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.

Sources

(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6337106/

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What is Focus on Yourself?

Focus on Yourself is anything but a simple green tea blend. It’s a blend that you can explore over and over again and still be impressed with just how unique it is. Focus on Yourself is blended with 10 different ingredients, and some of them are rarely used with green tea. There’s a light but deep green tea base, whole unroasted green coffee beans, apple pieces, chokeberries, cinnamon, ginkgo, sunflower petals, cornflower petals and ylang-ylang flavouring – the most unusual flavour for a green tea blend. Focus on Yourself smells not only delicious, it looks incredibly pretty too.

What makes this wellness tea blend so special?

Many things make this wellness tea so special – from the combination of ingredients to unique flavours and incredible gentleness.

So, let’s start with the first ingredient – green tea. Green tea in this blend is not a strong and bitter type. It’s light but deep and strong enough to carry all the ingredients, but light enough to offer refreshment with zero bitterness. Green tea is one of the healthiest tea options because it contains high amounts of EGCG, a catechin responsible for many tea benefits, including boosting immunity. This catechin is more abundant in green tea than in black tea.

Another interesting ingredient in this blend is green coffee beans. Green coffee beans are regular coffee beans that haven’t been roasted and may have a potential use in weight management. (1) And finally, there are gingko and chokeberries. Chokeberries or aronia berries have been significantly gaining in popularity because of their potential antioxidant properties (2). They have a tart flavour, look similar to elderberries, and are often used for making syrups and wine.

And finally, there’s a ylang-ylang flavouring that gives this blend a divine scent. Ylang-ylang essential oil is popular in aromatherapy and perfume making, but rarely used as a flavouring for tea. Not only it has a beautiful scent, but studies also suggest it may have a potential to help with depression and anxiety (3).

This tea contains ingredients that are commonly not blended together, so don’t expect a scent that’s like anything you’ve tried before. Focus on Yourself smells incredibly delicious, fresh and inviting. It’s deep and sweet, with light herbal notes, finished with a flowery ylang-ylang.

What does Focus on Yourself taste like?

Focus on Yourself is a green tea blend, so steep it with a slightly cooler water at around 80 degrees Celsius for 3 minutes. It brews into a pale-yellow tea, with a beautiful light scent and flavour. There are absolutely no traces of bitterness or astringency, just a mellow light green tea layered with floral, vegetal and fruity notes.

This tea would be a wonderful choice for both tea beginners and tea connoisseurs. It’s light and refreshing, but with a deep and warm soul. When you need a hug in a cup and some quiet me time, Focus on Yourself is a perfect wellbeing blend to enjoy. This tea would be great for cold brewing too, and it’s best served with no condiments.

Tea Recap

Water or milk? Water.

Day or night? Day or afternoon.

Hot or iced? Hot or cold-brewed.

Sweetened or pure? Pure.

Caffeine? Yes

What’s the price? Starting from 4.62 GBP.

Where to buy? Get Focus on Yourself from Tealyra website.

Sources

(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943088/

(2) https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/22/7823

(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4534619/

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