Kihene

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The last of my Kihene Hawaiian herbal tisane sampler.

This one also has a mild herbaceous flavor, similar to the mamaki, but with a bit more earthiness going on. It almost reminds me of green yerba maté, with a light earthy-grassy flavor and notes of hay. There’s a slight mustiness to it as well, similar to a small-leaf bai mudan.

I’m not sure I would go out of my way to order it, since it tastes mostly similar to some other herbs, but it’s always fun to try something new! :)

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Another Hawaiian herbal tisane. Mamaki seems to be the most common one, at least judging by how often I saw it available for purchase.

It’s a very mellow flavor, and it reminds me of something like linden. Light and ethereal with a gentle grainy coziness and a hints of cream and honey. It’s nice to sip on before bed because it has such a soft flavor, I find it very relaxing.

I have a couple of other mamaki tisanes, so it’ll be interesting to compare those and see how similar or different the flavor is.

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So this was part of a sampler of three native herbal tisanes that I picked up at a farmer’s market in Hawai’i. I’m not a hibiscus lover per se, but I’m fine with it on its own.

I steeped up a hot cuppa last night and used about a teaspoon of leaf for 16 ounce of water, so it was mild and pleasant. It had a classic hibiscus flavor, I don’t know why I was expecting something more interesting, but I was.

We had just bought some lemonade because I wanted to use it for matcha, so I decided to cold steep the rest of the little pouch in lemonade. It came out really good! I don’t know if I would be able to tell that it’s hibiscus specifically (aside from the color) but it really did add a lot of depth and a fruity quality to the plain lemonade. And the extra tartness is nice too, since bottled lemonade is quite sweet.

Would definitely do this again, it’s very flavorful. And it’s about a bajillion degrees outside here today, so perfect timing!