And now for something completely different. And I do mean completely.
Now, I hear you over there:
“Ew, licorice, in tea?!” You’re
thinking, “I don’t like black jelly beans or allsorts or Sambuca. Why would I want to go near licorice tea?”
Well, this isn’t just licorice tea. It’s licorice
spice. Licorice, believe it
or not, is an excellent sweetener. Now,
just personally, I do enjoy absinthe/Pernod, which has a very strong
licorice-ish taste.
And I like allsorts. I don’t
like Good n Plenty, though. Those are
just yucky. Mainly because they don’t
know what they are doing with the licorice.
Stash, however, does (and they do some pretty good “flavored” teas,
too).
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| A graphic representation for those who do and those who do not like licorice. |
But anyway, this is licorice spice tea. In addition to the licorice, it’s also got
lots of other lovely things that I’m betting you do know you like, such as:
cinnamon, clove, orange, cardamom. This
is a lot more like those anise pizzelles everybody’s grandma used to make (the
ones that don’t numb your mouth from
the anise, I promise!) What’s a
pizzelle? Oh, come on! Those crisp little fancy “waffle” cookies? Yeah.
Those go great with tea, by the way. And since it’s an herbal tea, it’s perfect to
have with dessert – or for dessert,
for that matter (it’s as sweet as that slice of cheesecake, but NO
CALORIES!) If you do want some little
nibble with your licorice spice tea, I recommend keeping it in the sweets
category. Cookies, cakes, chocolate
digestives, brownies, the aforementioned pizzelles, or their hard-to-come-by
Dutch cousin, the stroopwafle.
I hear you, again, over there. “First licorice tea, and now
stroopwafle? What the hell is that?!” Ok, usually called “Dutch cookies” when
marketed in English-speaking places, these are two pizzelle like “waffles” with
caramelly syrup between them. The right
way to savor a stroopwafle is to set it on top of your cup of hot tea (or
coffee or chocolate) and let the steam soften the waffle and syrup so that it
gets gooey in the middle. If you find
yourself with the mini, silver-dollar sized ones, put them on a plate and pop
‘em in the microwave for a few seconds, enough for them to get nice a
“stroopey.” Milk in this? No idea why you would feel the need, but if
you’re a consistent milk user, I don’t think it would put this off. Might be really nice, actually.
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Nice light color (not under-brewed!) and a half a really delicious chocolate chunk brownie - and I still lost 5 pounds last month!
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One seriously itty-bitty caveat with this tea (really, this
is miniscule)… I find, for some reason, it cools down fast in the cup. Because it’s an herbal, I do brew it at just barely a boil (not quite as fast as a boil
as for a black tea), so that may be a part of it, but I still think it gets
lukewarm much quicker than anything
else. Barely even worth knocking off a
fraction of a point, because otherwise this is a really stellar tea for an
herbal, mass-market, bagged tea.
I give it a 9.5 of 10 as herbals go.
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| As you can see here, I like it well enough to keep a couple boxes in. |
Republic of Tea is a very recognizable brand of “better”
teas that are still widely available, even in a lot of grocery chains. They do both “bag” and “leaf,” traditional
teas, green, white, uniquely flavored, herbals, “health” teas… in short, the
lot. Variety, generally, is the spice of
life, but I’m always a little wary of a brand with too much variety. That can lead to spreading too thin, in my
opinion. 
Ty-phoo is another solid, everyday tea, something you can
have every morning without feeling too
much like you’re putting on airs and graces.
