Sonnentor

English can be so misleading. Lime, while it is linden; Tilia in Latin. Natural remedy against cold. So yes, Michelle, I have another tea to the rescue. Though I have no more sore throat, but just a common cold with lots of blowing my nose. And everything at work was taking me twice as long as usual.

Anyway, I bought this tea while shopping on Sonnentor; partially as a trying something lovely — I still remember http://steepster.com/teas/aalia/95296-lipovy-kvet-ze-svojetic which I sent to derk and it seems it’s not carried in my store anymore, which is sad, and partially because I just needed something for free shipping I think. And at last, herbal tea against colds are always useful.

Well, it is lovely, though probably not that much as previously mentioned one. This is more about the flowers itself though (yellow parts) while the other one was more about green part of the flowers.

Honey-ish, sweetish, floral cups which helps me with getting mucus out. Soothing my throat, highly flavourful (but also high dose), just something that should be tried by anyone who likes caffeine-free teas.

A sipdown! (M: 10, Y: 72)

A sipdown indeed; but I did not had the final mug. It was my dad… and I just remmber trying it, but I haven’t wrote any notes… and now it’s gone.

Can’t say much, as I just don’t remember it much. But orange flavour was there, and although not so strong as Fresh Orange by Teekanne which is staple in our cupboard, it was finished and apparently it was great too. At least my dad drank it almost all by himself, while he wasn’t confident on first sight.

Finally, the last of the Sonnentor teas – thank you Martin <3

Fresh herbs are the best. The quality here is outstanding.

No frills, classic herbal tea taste with ingredients you don’t find in many, if any, American herbals — applemint, hemp leaves, birch leaves, hazelnut leaves, mallow, mugwort, sunflower petals and bee balm (plus peppermint). Some of the leaves – like birch and hemp – are quite large! The mints taste more spearmint-like than the mentholic NW American peppermint, but it’s still nice and cool. Overall, a very clean taste with a sweetness that is balanced by both tangy-bright and earthy qualities. When leafed heavier, I can taste something like fruity apple. A certain thickness is cut by a mild astringency which be felt in both mouth and body. Good after-dinner drink and also a refreshing first sip of the morning should I have fallen asleep the night before while waiting for the mug to cool.

It’s catch-up time: the heat was so miserable for such a long stretch, I didn’t want to waste new tea or samples from friends on a cup that got two sips before my internal temperature started to boil. So with apologies for the delay, thank you, Martin, for my first Sonnentor tea!

This is a bagged green tea with lemongrass, simple and understated. The lemongrass whittles any vegetal edge off the green tea base and adds a little crispness to the cup. The Sonnentor website calls it “zingy.” I think I’d tweak that down just a little bit, maybe to “perky,” but it’s all relative, isn’t it? Tomato, to-mah-to…

This was gifted to me from Derk (who I believe got it from Martin), thank you both!

It has a pleasant aroma… citrus forward, leaning a bit more pithy-orange, with a fair bit of florality on the nose as well. Tried a sip and it tasted vaguely citrusy, so I decided to take Derk’s suggestion and add the second teabag to the cup to try to strengthen the flavor. That made a world of difference! It’s pleasantly tart with a nice citrusy flavor that falls somewhere between kumquat and orange for me. A subtle florality comes in towards the end of the sip, mostly of elderflower but I can get the lavender in the aftertaste. Very pleasant, and I’m happy to get the chance to try it!

Acquired through the generosity of Martin! Thank you, tea friend.

I got this because of the ingredients (I love Sonnentor herbal teas for their creative blends):

blackberry leaves sweet org, hibisucs org, black carrots org (10%), mango org (10%), buckwheat herb org, lemon balm org, pineapple org (7%), bananas org, aronia org, orange peel org, lemon peel org, liquorice org, chili ground org (1%)

Blackberry leaf sweetness up front, followed by muddled, earthy fruitiness and a hint of chile pepper heat in the back that’s too mild for me, but probably perfect for others.

I’ve nearly finished the entire box but can’t seem to articulate my impression beyond “strange” mostly due to that front-loaded sweetness. My personal past Love Story was spicier and punctuated by plenty of acidity — not so sweet and smooth and down to earth :P It might be fun to conceptualize my current relationship in tea form. What kind of ingredients bring to mind love? And goofiness. Lots and lots of goofiness!

Possibly a first acquaintance with sea buckthorn? Thanks to Martin’s generosity <3

Tart and fruity in a jammy no-sugar-added, cooked-down way, citrusy. It tastes like it looks, orange with a brown tint. There’s some earthiness to this brew that brings the pucker down from hibiscus heights. It’s simply not the same kind of tart! A whisper of lavender is nice here. A little bit of sweetness on the backend aling with elderflower. Salty-citrus zest (kumquat?) aftertingle.

Something about this sis o familiar. It reminds me of late fall in northeastern Ohio… But why?

Best 2 bags per 300mL! Don’t want that flavor watered down.

I bought a few teas for my brother’s birthday, a spices mix for another brother; and I took some linden tea for myself too.

They added a whole box (of tea bags though) of this tea for free (and one tea bag sample). So, thank you Sonnentor! I haven’t been expecting it at all.

