Should a tisane be called Herbal tea or tisane

18 Replies

Can’t say for anyone else, but since as another pointed out tea is a sub-class of tisane and things other than tea aren’t tea, calling herbal tisanes “tea” bothers me. Honestly I think a bit less of a company when the first time I go to a website or store of theirs and they call them all “tea”.

It’s like a geometry teacher calling all rectangles squares.

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Cwyn said

Herbal tea is understood in ordinary popular culture and marketing to be non-caffeinated, and that is about it. Herbs can include a lot of different effects, but no caffeine would the main attribute. I think it would be difficult to get a different term like tisane into the same wide understanding as herbal tea now has.

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Angrboda said

Herbal tea / tisanes… Two names, same thing imo.

Some years ago I was a right little snob about these things and could get really worked up over the expression ‘herbal tea’ because it was not Camellia sinensis and therefore not tea, in the same way that coffee and hot chocolate are not the same thing even though they are both made from things we call ‘beans’.

I have since rather outgrown that phase. ‘Tea’ is, these days, much more than simply Camellia sinensis and I think we’ve just got to accept that.

(Edited for spelling)

All that tea made you more zen. ;)

Angrboda said

Either that or more pragmatic. :p

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I think that part of the thing around herbal tea is that the herbs are in a bag that you can boil in water much like a tea bag hence why they are bundled in the same aisle. If shops only sold loose tea would herbal tea be stored next to the fresh herbs in a supermarket?

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