Juniper Mint Honey

Sipdown 46 – 2024

Got this from an old TTB. It’s nice! Herbal and slightly sweet.

Missed the mark. I love gin, but didn’t get much juniper flavor from this. It’s not undrinkable, but something about it was just off. Not much flavor, what flavor there is was “clashy.” Somewhat synthetic feel.
Oddly, I liked throwing a few bags in the bathtub for aroma more than drinking this tea.

If it wasn’t for the TTB I probably would never have tried this. The aroma is bright and refreshing with berry notes and juniper in the background. The delicate taste of juniper mixes well with the soothingness of the honey and the mint comes in last but is almost tasteless unless the after taste. I’m surprised at how tame the mint is in this considering how it usually likes to hustle its way into your mouth in everything else it’s in.

Just not my cup of…well, you know! I like juniper and woodsy flavours in general, but this one is kind of flimsy. The other flavors don’t balance it out properly, and the lingering note is more like like sawdust than the majestic juniper advertised.

This is one of my go-to teas when I’m not sure what I want. I like gin too, so this tea is right up my alley. A solid staple tea in my house

So I’m really torn about this one from the TTB. The first time I tried it, I really didn’t like it. Like, I had to force myself to finish it (I was too tired to go pour it out and too thirsty to just not drink anything). The juniper tastes very pine-y, and something about the mint and honey flavoring just combines to make the whole thing feel more like someone made a tea inspired by household cleaner than anything natural. BUT. Then I made it again today and added actual honey to it (basic grocery store honey because I was afraid of wasting good honey). And that made all the difference. The juniper-pine flavor mellowed into something actually pleasant, the mint became soothing, and overall it became at least drinkable and inoffensive. If you really like juniper and/or pine, you’d probably enjoy this tea (but add honey to it!).

A single tea bag received from Michelle! Thank you so much! I really wanted to try this, but getting any US tea here… it is rather a lucky accident to get some, than getting it somewhere commonly. US candy shops don’t carry them.

So I have brewed it about a hour ago, and I have sniffed the bag prior. It was spearmint with some unidentified sweetness and lightly pine.

Brewed it is very similar, quite spearmint-y and sweet. It was similar to Halls cough drops with its lemon-honey flavour. It wasn’t bad actually. In the end of the sip, there was some pine flavour. But it was quite weak and honestly I have hoped for stronger taste of juniper.

I had pulled an old advent packet of 52Tea’s “Crisp Cranberry Soda” to try it warm (my previous packet I drank cold brew), thinking that might bring out the “cranberry” for me. It didn’t. I found it pretty meh and the green rooibos was rather dominant in flavor (to be fair, it’s old ) but I just decided to throw the rest of the packet into a cold brew bottle for tomorrow and get a different herbal for my second cuppa.

So I grabbed this, one of the four Target-exclusive “Forager” herbal teas. This is the Rocky Mountain blend (my neck of the woods!) I’m a big fan of this one! As it steeps, it has such a lovely pine-fresh aroma from the mix of juniper and mint. The aroma of the honey, too, reaches my nose.

The sip is very pleasant. I’m a huge juniper fan and could do with it being even stronger here, but the way it mixes with that menthol/fresh flavor of the mint, the two meld in a way that creates a very nice pine flavor. There is definitely an underlying sweetness to the tea, but it doesn’t really taste distinctly “honey” to me. It’s lacking that underlying florality I associate with honey. Still, the sweetness and the mix of juniper and mint makes this a very nice evening cuppa for me.

Between weather, being under it, and being overwhelmed at work (love those January 31 tax statement deadlines), I haven’t gotten out much lately…so much so that a stop at Target on the way home was a Big Adventure. I did a little foraging in the tea aisle and snagged a box of Juniper Mint Honey, primarily for office purposes. I’m going to dare my morning teakettle queue to give it a go and keep a little for afternooners…my old schoolroom office is so cold that I’ve been sipping nonstop and some friendly non-caffeinated bagged options are always welcome.

It just dawned on me that I’ve not said anything about the tea itself. It’s just a nice balance of three flavors I’ve never enjoyed at the same time. the juniper adds a nice piney touch to what would be ordinary honey-mint tea, and the reasonably authentic honey flavor (not 100%, but a decent 79%) complements the mint to keep it from being just another minty tea.

From Michelle.

I’m not too familiar with juniper, but I had some juniper berries in my spice cabinet so I pulled them out to compare. I don’t notice any connection in the aroma or flavor of the tea. Instead, I smell and taste vanilla mint. I really like it actually.