Good morning and welcome to another tea review, this time of a peppermint tisane from local tea extraordinaire, Hugo Tea Company. I felt like I needed a little pep in my step this morning and what better way than with mint tea?
Other reviews in this series: Gao Wen black tea
HUGO TEA CO. RAINIER
Continuing my tea journey with another sample from local tea purveyor, Hugo Tea Company, this time I’m taking a look at a tisane or “herbal tea.” I wrote all about Hugo Tea in my previous review of their excellent Gao Wen black tea so check that out for more background on this company. Suffice to say, Hugo Tea is elevating tea to the “specialty” or “craft” level, with high-end presentation that matches the teas themselves. All organic, all sourced from farms they’ve visited and know intimately. Hugo is really taking the guess work out of buying high-quality tea and learning how to prepare and enjoy it properly, something I’ve found quite daunting and that’s coming from the worlds of craft beer and coffee geekery!
I don’t think I’ll have tons to say about this morning’s choice, Rainier, as it’s a mint herbal and if you’ve ever had anything mint-flavored it’s, well… minty! LOL But, let’s see what happens anyway. Rainier is a blend of peppermint and lemongrass. I brewed my sample according to Hugo’s instructions, but scaled down a little bit. I brewed 2g of Rainier to 175g of water, and I’m using the recipe for tea water posted on Teacurious that I mixed together myself. Water temp was 205F and I steeped it for 3 minutes.
The dry fragrance in the sample packet is minty, smelling like a pack of peppermint gum or candy. In the cup the aroma is rounder and a little more nuanced but still basically pure mint. Letting the cup cool down a bit before starting to drink, as expected, this is mint tea! LOL There is not only the familiar flavor of peppermint here, but also a menthol “feeling” in my mouth and sinuses like the pores are opening up and cold air is rushing in. That’s the “bracing,” refreshing feeling of mint that I enjoy in mint teas and other mint-flavored products. The lemongrass in Rainier is very subtle, but it adds a little dimension for me. There’s a hint of earthiness from the lemongrass, as well as a bit of acidity that I can suss out knowing it’s in there. It comes through more in the finish and aftertaste, adding a hint of complexity so reviewers like me don’t just keep writing, “Yup, tastes like peppermint!” I am quite certain that I would not pick up on the lemongrass if I didn’t know it was in here, but since I do, I like that I can both find it if I look for it, but also that it’s a subtle component added to enhance and perfect the flavor of the peppermint here. In the almost-room-temperature cup, I’m getting just a hint of sugariness in the sip, too, and I’m confident that just like in black coffee there is not enough carbohydrate content in tea to actually result in sweetness, but there is some compound in this mint leaf that gives a similar hit to my brain of “sugar” and it adds another nice dimension to this cup.
To tell you a little more about Rainier, this is primarily black mitcham cultivar peppermint that is grown at high altitudes at the certified organic Trout Lake Farm near Washington’s Cascade mountain range. Interestingly, they don’t mention where the lemongrass comes from other than to say it’s Asian and organic. Hugo says, “RAINIER delivers a focused mint sensation. The peppermint, blended with a touch of organic south Asian lemongrass, steeps up a burnt orange liquor with punchy coolness that gives way to a saccharine aroma of mint chocolate. Medium body and sweet with a lingering wintriness.” I would agree with all that, for sure!
Hugo intends Rainier to be used as a hot tea, cold tea and as a component in mixed drink making or milk-based drinks. My sample wasn’t big enough for me to try cold or as a mixed drink with milk or other components, but if a barista, bartender or other alchemist of the sipped arts was looking for a mint component for a drink, this would be it. It’s clear, clean, bright and evokes images of fresh winter snow lying across a silent evergreen forest. I know it’s a little weird to switch gears from coffee, which has magnitudes more flavor-giving chemical compounds than wine, for example, to something like peppermint, which is very focused and is not subtle or as nuanced, but if you’re looking for a clean, clear, well-sourced peppermint tea that leaves your mouth feeling wintery and cool, this is the jam!