Daughters of Botany – La Vie En Rose
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Daughters Of Botany founder, Sotonye Odugbemi is actually the daughter of a botanist. Her teas are inspired by the plants in her mother’s garden in Nigeria, especially hibiscus flowers, which Odugbemi calls “an iconic representation of Nigeria”.
All Daughters Of Botany teas – as far as I can tell – have hibiscus flowers in them, including this here La Vie En Rose. This may be a bit of a problem as I am fast coming to the conclusion that I don’t like hibiscus tea very much.
The first hibiscus tea I reviewed on this blog was Whittard Piccadilly Blend which I adored. I think Whittard’s hibiscus natural flavouring recipe must have been miscalibrated though because every hibiscus-based tea I’ve had since Piccadilly Blend tastes nothing like it.
La Vie En Rose is a blend of hibiscus, black tea, marigold petals and orange peel. The black tea is completely swamped by the other flavours and really this tastes far more like a flowery tisane than a cup of Camellia sinensis. It’s a stealth herbal tea. I struggled to get along with this one, to be honest. I generally like more tea in my tea.
(Incidentally, a word of warning should you try this tea and find yourself wondering “What would happen if I added milk to it?” Curb those impulses. For some reason, this tea makes the milk curdle spectacularly in a way that is both disgusting and beautiful. It’s like a weird, lumpy kaleidoscope. It also renders it undrinkable, obviously.
My tin of La Vie En Rose won’t go to waste, mind you. I’ve been drinking a lot of cold-brewed herbal teas lately. I don’t mention them on here because as I’ve said before, cold brewed herbal tea isn’t tea. It’s hipster squash.
Given the tisane-like taste of La Vie En Rose, I decided to give cold brewing it a whirl and it’s really quite palatable. So there you go. As a tea this one gets a thumbs down from me, but as a cold flowery soft drink, it will do very nicely.
Today’s featured book is We Should All Be Feminists by Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. (She also wrote Purple Hibiscus, which would have been a more appropriate choice, had I had that on my bookshelf.)
I did that with an English Tea Shop tea when I put milk in it, (can’t remember which one now) although I drank it anyway. Decided it’s just like cottage cheese, with tea. If it curdles because the milk has gone off I do throw it away though, even though it makes me sad. 😢