Are tea flowers caffeine free? / What are your favorite hop varietals?

[jjb]

Hi All,

It's been a long time since I posted! Feels good to be back. I have two questions.

1) Does anyone know whether tea flowers (i.e. the flowers of Camellia sinensis) are caffeine free? If you haven't tried them, they have a great, clean medicinal flavor with mild bitterness.

2) What are everyone's favorite hop varietals to drink? I'm drinking Cascade hops from Yakima Chief at the moment. I'm new to hop tea but I've really been enjoying it. How do you all steep it? And do you drink it hot or iced?

Looking forward to your responses!

jacob

P.S. I'm drinking my tea flowers with a teaspoon of purple tulsi today. Tea flower liquor can be a little thin sometimes.

[daidokorocha]

I have nothing to say about experiences with tea flowers, as I am not sure I have had them. I think some members on here can confirm that they sneak their way into certain teas, though. I'd like to try them though, certainly. Especially if they are described as "medicinal". That is one of my favorite flavors, after all. I would imagine that they are indeed caffeine free, but I cannot confirm that.

As for the hop tea, I have never had that either, but it strikes me as interesting. I have had hop water, however. Take a look at the link below if you're curious about what exactly I had (it is not my blog, for reference). Japan is always a good place for interesting beverages. In the spring of 2015 there was a pine flavored drink that I adored so much. I love pine, so both the pine flavored drink and the hop water appealed to me. If you haven't, you should try pine tea one day.

http://beersensei.net/hops-without-beer ... en-shower/

Where do you get your hands on hops? Something tells me almost nobody on this forum will have tried the latter, and rarely the former probably.

[jjb]

See below for my response.

[jjb]

Where do you get your hands on hops? Something tells me almost nobody on this forum will have tried the latter, and rarely the former probably.

The first hops I had I bought at a farmers market here in St. Louis. The ones I'm drinking now, which are far superior, I just found on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089WIH6U/

I'm guessing you could find many other kinds from homebrewing sites and similar vendors. The website for the Yakima Chief brand sells 3 or 4 other varietals, albeit only in wholesale quantities.

The tea flowers are from Tao of Tea, as is the purple tulsi I blended them with.

Take a look at the link below if you're curious about what exactly I had (it is not my blog, for reference). Japan is always a good place for interesting beverages. In the spring of 2015 there was a pine flavored drink that I adored so much. I love pine, so both the pine flavored drink and the hop water appealed to me. If you haven't, you should try pine tea one day.

I will definitely keep an eye out for hop water. I have seen hop-flavored soda, and this inspired me to blend hop tea concentrate with cold seltzer, which is a great combo and very refreshing.

As for pine tea, I just recently bought a box of sachets that are mostly a pine-violet blend from Italy. (I found it at Eataly in Chicago.) They're great! I always munched on pine needles as a kid, but I never knew until then that people made tea out of them. See below.

http://www.eataly.net/it_en/violet-bals ... s-valverbe

Regards,
jacob

[NateHevens]

I can't answer the hops question, since I can't do bitter (hops are bitter, from what I understand, but I've only ever had them in the form of beer... unless I'm horribly confused and we're not talking about the same thing...?)

But as for tea flowers...

1) Does anyone know whether tea flowers (i.e. the flowers of Camellia sinensis) are caffeine free? If you haven't tried them, they have a great, clean medicinal flavor with mild bitterness.

I got a huge bag of them last year and adored them. Need to get more. I definitely had a different experience with the taste, though, as I found them more light and sweet rather than medicinal and mildly bitter...

As for caffeine content... everything I've read says that they're caffeine free, and it makes sense.

My question is this:

Technically, a brew made from something other than the leaf of the Camellia sinensus plant is not actually "tea", but a "tisane".

Can the brew made from the Camellia sinensus flower be considered a legit tea, or just a tisane?