Their series of greens and mostly flavoured ones are new on their webshop; and this contains 80 % of chinese green tea. Sadly they don’t say the region or such. And 20 % of lemongrass. Both ingredients being organic, at least.

Honestly, I am pleasantly surprised by this. I thought that using 20 % of lemongrass would be too much; but it seems it’s well blended with green tea and it was mellow, grassy with that lemongrass profile, which isn’t distinctly lemony, but not grassy either. A refreshing drink too and in the end… I think I will finish remaining 17 (now 16) tea bags quickly and if I put maybe a half of them to the TTB…

Another herbal tea by the Austrian company Sonnentor, with a handful of ingredients that aren’t commonly found in American herbal teas. Here we can find black caraway AKA black cumin AKA nigella AKA black seed, thyme, rooibos, savory, purple carrots, black pepper, common hollyhock and caraway.

In-your-face profile that warms and invigorates when you don’t want a typical chai-spice caffeinated tea. Its spicy herb character will clear your nose and overtake your palate. Difficult to describe but it tastes robust and peppery, more like oregano than thyme; lots of black cumin; green-brown-red-black. Not necessarily savory even though it contains the actual herb savory :P

Gets the blood pumping and feels like a brew that would cut fatty meals very well! Sonnentor suggest pairing with roasts, cheese and hearty spreads. I can see how Heavy Metal would complement those foods greatly.

Another thank you to Martin!

This is a really well composed herbal tea if you’re looking for a stomach soother.

The ingredients are green oats, stinging nettle, fennel, cardamom, juniper berries, birch leaves, hyssop and Ceylon cinnamon. It’s a sweet and green but not vegetal-tasting tea whose clean flavor mostly comes from the fennel, cardamom and minty hyssop. The oats and fennel give a fuller mouthfeel than you’d find with typical herbal teas.

I find myself brewing 2 bags of this to 300mL following lunch. I could see it going really well with a light meal of flaky white fish.

Thanks Martin!

This tea has several ingredients that aren’t available here. Base is from green oat (35 per cent of blend) for instance.

Birch leaves. Yes, I have heard using it as herbal here. Hyssop. What’s that actually?

Anyway it tastes pretty similar to other Sonnentor teas. Very herbal, but with strange (but lovely) aftertaste. Yes, juniper berries make the flavour a bit uncommon with piney flavours as they do. They were a bit musty, but in such a small bag I am not surprised :)

Enjoyable evening cup.

Also… 20th December means one more thing. My mother is turning 60 today!

While yesterday I had two citrus fruits in tea, now I have two types of cinnamon here! Cassia cinnamon and Ceylon cinnamon.

Actually it is not long ago since I found out there are different cinnamons and their flavours are, often, very different. Sometimes we have the sweet, similar to Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice and then there is another type, which has got more earthy flavour. Sadly, here you never know which one you are buying, when buying spices. It’s usually labeled just “cinnamon”.

Anyway to the tea. I came home almost frozen (well, it is not that cold, but strong wind gusts), in the office maximum was 19°C (66°F). I decided not to move to the warehouse and back, so I almost spent all the work-time in the office. Also, between 10 pm yesterday and today 11 am about 15-20 cm (min. 6 inches) of new snow.

Ah, sorry; I digressed again. The tea. Warming up spices on first sniff, cinnamon being most prominent, naturally. When brewed it was really cinnamon, but with something that reminded me oolong a bit. Maybe lemongrass-blackberry leaves combo? I don’t know.

While sipping, it is indeed nicely warming up my body, but cinnamon was quite flat in flavour, with little herbal undertone and that’s it. Coconut flakes and lemon peel wasn’t apparent in taste at all. If I wouldn’t check the ingredients for this entry, I would say there is none of them in.

Another single herb tea and this time it is lemon balm; and again it is herb we have in our garden, so nothing new for me.

What is new for me is that the latin Melissa means honeybee and well as you can see, German name is Melisse (Zitronen means Lemon) and it is not a coincidence, as it was (at least) once planted as a pasture for bees.

But to the tea… yes it is pure lemon balm, with its herbal note and little lemony as well. It’s fine and there weren’t any bad, for instance, bitter notes.

Delightful and relaxing.

I feel fire. And many spices. Star anise being the strongest. Certainly it is a warming up blend. But flavour-wise it is so… so complex, however the flavours overlap themselves and it finishes as a muddy spicy tea.

Turmeric is fairly strong in this one as well. Interesting blend, but not much for me. I prefer noticing the spices more separate.

PS: 13 days late I received my advent calendar from Your Daily Tea Cup, and as I barely drink Sonnentor and Nabo teas, I will postpone drinking them on January probably. I am not able to wait till June as a countdown to my birthday!

In Czech it is translated as Mild Green Tea; the box shows Chinese Green Tea and overall it is so unremarkable, I don’t remember anything from my mug at work. I have been busy, but this tea… was fine and mild and that’s it.

Yes, it is green tea, because black ones are on the tannic and bitter spectrum of flavours and this was not.

Apparently completely forgettable tea. If it is Chun Mee, then the same from Solaris Tea was much more flavourful.

