u/Cold-Pudding-5602

I really like herbal tea, and I drink it almost every day. But I noticed that there are only 2 types of herbal tea available on the market.

The first one is made with a single ingredient. Some of them taste good, but a little bit boring. And the others are not my type. The only reason I can keep drinking is because of the effect.

The second type is blended herbal tea, which includes fruits and flowers and so on. The flavor is better than the single ingredient type, but some of them seem to have an artificial flavoring smell. 

So, to make herbal tea taste better, I started DIY. I brew two different herbal tea bags randomly or add some honey. One thing that gave me inspiration was a ginseng tea I tried. It was blended with chrysanthemum, jasmine and goji, and I was honestly surprised by how naturally flavorful it was. You could still taste the individual ingredients and without artificial flavor. Then I started to add flowers or berries I like with herbal tea. Nothing very scientific, just keep trying and enjoy the process. I've also seen a post  few days ago, someone mixed spices with herbs, that's also cool. 

Do you have any "secret" tips to make the single ingredient herbal tea taste better?

I saw it online, it’s so stunning! It looks like a hydrangea, but I’m not sure about it. Does anyone know the specific variety?

The first one is what I saw online, the second one was made by me. I can tell the difference🤣 I really enjoy it.

I bought a sampler with 8 different loose leaf teas, and this white tea mini cake is one of them. 

I brewed it in a gaiwan with boiling water. First steep, 20s, the cake slowly started to loosen up. Second steep, 10s. The liquor is light yellow. For someone who is addicted to sweet foods, it will be hard to notice the  natural sweetness of this tea. It tastes like bubble tea with 30% of sugar or even less. But that light sweetness is really pleasant in the mouth and can stay for a while.

This tea got almost 20 steeps. After around 12th steep, the flavor started getting lighter.

I really enjoyed this white tea. Having one mini cake per session is super convenient, and I think the gentle flavor would be especially suitable for loose leaf tea beginners.

Those flowers called jinlan (streptocarpus hybrids?). They are easy to grow. Water them about every 3 days and their flowering period can be as long as 3 months.

I’ve always kept a few herbs around my house. Chamomile before bed, ginger when my stomach feels uncomfortable. Ginseng was the one I wanted to like but honestly never did. I bought ginseng powder and sliced before, and all of them have earthy and bitter taste. So I almost gave up on it.

Few weeks ago I found this ginseng tea. As you can see in the pictures. It’s a whole ginseng root blend with some goji berries, jasmine and chrysanthemum. What surprised me most is the taste. I think it tastes good just because it has jasmine and chrysanthemum. You know, those flowers have naturally sweet and floral aroma. So this is the first time, it felt less like taking an herbal supplement and more like having a cup of tea. You can enjoy the moment.

I just wondering if I’ve been judging ginseng based on the wrong products. If anyone using ginseng regularly, do you notice any difference between whole root, slices and powder, or is it mostly about how it’s prepared?