Bergamot Sage

Today is a no-caffeine day for me. I have to wake up painfully, depressingly early tomorrow (about an hour after I usually go to bed ;~;) and on top of that I have to spend the whole day with my in-laws. Both of these situations definitely call for a soothing herbal blend, and it’s way too early in the day for my usual herbal tea (which puts me to sleep in about 10 minutes). However, I’ve had this tin sitting around for a few days and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out!

At first sniff I was a little confused, as it smells like straight-up peppermint. I have peppermint tea, so I was really hoping there’d be hidden complexity here. Once brewed this is a very unusual blend—the peppermint is there only as a background note, with the citrus and sage a lot more prominent. I wasn’t sure about sage in tea but I LOVE it. So comforting and almost savory. There’s also a soft pine taste going on, and this really feels like a holiday tea to me. It reminds me of eating leftover stuffing and sitting around the Christmas tree! But it’s not so seasonal that it feels weird to drink it now—in fact, the citrus gives it a bright, spring-y feel as well. I am usually just so-so on herbal blends, but this one is so complex and tasty that I think it is going to become a cupboard staple.

This one really surprised me. It’s pretty good! I’m sure the peppermint had something to do with it :) I can taste the peppermint, sage, and bergamot. The Lemon is noticeable but blends in with the bergamot mostly. There is a slight sage aftertaste a little bit more sage than peppermint. This is very different but pretty good.

I got a sample of this tea from Mike to review for his tea blog It’s All About the Leaf. I picked out a couple different Rishi herbals blends to try because I’d discovered that the only non-caffinated teas in my cupboard were pretty muche exclusively rooibos and honeybush. A little variety wouldn’t hurt.

The dry tea smell liked Christmas dinner in a field of peppermint – no really! The scent is a blend of savory sage and mint with no bergamot apparent to my nose. The taste of the peppermint is quite dominant in the tea itself, but the sage and thyme provide a strong counterpoint to it. There’s not a lot of bergamot really that I can pick up – a faint, sweet citrusiness is all I get from it.

I find the whole thing to taste a bit medicinal, like the sort of thing I’d drink if I was sick with the flu. All the same it’s a nice alternative to the typical mint tea and I think it would make a nice drink after a big meal to aid digestion.

Pleasantly surprised by this very interesting tea blend. Works well with or without honey; smells pepperminty in loose leaf form, but more subtle and nuanced when brewed with hints of lemon, and equal parts peppermint and sage, when brewed.

These flavors don’t clash as I had been expecting: The initial flavor was peppermint, but secondary flavor of sage that slowly builds up. Very pleasing light sage aroma, too, almost like an herb garden.