Saturday, September 21, 2013

I Start My Harney & Sons Reviews With The Delightful Mint Verbena Tea!


The Good: Decent ingredients, Good taste
The Bad: Caffeine free, Additional tea bag garbage, Expensive
The Basics: Harney & Sons Mint Verbena tea is a bit pricy, but tastes flavorful enough to justify the expense.


I love mint tea. I am a big fan of mint tea and I like trying new teas and flavors of teas that I like from almost every brand I can find. Until now, I have not tried any teas from Harney & Sons. So, today I decided to start on the boxes of Harney & Sons teas that I have with their Mint Verbena tea. My wife is a fan of Harney & Sons and with my love of mint teas, Mint Verbena seemed like a smart starting point for me.

Basics

Mint Verbena is an herbal tea from Harney & Sons. It is a tea that is naturally caffeine free and it is one of the stronger herbal teas that I have tried. Mint Verbena comes in Harney & Sons's standard individually-wrapped tea pyramids, means that each tea pyramid has a wax papery envelope it is sealed in for freshness. Each tea bag has a three-inch string with a little paper tab at the end, which is quite a bit more waste than I like from a tea bag. When I make pots of tea, I tend to use three bags and making a steeping pot of Mint Verbena reminds me of why I like the easy environmentalism of Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags. A box of Mint Verbena comes with 20 individually-wrapped tea bags.

Mint Verbena is marketed as a mint-flavored tea and in that regard it lives up quite well. If one wants something that is flavored like mint this will satisfy.

Ease Of Preparation

Mint Verbena is an herbal tea, which means preparation is as easy as boiling a pot of water! A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea, though reusing the tea bags yields a barely minty beverage. These tea bags can be reused and the resulting beverage is about 5/8 strength and has a more potent menthol aftertaste than the original brewing. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works fairly well, even for a second pot.

To prepare Mint Verbena, simply boil up some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take three to five minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with boiling water, the tea is ready at the three minute mark and letting it steep longer does not truly change the results. Letting the tea steep more than five minutes does not net any additional flavor, nor does it denature the flavor of the tea.

Taste

Mint Verbena smells strongly of peppermint. The menthol scent is strong enough to open up one’s nostrils and the scent is inviting and distinct to anyone who loves mint.

On the tongue, the Mint Verbena tastes just like it smells. The flavor makes the tongue tingle and then as the hot tea washes over it, it cools mouth. The peppermint flavor is strong and there is a slight herbal flavor to it. There is a vague leafy flavor that accompanies the menthol peppermint flavor.

There is no aftertaste with this tea, though it cools quickly in the mouth. When one adds sugar to it, the mint kick is accented, though it does not take on an aftertaste when sugar is added.

Nutrition

It is utterly unsurprising that the dominant flavor in Mint Verbena is tea as the ingredients are lemon verbena and peppermint leaves, crushed fine. Mint Verbena tea is all natural, kosher and does not contain caffeine.

Were it not for the sugar I add whenever I make pots of Mint Verbena, this tea would be devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates or protein.

Storage/Clean-up

Mint Verbena is a fairly light tea. As a result, cleanup is rather simple, save on fabrics. The mugs and steeping pot easily rinse out, but the steeping pot ought to be rinsed fully after the tea is gone as the mint flavor will linger in a steeping pot to corrupt the next pot, if it is unrinsed. This tea will stain if it is left on fabrics, so simply do not let the tea cups or mugs linger on light colored materials that might stain!

Mint Verbena is easy to clean up after - the tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. One of the nice things about this tea - like most - is that so long as it is kept cool and dry, it can last for a long time and it is easy to clean up. However, like all Harney & Sons teas, there is extra waste from the strings, paper tabs and individual wrappings around each bag.

Overall

Mint Verbena is a delightful light mint tea that is well worth trying, though Harney & Sons makes the consumer really pay for it. Fortunately, the quality of the tea makes it worth spending the money on it!

For other tea reviews, please check out:
Bigelow Eggnogg’n
Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Peach
Stash Christmas Eve

7/10

For other food and drink reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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