Wintergreen Woods from David’s Tea

Tisane Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal Tisane

Where to Buy:  David’s Tea

Tisane Description:

Looking to get in touch with nature? Try this outdoorsy blend of wild herbs and plants handpicked in the Canadian wilderness. We swear it’s like drinking a fresh forest breeze. It has wintergreen leaves for a lightly minty taste, cedar and pine for a bright, evergreen aroma, and sumac berries to add tartness and a pretty pink colour. Overall, it’s delicately sweet and totally refreshing. Now that’s a breath of fresh air.

Learn more about this tisane here.

Taster’s Review:

This is one of the most unusual looking tisanes I’ve yet to come across.  It looks a bit more like something that might be blanketing the woods in the summertime:  large, whole leaves, pine needles, and berries all tossed together.  It smells a bit like the woods too:  leafy, evergreen-ish, hints of mint.  The aroma is very fresh and lively.

The brewed tisane has a stronger minty kind of fragrance, with mere hints of the woodsy/leafy kind of notes I was experiencing with the dry leaf.  The above description suggests a “pretty pink colour” but, my cup has a golden hue, no pink-ish tones to be seen.  It’s still quite beautiful though.

The flavor is almost as interesting as the presentation.  It is very crisp and exhilarating with its wintergreen minty tones.  I like that the wintergreen is not overwhelming here, the way mint can sometimes be.  It doesn’t overpower the cup, and if I were to compare it to other minty tisanes, this is actually quite light.  Distinctly mint, but, light.

However, the overall cup is on the light side.  With no hibiscus to thicken the cup, the leaves, needles and berries create a somewhat softer tasting tisane … but that is NOT a bad thing!  In fact, I think David’s Tea should be commended for not jumping on the “hibiscus in every tisane” wagon here, and letting these more delicate herbs speak for themselves rather than being bullied by the often aggressive hibiscus.

The sumac berries are said to offer some tartness to the cup, and they do, but again, the berry-ish flavor is soft … but its soft in keeping with the overall profile of the cup, where it is pretty evenly matched with the other ingredients.  The same is true for the cedar and pine, they offer a slight woodsy tone to the overall cup but these flavors marry well with the others, and help to provide a pleasantly balanced tisane that is both refreshing and soothing.

Quite unusual, yes, but also quite enjoyable!

3 thoughts on “Wintergreen Woods from David’s Tea

  1. One thing I like about the wintergreen plant is that it is relatively subtle. The wintergreen aroma in general is smooth, and I think less likely to overpower than peppermint.

    I also like your observation about how it is a bit unusual to find a blend containing berries but without hibiscus. I agree that hibiscus can often overpower. It definitely has a fruity and berry-like quality, so I can see why companies add it to berry blends, but I often prefer fruity blends that do not contain it at all.

  2. Alex: I agree with you, I prefer blends that do not contain hibiscus (although I’ve found a good number of tisanes that are quite enjoyable with hibiscus, the key is finding the right balance, as it is with just about anything). That was the point I was trying to make here … I appreciate that they chose not to use hibiscus in this tisane because it seems all too often hibiscus is the filler ingredient for tisanes. I find it refreshing that a company chooses not to automatically just add it to a tisane just because it’s a tisane.

    I agree also with your comment concerning the wintergreen, it is so pleasantly smooth and gentle in this blend, and I think that if peppermint was chosen for this blend, the overall cup would have been too much.

    Thanks for reading!

  3. Being a lover of the outdoors and always wanting to visit the Canadian wilderness, this sound very interesting to me. I only wish there was more flavor of pine and juniper berries.

    I remember when I used to go camping with my dad in Oregon we would pick pine needles and make them into a tea over the fire – very invigorating.

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