A Bouquet of Tea?

No doubt about it. Tea is a hot trend right now. Of course, since tea has been brewed for thousands of years, calling it a trend may seem silly. But take a look at the tea shelf in any grocery store these days, and you'll see what I mean.

There is a tea for virtually every situation. Need calmness? There's a tea for you. Want to detox? Yup, got that, too. Want a weird combination tea? Like green tea with chocolate and orange? Found it. Maybe you just want to pamper yourself? You're in luck. There's a gazillion options for that one.

I bought one of those "lifestyle" teas recently, sucked in by the pretty package and description. It's called dream spirit by a company called Herbescent and here's what it promises: "A fragrant mystical tea, made of floral botanicals to guide you into peaceful relaxation and surreal meditations."

Doesn't that just melt the tenseness away? There is only one problem. When you pop open the lid, it smells like potpourri. I mean, it smells lovely, but it smells like a bunch of dried flowers. I steeped the tea anyway, even though it was hard to get past the perennial scent.

The tea tastes exactly like it smells. It isn't tea. It's aromatherapy! The ingredient list includes lavender, rose petals, chamomile blossoms, hibiscus flowers and chrysanthemum petals. Now, I know chamomile and hibiscus are used quite often in tea. But I gotta tell you that in tandem with the rest of the flower garden, they don't make the best drinking tea.

Here's what I can say. Even though the dream spirit flavor isn't my cup of tea, this company does make a wide variety of other teas -- normal-ish ones, too -- so I'm going to give them another shot. Because I like their packaging. And I love tea. And most of all, because I'm certain that they can do better than this bouquet of tea.