Sweet Dreams is part of AstroloTea’s Transformative Loose Tea range, which combines ingredients with specific properties to create teas designed to have an effect on either mind or body. Sweet Dreams, true to its name, is supposed to be a relaxing blend, with the intention of promoting sleep or rest. Like many blends of this kind, it contains a selection of herbal ingredients known for their calming properties, including rose petals, hops, jasmine, lemon balm, and lavender. It also contains more unusual ingredients, such as poppy, catuba, gotu kola, dogwood, yarrow, brahmi, kava kava, and mullein. Many of these I’ve never come across before. All of the ingredients are organic, except the kava kava which has been cultivated without the use of chemicals.
I followed the recommended parameters and used 2 tsp of leaf for my cup, added to boiling water for 5 minutes. The resulting liquor is a bright orange-brown, with a mildly herbaceous scent. The flavour is more delicate than I expected, initially quite generically “herbal”, but with clear flashes of rose and lavender. There’s a distinctive thick sweetness from the hops in the mid-sip, and a touch of aniseed-like fennel. A light lemony-citrus note rounds off the sip.
The proliferation of ingredients made me wonder whether it would be possible to distinguish any one of them at all, but in actual fact it is possible to pick out the stronger, more dominant, flavours. Many of the ingredients are unfamiliar to me, though (and probably to most people), and it’s fair to say that the overall effect is herbal with an edge of floral. I’m pleased the the floral doesn’t edge over into perfumey, and it’s not too strong, so you might get along with this even if floral teas are not typically your thing. In flavour terms, its reminiscent of a lot of similar blends, only with more unusual, carefully selected, ingredients.
I didn’t notice much of an effect straight after drinking, but I can certainly appreciate having another caffeine-free pre-bedtime blend in my cupboard. With its light, delicate flavour, it’s a pleasing choice for late night drinking whether you buy into the “sleep-aid” aspect or not. I’d happily seek out more AstroloTea blends in the future.
And since today is #MusicandTeaMonday, we couldn’t help but pair this tea with this song! Don’t forget to join us on your favorite social media of choice with #MusicandTeaMonday!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Herbal
Where to Buy: AstroloTea
Description:
Sweet Dreams Organic Loose Leaf Tea is only available as an herbal tea blend. It is a powerful sedative tea for nighttime relaxation and sleep. It has been used to help relieve insomnia and sleep disturbances.
This soft and dreamy tea is the perfect way to close every day. Slip into comfort and notice how gently everything floats away as you easily drift off to dreamland. Sweet Dreams tea is a luxurious gift to give yourself for a day well lived.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Part of Fortune from AstroloTea
I am trying the caffeinated version of this blend, which is also available as a caffeine-free herbal.
The instructions call for two teaspoons of leaf per cup of boiling water, but they recommend a four minute steep. I stuck to these parameters.
The tea is pale and fragrant, more earthy than floral. I do taste the Assam, and definitely the calendula and probably a hint of rose coming through as a faint, round sweetness. My tastebuds kept expecting licorice root, but the sweetness is much more low key than that.
My daughter said that this tasted like pumpkin to her – not like pumpkin spice, but like actual pumpkin. I can definitely understand feeling a squash vibe from it.
There are a lot of ingredients in this tea that I have never tasted on their own so I can’t say much about those, but I can say that I am not picking up on the jasmine, for those of you who are afraid this would be too floral for you! In fact, I don’t think of it as a floral tea at all, but rather herbaceous and earthy.
Overall it is really smooth and I think I would enjoy it iced as well as hot. That is a big consideration where I live, as it is over 90F even now in mid-September.
I would love to try the caffeine-free version as well. It would be a nice tea to sip on for a bedtime wind-down.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: AstroloTea
Description
Part of Fortune Organic Loose Leaf Tea is available as an herbal tea or caffeinated black tea blend.
The Part of Fortune is a point in your birth chart that can represent good fortune, wellbeing, success and health. The Part of Fortune tea blend is a lively and flowery medley of flavors, inducing a feeling of elation and prosperity. (Just a side note for you, the day I created this blend, I received my very first tea order! It sure worked for me!)
