Organic India

I want to get back into drinking more tulsi again, I totally forgot how nice and relaxing it is. This is a nice blend, too! Probably my favorite from Organic India.

Anyone who reads my tea log knows I’m a fan of tulsi! I ordered some stuff from Vitacost recently and decided to throw this in the mix. I know I could just add tulsi to my green tea, but I thought this would be good to have around the office (note: I got the loose leaf tin).

The instructions say steep 3-5 minutes in boiling water, but I was skeptical so I went for a slightly lower temp.

This is really nice! Might be my favorite from Organic India thus far. After inspecting the wet leaf, I would say there is more tulsi than green tea in here. You definitely get the distinctive flavor of minty/clove from the tulsi but there also seems to be a lemony element in here. I’m not sure what the green tea is, certainly it’s nothing fancy but it does mellow out the flavor of tulsi a bit and provides a nice vegetal element. It’s a good blend, simple but effective. The only caveat is the tulsi leaves are ground up very fine and it got kind of messy in the infuser and the sink.

Tulsi always helps me to relax – and I bet this would be really good iced also, will have to try it that way someday…

Thanks to Amy Oh for a sample of this tea!

Yesterday, I had too much caffeine and I hadn’t had a run in a while so I had too much energy in my system. I thought it would be a good time to give some of this herb a try! Well, I wasn’t sure how much leaf to use to I ended up using waaay too much. Urgh.

This morning, I made it again with only 3/4 tsp of leaf for my mug. Perfect! Very herbal and cooling. And spicy! I wonder how this herb is fresh? I bet it’s awesome! Anyway, I’m a fan. :)

tulsi thief! tulsi thief!

i must say, it’s nice to drink something so fresh tasting and clarifying in the late afternoon. the fact that tulsi is stress relieving might actually be accurate! who’da thunk?

i like this.

this was the tea at a 5 day yoga retreat. i drank it non-stop. it added so much to the already amazing experience.

When I went on a search for local honey, my first stop was a small “natural foods” store in town (and yes, they had what I was looking for, yay!). Half of the store is supplements, and then a little of this and little of that. The tea wall was actually pretty big for the size of store, with mostly Celestial Seasonings, Yogi and Traditional Medicinals. But this caught my eye, as I had seen reviews of Tulsi of late, so I settled on this Vanilla choice (only other choice was Raspberry).

This is a blend of 3 different types of Tulsi (Holy Basil), along with some rooibos, chamomile and vanilla flavor. The first time I tried it with T. of honey, it was too sweet. Unsweetened it is not sweet at all, so after tasting without, I’m adding 2 tsp. honey. The honey really brings out the clove note that some associate with tulsi. I’m a fan of clove, so this is perfect. There’s a hint of apple, or other fruit that makes it seems a little like an apple pie (spiced with cinnamon and clove). Some have mentioned a mint note on other tulsi blends, but not getting it in this. Vanilla impression, a little.

I’m retesting so that I can test 3 Upton offerings of Holy Basil varieties. BH02 (Holy Basil Purple Leaf) has no spicy or noticeable flavoring type scents. BH03 (Wild Forest Holy Basil, aka Vana Tulsi, aka clove basil) has a licorice scent. BH06 (now BH08) (Holy Basil Green Leaf) does have more of a mint scent that the others (with spice). I wish I knew the ratio on this tea, so can duplicate (will attempt).

Lately I’ve been so stressed out, I’m only a month into my job search and already kind of a basket case. I wish I would at least start getting some phone calls. It’s hard not to worry about these things.

I bought a big tin of this a while ago and I still have quite a bit left. I don’t know if it’s losing some potency, but it still seems good to me. I like tulsi with other things, so this afternoon I mixed it with some assam tea and then added soymilk and sugar. I like this combination, it gives the assam a minty, earth flavor.

Must chill out….. :)

Made my own custom blend combining this, spearmint and lemon verbena then poured over ice. It’s pretty good this way!

I’ve been experimenting a bit with this tulsi lately and I am finding it is good with some dried lemon peel and a bit of lemongrass. I also stuck some in the fridge to cold brew so I’ll see how that is tomorrow.

I was right about this original (unflavored) Tulsi and what I wanted to mix it with. It’s very good with a pinch of lemon verbena and some lemongrass. I’m drinking a giant mug full right now and it’s delicious…

Note: My review is for the loose leaf and not the teabag form of this.

