Swiss Alpine Herbs

A sipdown! (M: 10, Y: 18) Prompt: A tea swap tea or gifted tea — a tea from my Swiss friend gifted for my birthday.

A little bit ironic indeed; as it is quite late for me (10 pm) and not a morning.

This tea also contains crimson beebalm (Monarda didyma), which should have flavour similar to bergamot. Let’s see. Anyway, steeped for 5 minutes in 300 ml mug.

Well, it tastes like one of many herbals I already have, but it is indeed interesting it is a bit citrusy (not sure about bergamot) though it doesn’t contain common lemon balm with similar flavour. It is also a bit rough and bitter, but that could be because 5 minutes steep (though it’ss recommended). Also it tastes a bit hoppy to me, but no hops in.

This tea is a rare exception. I prepared it as a family pot tea.
My mother lighted up the candle in the living room, which is an exception itself. So, it’s a tea by candlelight prompt. And we were watching figure skating.

Another exception, it is actually a sipdown! (M: 5, Y: 5) as only few were actual sipdowns from those prompts so far and there will be another one tomorrow. I had two sachets and used both, in one session, but I will count that as a sipdown.

To the tea. Well, it contains three mints. Orange mint, apple mint and Moroccan mint. I have been expecting more menthol from it, actually it leans rather to into earthy and herbaceous taste, like there was lemon balm or some other well known herbs to me.

I have a several those Swiss Alpine Herbs sachets from, guess who! Yes, from my Swiss friend. I received them for my birthday… so that’s half an year ago, but as they are only herbals, I don’t drink them. I had one while having Covid (that’s August 2022), but since then they are sitting in my herbals box.

As I have cough (which is nice improvement from all the previous issues), I decided to drink something which should be full of Vitamin C (but probably destroyed by hot water), and overall very herbal. Or it is a fruit tea? Or both? (Yes, this is a reference to http://steepster.com/discuss/44713-tea-tags-for-new-tea-entries-puerh )

It is actually quite tart, but not from hibiscus. It’s the sea buckthorn. And rosehip is actually quite mellow. I like this tea, it is mouth-coating and throat- as well. I need that right now.

Maybe I have been expecting more fruitier taste as it tastes a bit flat, but I don’t mind and hopefully this one will help me go through cough phase soon, or at least, make it more smooth.

A friend of mine, visiting town from Switzerland, brought me a box of this tisane. I guess all the herbs in it are Swiss? And organic? I mean, it says so, right on the package, in English (and also German and French), but it is foreign and so it would be so much more exotic if I could manage to be confused.

Anyway, it’s a nice herbal tea to drink at night in this alpine (DID YOU SEE WHAT I DID THERE?) weather we’ve been having which just won’t go away. It’s warming and comforting without trying to either wake me up or put me to sleep. The taste is sort of vaguely citrusy, but there is no actual citrus in it. Every time I drink it, I expect it to have mint in it, but of course it doesn’t and you would think I could figure that out already.