I am starting my Advent notes with afternoon tea, the other one I had in the morning.
Turmeric and me was love-hate relationship. Sometimes love, sometimes hate.

This one is love! Very mildly earthy, turmeric dominates; but also rooibos flavour is nice and honeyish and overall it is very smooth and quite creamy and sweet. Sadly, I haven’t noticed much from the spices.

I like it and recommend for turmeric tea lovers.

There is not much to write about this tea. It’s plain sage, a herb that I would rather enjoy in Mediterranean cuisine than as a cup of tea.

It’s not bad. Just a bit boring. If you want a fresh herbal teas, Sonnentor seems like a good choice. Because it tastes indeed fresh, very strong and very herbal. Again, their loose leaf variant seems using very quality leaf.

But there is no reason to drink plain Sage tea to me, though.

PS: Gets much better with very long steeping time (I let the bag in all the time sipping)

Liberate your liver!
Ugh, a herbal tea and moreover functional. Not a fan of those in Advent calendar. But what we can do. Passing it, just because I don’t feel I need this? No, I will give it a try.

First sip is quite bitter. Dandelion and fennel are the culprits I assume. And overall it is just herbs and herbs, somehow mellowed by mint and/or lemongrass and my stomach feels heavy after drinking this tea. Maybe it is the key how to liberate the liver?

Not rating on purpose.

Whoa, what a blend! Just look at the ingredients list in description.

A buckwheat base? I haven’t got much buckwheat teas itself and certainly none where it is used as a base. Blood orange? Not in taste, maybe a refreshing bit. Cinnamon (Casia), certainly noticeable, allspice, star anise and anise… certainly there; as well the cloves.

Not so flavourful as Nabo tea; but very nice as well. I would gladly drink more. Also I love the box picture; and Gingerbread Time is English name for this tea. I also wonder if it is new relase for this winter, as I never heard nor seen it before.

Well. It’s pure peppermint. What can go wrong?
You just need fresh leaves. And this one is fresh. It smells and tastes very similar to two leaves and bud Peppermint.

If we didn’t had so much garden-grown peppermint, I would seek out the loose leaf — it seems they use whole leaves and do not crush them. 1 kilo available as well!

I will be honest. Already yesterday I took the bags for today to see what they are. I have seen plain balck and white/green tea. I took black one to the office (preparing a day before, because waking up early and I don’t want to wake up my brother — who is moody all day if I wake him up).

And plain black tea sounded so nice for cold morning and first mug in the office. Of course, as it is a tea bag, it wasn’t very high quality (but not only dust either), but certainly it was convenient.

Somehow, I don’t recall when I had my last plain Assam tea. Not even if I had bagged plain Assam before. But this one is good! Smooth, mouth-coating and very, very malty — almost sweet; with dates note, so much yum! I did rather short steeping, as it was colouring the water very fast… I think it could be 2, maximum 3 minutes. And even it was very strong, there was no bitterness nor astringency.

A funny story behind this tea. I had same named tea yesterday in the office; it has been Sogni d’oro Limone e Zenzero. That one was much more into lemon and somehow juicy, but very warming body up. And that was necessary, as our office is heated to lower temperatures than last winter, because expenses cuts.

This one is more towards ginger — but actually ingredients are very same, but in different ratios!

It is much more warming from ginger, even a bit tingling and instead of lemon I notice more lemongrass. The licorice root is making it a bit sweeter, but it’s tamed and not overpowering the cup. Enjoyable if you think it is flavour profile for you. I understand that ginger is not for everyone, especially when it is 1/4 of all ingredients. I can imagine it as a cold (flu) battler as well.

SONNENTOR ADVENT DAY 24

Thank you, Martin, for the adventure of having 24 new teas this month that are not available here! It has been great fun!

I love all the little reminiscences on the wrappers – someone did a great job of capturing the spirit of Christmas with just a few lines of writing each day. And the art work is pretty, too.

I switched it up and did Sonnentor this morning and will do Fortnum this evening. Both are herbal, but I am more likely to be sharing a whole pot this evening. Ashman woke up with a migraine but we threw everything we had at it and he feels much better, but we didn’t have breakfast together.

This is, like the others, a somewhat generic herbal tea but this time the licorice root is much more noticeable. I like licorice root so that is okay! Next I taste the Ceylon cinnamon.
The base is not too strong, a mix of mostly lemon balm and apple, with marigold, which I don’t really taste. Surprising, because marigold flowers have a pungent aroma and you would think it would be forceful in tea.

A good cuppa as I take a break from cooking!

Thank you, Martin!

SONNENTOR ADVENT DAY 23

Oooooh, this one is really lavender forward and I like lavender! This is a wonderful tea for relaxing on the eve of Christmas Eve.

Most of the Sonnentor herbals taste very similar, with just or two standing out because of some special ingredient. The lavender sets this one apart. Lemon balm is the first ingredient listed but lavender is the first aroma and taste I perceive. It doesn’t really last as the aftertaste, though. That resembles pretty much all the other herbal blends.

Hopefully the parsley and fennel will help with my overindulgence of warm cheese spread on crackers tonight.