Herbal Tea Guides: Tisanes, Brewing and Flavour

Chamomile, peppermint, rooibos, hibiscus, and ginger are infusions of flowers, leaves, bark, and roots. Because they are not Camellia sinensis, calling them tea is a convenience rather than a botanical fact, and the term tisane is the more precise one.

Practically, that changes how you brew them. Most tisanes are far harder to over-steep than green tea, because they do not carry the same tannins, so a long steep deepens the flavour instead of turning it astringent.

The material decides the method, more than the name on the packet does.

A flower head, a leaf, a bark and a root give up their character at different rates and want different treatments.

Flowers and leaves are volatile and want a covered cup. Their character sits in oils that leave with the steam, which is why an uncovered mug of chamomile or mint tastes thinner than it should.

Roots, barks and hips want heat and time instead. Ginger and rosehip are simmered or steeped long, and neither turns astringent the way an over-steeped green tea does.

Caffeine is the exception rather than the rule here. Most of this family has none at all, and the two that do, yerba mate and guayusa, are worth reading as caffeinated drinks rather than as tisanes.

Aroma is how freshness announces itself. A dried leaf that smells of very little in the packet will taste of very little in the cup, and no adjustment at the kettle recovers it.