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Diggity Tea: Republic of Tea’s get some zzz’s

Originally posted at Tea Derivations.

Maker: Republic of Tea
Type: Rooibos
Brew: 1 sachet per cup, boiling water, 5-7 minutes

I get the impression that from most posh tea makers, the idea of medicinal herbal teas is laughable. A lot of the ingredients aren’t the most pleasant-tasting in the world, so you need to find a blend with other ingredients to mask the herbal taste. Posh tea makers don’t care, but Republic of Tea, which is sort of a step up towards posh, does care. And Celestial Seasonings is quite famous for caring.1

My usual tea of choice for sleep is anything with valerian root. Usually passionflower is also involved; those are the two ingredients that will indeed knock you out. Celestial Seasoning’s Sleepytime doesn’t include valerian root, but Sleepytime Extra does.

But enough about other tea makers. We’re talking about “get some zzz’s”, which is part of Republic of Tea’s new line of red teas with health-enhancing ingredients, presumably blended so that the results are not bleaaaaargh. I’ve already tried “get happy”, which I’ll review later and does appear to work on all fronts.

And then there’s “get some zzz’s” which is a little less successful.

Oh, there’s no doubt that the concoction of “active” ingredients generally works. I have insomnia and this helps bring me down after a long, restless day… but at the very least I want something that tastes a bit more than meh. “get some zzz’s” has a taste similar to Celestial Seasoning’s Sleepytime, but a bit weaker—a little bit weird, because “get some zzz’s” has red tea in it, which is supposed to round out taste by giving it a good base.

These days my tea of choice for sleeping is Chamomile Lemon from Republic of Tea, that already contains valerian root and tastes more of something, so I’m covered there. I’m falling asleep so at some point I’ll review it later and…

zzzzz

Rating: 1/5 — An unpleasant meeting in the tea by-streets.

Little Citizens’ Tea and Lord Peter Wimsey

I’m still recovering from the weekend. No more foggy mornings of petrified time-misplaced terror, but still a bit discombobulated.

In the meantime, I discovered this jolly little Republic of Tea tin:

Strawberry Vanilla Tea

It’s called “Little Citizens’ Herb Tea: Strawberry Vanilla Tea”, from the Republic of Tea, which has a lot of neat teas, both in little tea bags, like this one, or full leaf. You can buy refills from their website instead of buying a whole new tin, but you can buy the tins too.

It’s a rooibos-based tea, which I’d not tried before, but it’s a very pleasant change from black and green teas. Rooibos is technically not a tea, actually, but a herb; still, it makes a nice base for sweeter teas. The strawberry vanilla tea is a subtly-flavored tea, with just enough of a hint of strawberry for a shadow of its sweet tang, and just enough vanilla to make you feel mellow but not make the tea washed out.

The other Little Citzens’ teas are also based on rooibos, including Tangerine and Cherry Apple. I’m not fond of cherries, so I tried the tangerine—it’s much more strongly flavored, and very definitely a fruity tangerine taste, in case someone thinks the strawberry vanilla is too weak.

Anyways, I think I will hug my Strawberry Vanilla Tea and read old mysteries—some of which are new to me, actually; for the first time I read a Lord Peter Wimsey book—Whose Body?, which I enjoyed quite a bit. At some point I’ll also read Father Brown, somewhere after the Sherlock Holmes (which I have obviously read).

It is frustrating that there’s no more legal Wimsey available for the Kindle; nothing else in Sayers’ cabinet with regards to the nobleman detective is being sold on the Kindle, nor had its copyright expired. ((I know there’s a couple copies of Clouds of Witness being sold in the Kindle Store, but it’s… not copyright-expired in the States, so unless these are publishers with actual real ties to the Sayers estate, I would avoid them.)) I’d have to move to Canada to read Wimsey legally on my Kindle (or, apparently, simply jaunt up to Victoria if I want to read any Wimsey from Project Gutenberg Canada).

Of course, there are lots of reasons to move to Canada these days.

I’m not sure Sherlock Holmes and Lord Peter Wimsey would have seen eye to eye for a while. Holmes always did bloody hate nobility.

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