Your Tea

265/365

Another from the Varieteas box, and the second inclusion from Your Tea. This company seem to have based their range on the health-related properties or desired outcomes of particular blends, and they’re (highly) priced accordingly. This is their antioxidant blend, and is a black tea with china root, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, goji berries, eucommia bark, reiishi mushroom, knotweed, adlay, cinnamon, and rose. They claim that it supports wellbeing, aids and calms digestion, and improves sleep. Having only the one bag, I’m not going to be able to comment on any of these claims. What I do know is that it contains a lot of ingredients I’ve not come across before, so some research is in order! That’s a task for later, though, since at the moment I’m supposed to be working.

It’s an interesting one, in flavour terms. It’s quite brothy and earthy, and reminds me most specifically of mushroom soup. A clear one, though – not creamy! As with their Sleep Tea, the black base is super light, barely coming up golden brown. The flavour reminds me a lot of a sheng I drank fairly recently, and I do wonder whether the base is more pu’erh than black tea; that would make sense in terms of it being a digestive aid, and would explain the flavour and apparent lightness. One of the things that annoys me about Your Tea is how amazingly non-specific they are about the actual tea in their blends. They’re very precise about the other ingredients, including both the common and scientific names for each, but the tea is basically just tea. I can’t even say it’s style over substance, because it’s pretty clear that they care about what they’re doing – I’m absolutely certain that their interest and expertise is primarily in the herbs they use, though, and that the tea isn’t much more than a helpful carrier.

Anyway, earthy, mushroom, forest floor is what I get from this. I wouldn’t drink it for its own sake, and certainly not at £20 a box. I get what they’re trying to do, I think, but I’m not sure I particularly appreciate it.

This is pretty good. The licorice is different and a little sweet. Goofy marketing, but meh.

241/365

Another from my Variateas box, and a seemingly perfect pre-bedtime blend! I’m not sure exactly what’s in this one, because the wrapper doesn’t say, but a quick peruse on their website reveals that it’s actually a black tea, with rose, date, lotus, liquorice, and lavender. That quickly put to rest my presumption that it was a herbal blend, but for a black tea I’d say it’s extremely light. There’s a sweetness from the liqourice, but it’s not overpowering, and that’s welcome. I wouldn’t know the rose and lavender were there if I hadn’t been told, because they’re so much in the background that they’re pretty much invisible.

I can’t say I like this one, but it’s hard to dislike either. There’s so little flavour, it’s really just kind of meh. I imagine this is a blend you’d drink for its purported effect or health benefit (they produce a whole range of this kind of thing…), but I’d be wary of a “sleep” tea with a black base on the whole. Their take on it is that lotus root can help to prevent night sweats and vivid dreams – a specific example from their website are dreams (nightmares?) which feature “an affair with your very unattractive boss.” Their site is worth a read just for the lols, I’d suggest.

I’d probably not purchase this one, given that it’s pretty pricey and fairly tasteless. An interesting experience, nonetheless. I’ll let you know about the dreams.

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Tiny Tea has an earthy feel to it. The company recommends that you drink 2-3 cups of this tea a day, at least 30 minutes prior to each meal, which helps a lot with curbing your appetite and flushing your body out. I thoroughly enjoy drinking this tea when I have an early morning, as it’s not overpowering and it gives me a nice homey, warm type of feeling when I’m having a groggy morning. I suggest adding 1-2 thin round slices of lemon to this tea for a lighter toned taste.

This particular tea is a part of a tea detox that helps to regulate your bloating problems as well as many other digestive aspects, depending on your body type. It is also helpful in clearing your skin, as I have had short outbursts of acne. Tiny tea helps to clear up your skin to an extent. This tea is raved to help with weight loss, and it can help with your bloating which in turn will help to regulate your weight. It doesn’t necessarily help you shed weight right off the bat, you need to work at it. But it does work and you will feel the difference.

Finally, the flavour of the tea is rather herbal and strong. It works even when you add a hint of lemon and honey to sweeten the flavour.