The world of herbal tea is extremely colourful. There's rarely a tea drinker that hasn't tried chamomile or mint tea, but there are many herbal teas that are much less common. Shiso leaf is definitely one of them. Not many tea ships offer herbal blends with shiso leaf, so stumbling upon Blackberry Shiso leaf tea from Tealyra was quite a surprise. Never heard of it before? You're definitely not alone.
What's in Blackberry Shiso Leaf blend?
Blackberry Shiso Leaf blend is an organic herbal caffeine-free blend with quite interesting ingredients. This herbal blend contains red shiso leaf, rosehips, hibiscus, blackberries and yuzu peel. Both yuzu and red shiso leaf are ingredients that are common in Japanese cuisine. What's interesting about this blend is that almost all ingredients are naturally tart and zesty. Also, almost all of them have a naturally dark purple or red colour. This is a herbal blend with caffeine-free ingredients, which makes it suitable for any time of the day.
What is shiso?
Shiso or Perilla frutescens var. crispa is a type of plant that belongs to a mint family (1), originating from East Asia. While shiso is actually not that uncommon in European countries, although it's mostly used as a decorative plant. However, fresh shiso leaves for culinary purposes are becoming more and more available from specialised shops. Other name for shiso is Chinese basil. Leaves are edible fresh, often used for pickling vegetables and can be used for making tea.
Purple shiso contains anthocyanin, same as purple tea or fruits and vegetables with purple or dark blue colour. In fact, rosehips, blackberries and hibiscus contain them too.
According to studies, shiso may provide:
- antioxidant,
- antibacterial,
- antifungal,
- anti-allergic,
- anti-depressant,
- anti-inflammatory and
- antitumor properties (1).
What does Blackberry Shiso Leaf tea taste like?
To make a cup of Blackberry Shiso Leaf tea, steep 1 teaspoon of leaves in a cup of freshly boiled water for 5 minutes. Brewed tea smells quite delicate with a dominant rosehip note. The colour of this tea is really pretty, it's dark scarlet, and very deep.
Although most of the ingredients have a naturally zesty and tart flavour, brewed tea is actually a bit more delicate than a pure hibiscus tea would be. It has a lighter, fresher lemony yuzu note with a deeper herbaceous shiso note. This tea is zesty, but it doesn't need any sweeteners. If you still want to sweeten it, a teaspoon of honey would be a much nicer than regular sugar. Perhaps, the least intense ingredient in this herbal blend are blackberries that blend in into other flavours, rather than standing out. That said, this is a herbal blend, rather than a fruit blend. Although very aromatic, it feels light and very easy to drink. It would be amazing as an iced tea as well.
Blackberry shiso leaf would be a wonderful choice for herbal tea lovers that enjoy zesty notes of hibiscus and rosehips. This tea is great if you want a tea that's refreshing and has lots of flavour. It won't become bitter if you over-steep it, so it's great for both herbal tea beginners and advanced herbal tea drinkers.
Tea Recap
Water or milk? Water.
Day or night? Day or night.
Hot or iced? Hot or iced.
Sweetened or Pure? Pure or with a teaspoon of honey.
Caffeine? No.
What's the price? Starting from 4.51 GBP.
Where to buy? Get it from Tealyra online shop.