Flower Power Teas

Purchased at the co-op.

I brewed this with a tablespoon to 10oz of boiling water to get a feel for what it has to offer as a masala chai base. It’s a pretty good blend of chunky ingredients. Very fragrant and I can taste everything — carob, ginger, cinnamon, chicory, orange peel, clove, licorice, fennel, and cardamom. I’d say the ginger, cinnamon and cloves are the stars here and they’re also evident in the moderate spiciness. The orange peel brightens up the blend. There are hints of fennel, cardamom (more apparent in the aroma) and licorice sweetness and it’s only lightly chocolate-tasting from the carob and chicory.

Brewed in water as a nighttime bev, it was thin. I like the balance of ingredients but it’s too tame for me. I need black pepper in my chai. I have some old CTC I’ll try boiling with the rest of this sample some day soon.

Lemongrass & ginger are among of my favorite herbal teas. I found that the addition of raspberry leaf harmonized very well with the other 2 flavors and gave the whole tea a lift and made it seem sweeter.

I like the licorice spice usually but this tea contained that distinctive licorice sweetness with none of the spice so it was not a very enjoyable cup. Second brew was much milder with all the flavors integrating nicely and licorice sweetness blended with the rest of the ingredients.

I really could not drink it as I dislike tastes like sarsaparilla and chicory. My partner liked it quite a bit but even he complained of the strong smell. The bonus is that you can eat the seeds from the brew later for a nice fennel aftertaste.