I decided to pick this up at Whole Foods tonight. Seeing as how I have wasted a bunch of money on tulsi blends I didn’t really like or care for, I figure why not just drink it straight and see what it’s like. D’oh!

This is a blend of three different tulsis and it is very nice. It is has an aromatic aroma like cloves but the flavor of the tea is a bit minty/herbaly with some pepper element. I am feeling a bit of “bite” on my tongue as I sip this. It also has a slightly cooling effect.

Still, I can see the possibilities of making my own nighttime blend, possibly with some chamomile or verbena, if I didn’t want to drink this plain. I do like various herbal teas and I think this is nice on its’ own – so I will probably not spend much more money on other tulsi type stuff for a while. =)

Hooray for stress reduction!

Backlog—
I had a mug of this tisane last night while reading, used two teabags but still I don’t think the flavor is very good, for a chai it’s just pretty weak, though I like the idea of a tulsi chai. I should try making my own by finding a decent rooibos chai and throwing some tulsi in there. Just so “meh”, I’m glad I’m almost out of this.

Backlog – we had this tea last night before bed and I enjoyed it much more than I remember so I decided to bump up the score a bit. I recommend a touch of sweetener to make this a bit more palatable.

Some days I seem more sensitive to caffeine than others. Okay, I’ve had 6 cups of tea today already but some of them were re-steeps. :-P

Anyway it’s time to go for something herbal for a while. I’ve gotten a bit enamored of tulsi lately but this is really not the best blend. It doesn’t taste too chai like to me, more like a mix of straight rooibos and tulsi. It’s a little bit better with some soymilk but not my favorite from this company, oh well. I’m drinking it anyway!

I keep trying to find a tulsi tea that I really love so I keep buying up stuff from Organic India. They have a few blends with hibiscus but I think I can skip those…

I used two tea bags for a rather jumbo mug of tea. I’ve had a few rooibos chais I liked but this is a bit weak on flavor, imo plus the herby-minty flavor of the tulsi is coming right through. I was hoping the spices would disguise it a bit. I guess I don’t really love the taste of tulsi. I am not sure what this needs, perhaps some sweetener would help? I will also try using a smaller cup with two teabags.

Definitely did not love the flavor of this but tulsi always makes me feel good. :)

Perhaps I need to skip the tulsi tea and go straight for some herbal supplements…

Tea of the mid-morning here, high anxiety at the office today so I needed something calming. The mango and rooibos overpower the tulsi, but you do get it in the finish of this tea. Seems a bit minty. Not bad with soymilk. Let’s hope the rest of the day goes smoothly….

Tea of the afternoon here. Yesterday I was running around Baltimore having a grand old time in Charm City. This afternoon it started snowing and I’m curled up at home with the latest issue of Lapham’s Quarterly and this tisane. Mildly fruity with lots of rooibos, a bit of mango and the herby/minty flavor of tulsi. This is pretty good…. I think I’ll have a 2nd cup. :-)

I started drinking Tulsi just because it seems to help me cope with stress. I found this one at the health food store and it only contains tulsi, chamomile, red rooibos and mango flavor. I wish there was a bit more mango flavor in this tea, to me it tastes mostly like rooibos with the slightly peppery herbal quality that tulsi has. I do this better than the rose tulsi due to the lack of stevia but I’m not going to be raving about the flavor anytime soon… :)

Having said that it does seem to help me relax, so that’s good – maybe I will find something to add to this to make it slightly better.

This is an interesting change from regular peppermint tea. The tulsi/holy basil blend give it a more herbal and earthy feel, less sharp and clean like plain peppermint.

This is not my favorite tulsi blend due to the stevia, but with roses and chamomile added to the mix it does seem quite relaxing somehow… and I was just reading tulsi is supposedly an anti-inflammatory so maybe it will be good for my plantar fasciitis – if only I could get myself to drink it every day!

Nice afternoon relaxing cuppa… definitely better when I add in some of my own rose petals. See previous notes for more info.

I found a way to make this better, I added some of my own rose petals and some cinnamon, that helps to offset the stevia a bit, but still it smells a lot better than it tastes…

I had higher hopes for this one… I admit Tulsi is an acquired “herby” taste but I do like it, as well as roses and chamomile. I think what ruins this for me is definitely the stevia, the aftertaste is waaaay too sweet for me and I can’t get us to it. So I will drink this for the stress busting properties I know it has, but it will be more like medicine than a pleasurable experience. Oh well.