Tag: Herbal/Fruit Infusion

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Oteas’s Orange and Ginger

Orange and Ginger by Oteas
Fruit Infusion / Flavoured
$6.95 for 30g (12 sachets)

Oteas has provided me with Orange and Ginger for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

If you caught my Instagram Stories, you will have seen my unboxing video of the awesome package that I received from Oteas! They very kindly sent me 6 different blends to try and review, and this is the first one – Orange and Ginger. Each tea blend comes in a slender card stock box with the steeping instructions, notes on the tea, and ingredients printed on the sides of the box. The sachets themselves are inside of a sealed plastic bag that’s inside of the box. The sachets are made with a biodegradable material, which is really nice to read for those who want a greener earth.

The tisane itself has some big pieces of dried fruit and whole pieces of pink peppercorn inside. The aroma is primarily orange and ginger with a hint of pepper. It reminds me of a nice ‘sick time’ tea to have, mostly because of the fragrance of the ginger. Orange and Ginger consists of: apple, carrot flakes, orange pieces, orange peel, white hibiscus, , candied ginger cubes, flavouring, pieces of ginger, pink pepper, and mullein blossom.

Preparation

Oteas recommends steeping Orange and Ginger in 100°C (212°F) water for 5 to 10 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep of 10 minutes.

First Taste

Orange and Ginger steeps to a beautiful golden yellow in colour. The aroma is primarily orange and ginger, which isn’t that big of a surprise given the aroma from the dry leaf. There’s a slight tangy flavour that I notice at the beginning of each sip, which gives way to the orange flavour. I found a nice sweetness to Orange and Ginger that’s just light and fruity, which I attribute to the dried apple pieces, as well as the nice warming qualities from the ginger. I did note a bit of spiciness from the ginger and peppercorns, but those flavours were primarily at the tail end of each sip. The combination of the flavours led to a nice, soothing drink – I happened to drink this one on a day that I had a mild sore throat and found that it helped!

Because of sweetness from the fruit ingredients, I didn’t find that Orange and Ginger needed any extra sweetener added.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Orange and Ginger found it to be lackluster compared to the initial steep – however, this wasn’t a surprise to me as most tisanes don’t do well on more than one steep as the majority of the flavour is used up in the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Oteas’s Orange and Ginger. I found the flavours to be very pleasant, and the name of the tisane was accurately chosen given that I could smell and taste the orange and ginger throughout the experience. It’s definitely a pleasant blend, and I definitely would recommend it if you had a sore throat – I found the ginger to be quite soothing for my throat, and a little extra vitamin C never hurt anyone when they were sick!

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kyth + kyn’s Digest

Digest by kyth + kyn
Herbal Infusion / Straight
$9.98 for 25g

First Impressions

Coming in a now-familiar kraft paper pouch is kyth + kyn’s Digest. The packaging is a plastic and foil lined kraft paper pouch that’s resealable – one of my favourite features in any good tea packaging. Digest is said to help with poor food decisions (on the front of the packaging, kyth + kyn wrote “For all those times when that extra slice of cake ended up being a terrible idea” – clearly they have never met me because an extra slice of cake is never a terrible idea).

The aroma of Digest is primarily that of peppermint, which isn’t surprising when you look at the blend itself. Digest consists of: peppermint, ginger root, and chen pi. For those who didn’t grow up in a Chinese household, chen pi is also known as sun-dried tangerine peels. They’re left to dry and are commonly used in eastern medicine.

Preparation

kyth + kyn recommends steeping Digest in hot water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted to steep at 200°F (93°C) for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Digest steeps to a really pretty golden orange. The aroma is pretty much primarily the peppermint, which isn’t much of a surprise considering how prominent it was in the dry leaf. The flavour of Digest is a mix of citrus sweetness, peppermint, and the warming qualities of the ginger. It’s really quite pleasant, and does warm me from the inside out. I can see why this blend would be geared towards indigestion/stomach issues, since the peppermint and ginger are both quite known to help with those. The chen pi is an ingredient also used for enhancing digestion.

A Second Cup?

I attempted to resteep Digest once, and found that the peppermint was considerably weaker compared to the initial steep. The ginger and citrus notes from the chen pi were present and more noticeable. If you’re looking for the peppermint taste, I would say that Digest is good for just one steep. If you’re happy to drink an infusion of primarily ginger and chen pi, then do one more steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked kyth + kyn’s Digest. I tried this initially at the 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival, and more recently when I was feeling under the weather. While I didn’t have indigestion or stomach issues, I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry due to being sick and I think that having that peppermint and ginger infusion helped to settle my stomach a little bit. It’s definitely not a blend that I would have every day, because I tend to attribute those flavours to when I’m feeling sick. Digest is a blend that I’m going to keep in my ‘sick time’ tea blend stash because it definitely has a place there. I’d probably rate it higher if I was having bloating or indigestion, because then I would really be able to test the herbal qualities of the ingredients found in Digest.

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kyth + kyn’s Cure

Cure by kyth + kyn
Herbal Infusion / Straight
$11.99 for Mini (makes 10 cups)

First Impressions

Cure is described by kyth + kyn has a blend to help with all your #yolo life decisions, in relation to drinking, and it made me laugh when I first heard it (and after tasting it, I really wanted to buy it). If you saw my previous review of kyth + kyn’s Glow, the packaging is fairly similar. Cure comes in a kraft paper pouch that’s resealable, has as plastic liner inside to help keep all the ingredients dry and keeps everything from getting stale.

The first ingredient that I really smelled when I opened the pouch was the ginger. I found that it was quite strong, and I could also smell something else that was almost spicy that was not the ginger, but I’m not familiar enough with the other ingredients to really know what it is… It smells good though, whatever it is!

Cure consists of: winter melon seed, pueraria, mulberry leaf, and ginger root.

Preparation

kyth + kyn suggests steeping 1 to 2 teaspoons in hot water and to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. The recommendation is to add honey or other sweetener to taste. I opted to do an initial steep in 200°F (93°C) water for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Cure steeps to a beautiful orange colour that has a strong ginger and spicy aroma that is very similar to the dry leaf. I found that the ginger flavour is pleasant, with a bit of natural sweetness surrounding it. I can taste that there are other ingredients in it, I don’t know what winter melon seed or pueraria are supposed to taste like, but I presume that one of them offers that spicy flavour that I’m getting from the tea. It’s not like a chili oil or hot pepper type of spice, but more of a spices type of spicy (think chai, but not in ingredients that I’m familiar with). The warming qualities from the ginger are nice and really warm me up!

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Cure twice, adding an extra 30 seconds for each steep, and I found that the flavours were quite nice still. The flavours stayed pretty comparable to the initial steep and I thoroughly enjoyed it each time. I’d probably really like this one if I had it when under the weather or had a stomach bug because I think it would help settle the stomach quite easily.

My Overall Impression

I loved kyth + kyn’s Cure. I found that the herbal blend did a very good job with resteeping, the ginger flavour was very enjoyable and it balanced well with the other ingredients. I wish I knew what the other ingredients tasted like or smelled like on their own so I could describe it better, but I found that the flavour was delicious and I didn’t have to add any sweetener to it to make it palatable. I do love the ginger in this blend though, and thought it was tasty.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.