• Part of Fortune flavor descriptors •
light ~ herbaceous ~ mild ~ mellow ~ earthy ~ flowers
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
The Pollenator from AstroloTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: AstroloTea
Tea Description:
The beauty of nature’s bounty can sometimes be lost on us if we are walking around feeling like the air is full of irritants! The Pollenator is like a breath of fresh air. This deep, spicy tea reunites you with the magical natural world around you.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
AstroloTea is one of my favorite tea shops. The care and love that is put into each blend is just amazing. Pamela is beyond creative and passionate about the teas she concocts. I’ve reviewed several of her teas for both CuppaGeek and SororiTea Sisters.
This particular blend is one that is supposed to help those with sinus and allergy issues. Pamela recommended it to me on one of my blog posts and while I was going thru my tea stash I saw that I actually had some.
The Pollenator smells amazing! The dry leaf has this wonderful soothing and warming cinnamon spice note. One of those smells that you want to bottle into a candle. I brewed the tea up with fresh boiling water and allowed the blend to steep for a few minutes. I adore the Assam blends that Pamela creates and the Assam base she uses.
Once the tea was ready to steep, I sat down to enjoy my tea. First sip in and I was greeted with this soft and mellow silky like cinnamon flavor that is smoothed over by an Assam base. The next flavor I noticed was the ginger. Now I’m very hit or miss with the ginger and unfortunately, I could have done without the ginger in this mix. The rest of the flavors just blend so well, but for some reason the ginger flavoring just stood out to me like a sore thumb. Not terrible and I easily sipped on this cuppa and made myself another pot later. It was just the one flavor I noted that I could have done without, but that is normally how I feel about ginger anyway.
This blend is one of the better blends I’ve tried for fighting stubborn allergies and sinuses. One that I would recommend!
Pisces from the Zodiac Collection by AstroloTeas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Herbal
Where to Buy: AstroloTeas
Tea Description:
An intuitive dance of flavors to open the imagination, inspire compassion, and dive deep into the dreams of The Fish.
Every sign rules a different part of the body, Pisces rules the feet, immune system, hormones and circulation. The Pisces tea, a deep and spicy blend with a high fruity note, is like a full-body jolt of inspiration.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Looking for a strong cinnamon spiced tea to bring on the fall days? Check out this one.
This tea is very cinnamon flavored tea, almost to the point of mouth drying. This isn’t the sweet kind of cinnamon either, but the more robust spiced flavor. The base of this tea is an Assam and it is delicious. The cinnamon mixes well with the base giving this tea an almost chai like feel with out the clover and ginger flavors. I don’t really pick up any of the rosehips flavor or the other ingredients mixed in.
I find myself almost longing for a touch of sweetness or maybe even a dollop of cream or milk to kick this tea up and give it a sweet spiced contrast.
Not loving or hating this tea, more or less thinking this would be killer as a latte with caramel and whip cream on top. That would be an awesome fall latte for sure. This may not be my favorite AstroloTea but this is still quite tasty.
Aries from the Zodiac Collection by AstroloTea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black/Floral
Where to Buy: AstroloTea
Tea Description:
An energetic dance of flavors to initiate the courageous and enterprising new beginnings of the Ram.
Every sign rules a different part of the body, Aries rules the head and the face. The Aries blend, a light and subtle flavor with tones of fruit and flowers, helps promote mental clarity, new beginnings, and fresh perspective.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
First thought when I saw this tea was YES! Chrysanthemums!
Over the summer, I discovered these delicious floral teas with Chrysanthemum in it. Wow. My taste buds squealed in delight!
This tea is a unique blend of floral, spices, black tea, and a few herbals sprinkled in for good measure. This tea looks amazing. The dry leaf mixture had such a nice sweet slightly savory/floral aroma. Really nice. I couldn’t wait to brew this up. I poured the entire sample I bought into my tea pot, added the water and let it steep for 4 minutes.
While this tea was steeping, I swear I was drooling. This tea smelled just so good!
Finally it was time to try it. Took my first sip and yes, there is the good stuff. This tea really gives me the “wow” factor I look for. There is a unique sweet taste with hints of floral notes and a slightly savory sage finish. The tea base is nice and gives the tea a nice background depth. There are also notes of lemon here and there. Such a silky like smooth tea. So rich and full of flavor! I can’t get enough!
What is fantastic is that when you order this tea, you can order it caffeinated or not. Of course I choose caffeinated. I need something to get me thru the 2pm hour! I was also able to steep this tea about 4 times before noticing a lack of flavor.
If you aren’t familiar with AstroloTea, take a moment and check out the site. The owner is amazing and has such a great variety of teas for everybody!
By the way, if anybody is following my epic adventure to sipdown my teas. . .This makes #9! Woohoo!