeping good tonight!

Made this one out of curiosity because I wanted to see the pretty color. I sipped it and tasted…lavender, just like bubble bath, just like Watkins Dry Oil, just like a sachet. It wasn’t as deep a color as I had expected but I had read that lemon would deepen the blue. It didn’t. It turned it a beautiful pink. Beautiful. We took pictures of it. I sipped it. I will hide under the bed prepared to bite ankles if anyone brews this tea and adds lemon to it in this house again. EVER.

Just gave this a try at Harney & Sons, SoHo. I have to admit, I am not a fan of herbal teas, and I didn’t even think I’d like it. I just wanted to see purple tea!

However, I was pleasantly surprised by the flavor’s depth. I imagined the lavender would be overwhelming, but I was completely wrong.

The way it was brewed it came out a beautiful purple color (5 minutes, not sure what temperature). It wasn’t brewed super-strong, so it wasn’t punch-you-in-the-face lavender. It really had a lot of unexpected subtle notes. It was very calming and soothing.

Not for everyone, but definitely worth a try!

This is one of the one of the only herbal teas I can stand to drink on a regular basis. I like to drink this before bed. This is very strong lavender. If you don’t love lavender, don’t try to drink this infusion. Seriously. I like it because it’s not cloyingly sweet like so many herbal infusions, but the flavor isn’t weak like so many of the not-sweet infusions.

I read that you should take this with sugar, I did and I regretted it. I suppose I must add too much or my palette just doesn’t agree with it, but so far I’ve never enjoyed sweetened tea. Regardless, this is a powerful lavender. The smell is unbelievable and the taste lingers around in your mouth well after your last sip.

I’m not a big herbal tea drinker, but I received this as a gift, and it’s quite lovely. To me, the smell and colour are more pleasant than the taste (although the taste is by no means bad). It smells and tastes quite strongly of lavender, if you hadn’t guessed already. The colour is a nice blue, although it isn’t particularly vibrant. Overall, it is a nice tea which I find suitable for when I’m reading before bed, but there are better tisanes out there.

If you like lavender teas, you’ll probably like this. If you’re familiar with lavender bath products, (and associate scents with tastes) I wouldn’t recommend it. It tastes like lavender soap to me. It’s pure lavender blossoms, so I have no quibble about the quality of the ingredients. I just couldn’t drink an entire cup because it smelled like I was drinking soap. It smells lovely though. :)