Tea Emperor

It is hard to tell, which is more correct blooming tea or blossoming tea. I will call this tea as blooming tea. Chinese are pretty clever people what comes to marketing. Their long culture is full of fables that are still present in today’s modern world. When you think of it, it is perfectly normal because people have not changed. Anyway, blooming tea borrows from the most natural celebration of life - blooming flowers.

WHAT IS BLOOMING TEA?
This tea is hand-tied into the form of a sphere and it really quite looks like a flower bud. On the outer layer it has long tea leaves and inside the sphere hides a real flower. Leaves are tied together from the bottom to form the stem of the bud. When you add water to the vessel that holds a blooming tea bud it will float in the beginning. Soon the water seeps in to the bud and it starts to descend to the bottom. Water opens the bud and the tea blooms magnificently. The process takes less than a minute, but all that time one is mesmerized with the display. This tea is fantastic dessert surprise for formal and informal parties.

THE TASTE OF THE BLOOMING TEA
Like it is with every tea and coffee, different brands and varieties do have different tastes. It is the same with blooming tea, but one thing holds true. Blooming tea will remain in your tea cup or tea glass (I strongly recommend a tall glass to get the best out of the experience) until consumed so the tea that is used in binding can’t be too strong, otherwise the taste of the ready blooming tea would be too bitter. Naturally the result is that blooming tea doesn’t handle well with repeated infusions.

Ricola used to be my favourite big brand name manufacturer of foodstuffs. The company was established in 1924 and originally made various sugary sweets of which a cough drop with herbs became a big hit and was further developed into a Swiss Herbal Candy. Customers took the herbal candy and used it in the most peculiar manner. When candies were mixed into hot water the result was delicious herbal tea. Sales rocketed!

Eventually one thing led to another and the company became involved with supporting the growing herbs that they use in their production. Think of those pure plants high on the mountains, could there be a cleaner place to grow crops?

THE TEA REVIEW
Enough of the company background and to the point. This time I’m going to focus on Ricola Herb Tea that is absolutely fantastic! With fantastic I refer to the taste, which is just delicious. Quick glance to the product information sheds some light on the reason for the taste. It must be delicious, because the herbal tea is basically sugar and only 2,7% of the content consists of herbs. Candy for kids, eh?

I don’t have scientific reports to back me up, but I believe that product, which has so much terrible carbon hydrates can’t compensate with a small amount of herbs. I know it tastes great, but for diabetes sake, don’t drink it! End of story. Drink real herbal tea instead!