Tisane des Merveilles

I’ve been having some issues with caffeine recently, so I’ve been cutting back on my daily intake – which means that my routine of having 5 espresso shots in the morning has had to change into a nice cup of chamomile tea or any other available herbal tea. Don’t get me wrong, I always love a cosy cup of chamomile, but I’ve been wanting to spice things up a bit with a fancier kind of tisane so I bought this at my local tea shop.

Long story short, I really like it. I have to admit, I’ve always seen herbal tea as the “punishment version” of tea, the disappointing ersatz you have to go for if tea is unavailable, but I realise this was based on nothing but ignorance. This blend is as good as any solid tea blend I’ve tasted and it’s a genuine pleasure to have this for brunch on a nice Sunday morning. It’s not going to replace my caramel rooibos as an afternoon stimulant-free treat but it’s a great blend and very pleasant to sip.

It tastes very refreshing and it has no hibiscus. Finding a hibiscus-free tisane at the shop was very hard and I’m grateful they sold this one.

I recommend this one as a flowery, fancy tisane for when you’ve got friends over and you’re all detoxing from caffeine.

Another sample from greenteafairy. I was intrigued by this one, as I don’t think I’ve ever had linden leaf before. The main flavor in this blend was definitely rhubarb! (And maybe strawberry? But I could be imagining that, since those two flavors just go together automatically in my mind.) But there was also a leafy, herbal aftertaste that I’m assuming was the linden. Overall…nothing exciting, but a pleasant herbal blend.

Finally getting around to this one from the Advent calendar. This must be one of their newer tisanes because I don’t remember seeing it on the site. I don’t visit the tisane page super frequently, but I sometimes do, and I’ve enjoyed the tisanes I’ve had from there in the past. But I would have been interested in this one, because all of the flavors (rhubarb, rose, raspberry, date, orange blossom) are things I am a fan of.

This one is very tasty. The rhubarb is the most prominent note, as they say. Mmm rhubarb. I definitely get hints of raspberry, floral rose and orange blossom, and a hint of dark, sugary date. It took me a bit to place the date (until I looked at the description again) because it is almost candy-like. As it cools, it is getting stronger and sweeter. I’m also getting more berry on the aftertaste, lingering my tongue in a juicy way. Yum yum! I may need to order this one in the future in one of my biennial DF orders.

Advent Calendar Day Three

Ooh, a tisane!? I don’t think I’ve actually had a Dammann Freres tisane before, so part of me was really excited to pop that cherry. The other part of me was all “Darn, caffeine free for my commute tea…” and somewhat bummed out. I’ve been F/T at both jobs this week, so I’m essentially running on fumes. Caffeine is pretty well my best friend in the whole world right now.

But this was SO good! The range of fruit flavours was just perfect because it featured several clear and distinct notes, but was harmonious and didn’t feel bogged down with ingredients either. I’d definitely have to agree with DF that rhubarb was the key note here; and what a note! I love rhubarb so much, so any chance to try a new tea with that lovely sweet and slightly tangy profile is bound to be a winner in my opinion. The linden in the blend was also quite strong. I think because I drink a lot of Bluebird Tea Company’s Lime + Cola guayusa blend I associate the flavour of linden with lime now because linden makes up such a large part of that blend. So mentally I kept flipping between tasting linden leaf and rhubarb and tasting rhubarb and lime. Funny how the brain works like that. Other fruity notes present were orange/fresh citrus, and a strawberry-esque note. I say “esque” because it wasn’t quite strawberry OR raspberry, but leaned a little more towards the former than the latter.

Medium bodied overall, and really fresh! Perhaps a little weird for a winter/holiday tea given the summery fruit notes – but delicious regardless. Only thing it’s missing, in my opinion, is the caffeine content.

My first tea from the DF group order Zennenn so generously organized. I’m always on the lookout for new and different caffeine-free options, and I’d been eyeing a bunch of the DF tisanes for a while now. But when it came time for the group order, it turned out I was the only one interested in just about all of them. I went back and forth about whether or not I wanted to risk ordering a whole 100g just for myself, but in the end this one sounded too enticing to resist and I went for it. Berries and rhubarb are some of my favorite flavors, and dates and orange flower are pretty up there too. Plus I haven’t had the chance to try too many (or possibly any?) linden-based tisanes, so it’s an educational experience of sorts.

So how is it? It doesn’t pack quite the punch I’d hoped it might have—the flavors are pretty muted, and indistinct—but it’s very drinkable. It turns out I like linden pretty well; it’s not too herbal-tasting and almost reminds me of a weaker, better version of chamomile. That’s the dominant flavor; I’m getting some general fruity and floral notes in the background but nothing I think I’d be able to identify had I not known what the flavor profile was meant to be. Though I don’t think I’l have any trouble drinking this one down it’s probably not something I’ll restock, partly just because of the difficulties of sourcing DF, but if and when I have the chance to place another order I’ll probably try another of their tisanes.