Lemon Licorice Balm

I haven’t reviewed this tea either yet, and I’ve had at least one cup of it! Well, I will tonight. This was from the August blend box I believe…I have since quit the blends box as I was just accumulating too much tea, and some of the flavors (sarsaparilla) were just not to my tastes. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted.

Onto this tea! The dry smell is very strongly cinnamon, a bit off-putting for me, as I am not the biggest fan of cinnamon. There is also a toastiness that kind of reminds me of coriander in it. I steeped it for just over 2 minutes with boiling water, and added a bit of honey because it just seemed to go with this blend lol. The steeped smell is also a bit toasty and still cinnamony but not as strong.

As for the flavor, this one is kind of interesting. There is definitely cinnamon, quite a bit of it, and that toasty flavor is still there. It reminds me a bit of Campfire Blend by Verdant actually. It must be the cinnamon-ginger-vanilla combo lol, and Campfire Blend has orange peel instead of lemon. Interesting! I don’t find the licorice to be too overpowering, yes, it does add a smoothness to the end of the sip, not unlike Bravissimo by DavidsTea though. I also am pretty neutral about licorice, and even like it in some blends. Not getting much spicy ginger, which I find a bit disappointing, as I am a ginger fanatic lol. The honey I would assume makes this sweeter and smoother, it goes quite nicely. I probably should have reviewed it without honey, but I just felt like adding it tonight. #noregrets

Haha, anyways, overall this isn’t a bad tea. I am liking it more this time than the first time I had it, maybe the addition of honey is what it needed. It’s maybe not a favorite, but it’s not a bad tea and I will gladly drink through the rest of the bag, although I might save it for when I actually have a cold. Thanks to Verdant for the opportunity to try this tea in the Blends Club!

This came as part of my recent swap with Cameron. Heh, after reading the reviews I see this tisane did not get very much love. It seems like licorice is a pretty well hated ingredient by many people, I don’t mind it in small doses and if it’s blended well. Since I am sick and licorice is supposed to be good for respiratory problems, I thought I’d give this one a try tonight. Between the licorice and the ginger, it should help something!

Eh, this is okay in my opinion, I probably like it better than most of the other tasters do but I wouldn’t say this is something I’d drink for the sheer pleasure of it, it definitely seems like a medicinal tea. I might have liked this better myself without the cinnamon because there’s a lot going on here, and the flavors are really competing. This has a bit of a really strange aftertaste as well. I don’t see this on Verdant’s site right now and I guess it’s no wonder! I think this will be really good for my sore throat though, I’m sure I can manage to choke down the rest of it.

I am tired of getting sick so often, who has an immune boosting tea that they really like?

Sore throat today. Yesterday involved a ton of talking between a flu shot clinic and then manning the table for senior day at my Walgreens store. I’m not sure how I feel about this. This is my first licorice tea so maybe that is what is making my throat feel funny, like it’s being coated. That could be how it helps sore throats? It’s not pleasant, everything just gets stuck in one place on the top back of my mouth. I don’t even taste this otherwise. I think I’ll leave this one for the boyfriend to try but I doubt I will reach for it again.

So I’ll preface this with the good news. My Indian (as in from India) cube neighbour shares most of my workday teas these days and he liked this one a lot. He’ll probably be getting the balance of this once I finish this pot, if I can’t foist the rest of the pot off on him also.

For me, well, I haven’t even tasted it yet but it’s brewed too hot to drink and when I smell the tea liquor, it makes my too-spicy senses tingle without even touching my tongue. Like the back of my throat is on fire. So I don’t have high expectations of this myself.

I did add some sugar because I find that sometimes that makes the cinnamon a bit more palatable for me. I can occasionally eat cinnamon rolls after all. (Not sure anything makes ginger palatable for me).

This is…sweeter than I expected, even with the added sugar. And the licorice…well. I can never really tell with licorice because I don’t hate the flavour itself but every time I drink a tea with a strong licorice flavour, I can’t suppress the shudder that goes down my spine. I’m really not sure what causes it. The ginger and cinnamon aren’t too strong but they’re definitely there, making this tea experience one to be endured rather than enjoyed. If there’s vanilla in here, I can’t tell. I can’t even really taste the lemon. It’s spicy licorice all the way.

Bleh.

…and another one bites the dust. I think i’m finally calling it quits permanently on the verdant blends club. I resubscribed at the promise of vanilla and the box has disappointed. I still have 2 to try, but neither one is peaking my interest and this one is awful. While i don’t mind licorice – there is too much of that in here and it makes for a sickeningly sweet lemon like brew that has a terrible after taste. I tried really hard to drink this but i just can’t.

Sigh… So I’m feeling pretty cheated by the Blends club this month… I was so excited for the premise of vanilla-centric blends. They reeled me in! And then they gave me a licorice tea and a floral tea. The third tea sounds like it’ll be good, but vanilla is not the main flavor there either. Ugh!

So I figured I’d get this one out of the way already, since I hate licorice root. Honestly, the dry scent isn’t horrible, but there’s quite a bit of ginger and I can definitely smell the licorice. And it actually smells really nice when brewed – like apple cinnamon oatmeal! Yum.

Unfortunately, it’s very licorice. I can’t stand that weird sweet aftertaste that licorice gives, it makes me want to gag. The other flavors in this tea aren’t bad, and I might actually enjoy it if it hadn’t been ruined by the evil emperor himself. I’m not going to rate this considering there is a large amount of bias in play here.

So, straight into the rehoming box it goes. If anyone is interested in trying this, just let me know, I have an ounce of it.

Daily Summary: 4 sipdowns, 155 teas remaining in cupboard