One place I wouldn't expect to find my new favorite tea is my hair salon. But that's what happened last time I stopped in for a trim. And as it turns out, it's no supermarket variety tea blend.
Aveda salons and stores always have tea brewing. At first taste, I was surprised at the light flavor and sweet aftertaste. However, when I asked what the shop sweetened their tea with they told me it was a natural taste from the herbal blend and that the tea was unsweetened. Usually drawn to darker, heavily caffeinated teas, Aveda's blend turned me on to a light refreshing way to drink herbal (and decaffeinated!) tea.
Sold by the bottle or a pack of sachets, I think the key is to brew it at double strength. This tea blend contains licorice root, which explains the sweet flavor. It also packs a light peppermint flavor, enhanced with sweet fennel, and basil.
Have you tried Aveda's tea?
• Find it: Aveda Comforting Tea, $26 for a 4.9 ounce jar at Aveda
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While I'd love to try it, 20 tea bags for $15.00 is outrageous, even for me.
LOVE this tea. I've never been a fan of licorice, but it adds such a subtle sweetness to this tea. So lovely
I love this tea and I don't even like licorice! It's always a nice treat while I am getting my hair done. I occasionally buy some for home but like most Aveda products, it is overpriced... :-(
This is my favorite tea as well!! I don't like licorice either, but it's nice because you don't really taste that flavor. It just has a lovely sweetness. I especially love that I don't have to add any honey or truvia! A tasty, healthy, low maintenance tea! :)
$26 for a 4.0 oz. jar, which I assume is a concentrate. $15 for 20 teabags, which we are advised to brew at double strength.
Have we gone nuts!?!
@Squirrely - I completely agree. I have fooled myself into thinking the bottle of loose tea is a much better deal. The Aveda salesperson claimed it would give me 70 cups of tea, but since I use twice the amount recommended to brew it, I doubt it will last me more than a month or two. Still, love this stuff!
I love this tea - my absolute favorite. I bought the bags and ran right through them - definitely didn't get my $ worth. Frustrated by the price, I went on a long search for substitutions (I knew that what I liked was the mix of licorice and peppermint) but to no avail - I couldn't find anything else on the market that was similar enough to satisfy. So I put the loose tea on my Christmas list and it showed up in my stocking and I'm still working through it - in fact I'm only about half way through it. (I drink it about 4x/week and don't double it.)
Even if I couldn't get someone else to buy it for me, I would probably still get it. I like it that much, and I know I spend more on coffee per week.
I wonder if it's akin to Yogi Tea's Egyptian Licorice, which has a nice sweet taste to it, not "licoricey" at all:
http://www.yogiproducts.com/products/details/egyptian-licorice/</a href>
Rishi Tea's Unity blend is about half the price, and licorice/peppermint sweetness. I'm not sure of its Rishi's availability outside of WI, but it can be ordered online.
http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/unity-organic-botanical-blend.html
Squirrely -- that Yogi one is my favorite! It feels fantastic on a sore throat, too.
I love this tea. I also love the hand massage they give you when you go to the Aveda store!
I love the Aveda tea too, but have never bought it. My hairstylist told me that the sweet aftertaste is because of the dried leaves of stevia that are in the tea. The online company Mountain Rose Herbs has great loose tea blends that are similar to Aveda.
A comparable tea I have found is the Triple Leaf Tea Cold & Flu Time. $3.99 for 20 bags at World Market.
Ok, I know this tea is expensive but, it IS worth it!! This my absolute favorite tea on Earth. I am sort of a tea connoisseur and have tried a lot of teas from all over the world (most less but some more expensive than this).
I usually save this tea for a particularly rainy day or when I'm sick or need a pick me up. It's cost makes it not really an everyday tea.
I ask family and friends for this as gifts at Christmas and for birthdays, etc. So it always reminds me of those I love and it just tastes SO good!
Good Earth original caffeine free is another great all natural tea made with herbs and spices that also tastes sweet without any sweetener added. And I paid $3.89 for 18 tea bags. It is hard to find though. Trader Joes used to carry it. I have found it at Roche Bros and Hannafords.
This is the world's best tea. I love it SO much. I have tried every single commercially available licorice tea that I can find to find an appropriate, slightly cheaper substitute for it to no avail. The Yogi licorice teas (there are two that I've had), the Good Earth tea, Pukka's refresh, and basically every other tea pale in comparison. The combination of licorice, fennel, and mint are what make this tea so fantastic and even similar blends (Pukka's Refresh has the same ingredient list) aren't the same. I buy it loose leaf and just suck up the cost.
a bit off topic, but i wanted to share a natural "sweetener" i accidentally discovered recently. i had made a cup of mint tea one night & threw in a cinnamon stick, then got distracted & forgot about it till the next morning. sitting overnight brought out a VERY sweet cinnamon flavor that is SO delicious that now i purposely make it in advance. ive had friends try it & no one can believe there is no sugar added...
I used to work at an Aveda salon, and I too, love this tea. It's ridiculously expensive, so I make my own, from herbs I buy at the coop.
The ingredients are-
Licorice root
peppermint
basil
fennel seeds
I can't remember the exact measurements, but it's a lot of licorice root and peppermint and small amount of basil and fennel seed. It turns out just like Aveda's tea at a fraction of the price.
I liked this tea but also found it outrageously expensive. A quick google search to see if I was insane to want it anyway immediately popped up a recipe that's close enough to the real thing that I can't tell the difference. I think the ingredients cost about $2 at the coop for a recipe that makes 3 cups of loose tea.
@ellenx: I, too, JUST discovered how sweet steeped cinnamon is! I made a cuppa with ~1/2 tbsp each of vietnamese cinnamon, ginger, and whole cloves, and it was so deliciously sweet that for a moment I thought I had absentmindedly added honey.
This is the BEST tea I have has and I would love to have a (less expensive) alternative. Please share the links folks!
here is a knockoff recipe on yahoo...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110221210142AAPxbNI
I love this tea, too! I used to rave about it to tea snob friends who thought I was weird for loving a tea sold at the same place I got my hair done. Then they tried it, and I was the one laughing. :-)
Or you could just make your own licorice tea.
http://bottomupfood.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/homemade-looseleaf-licorice-tea/
I love this tea as well but I've found it oddly makes me dizzy after a few cups! Very sad.
As for the brewing strength I'd personally say that it doesn't require double strength.