Herbal Tisane (Tea) Tasting

Thursday evening I attended an herbal tisane tasting. I use the word tisane as it is not actual green tea so it's a new word that is being introduced to differentiate.

The class was held at the Teacup at the north end of Queen Anne in Seattle and since I had decided that Thursday was going to be rest day I would walk the 1.3 miles there including many sets of stairs that it takes to get up and down the hill from my apartment in South Lake Union. The photo to the right depicts just one of many sets of stairs that litter Queen Anne hill. I calculated I spent 10 minutes of the 30 minute walk just doing stairs!

The tasting was led by my acupuncturist, Clarissa Helton of Queen Anne Acupuncture and she was vibrant and full of information. Most of the tisane recipes she used comes from a book called Ancient Wisdom, Modern Kitchen which is on my reading list and I've posted photos of my favorites below.

The different herbal tea concoctions have medicinal values in both Chinese and Western herbal medicine and the book and Clarissa went into the different uses and how they may effect you. It was a really fun exploration of smelling and tasting the different flavors of dried herbs, berries and fruit and the many different ways that they can be used.

My favorite tisane of the night, good for restoring energy, and one I'm going to make on my own once I gather all of the ingredients is the Cheerful Cherry Berry Beverage - absolutely amazing flavor from the longan fruit (which is a dried fruit that can be eaten on it's own and has a unique smokey flavor that I'm dying to try in both some sweet and savory dishes in the future). For full details on how to make these beverages I recommend checking out the book above.

Goji Berries used in the Cheerful Cherry Berry Beverage

Meditative Mint, Ginger and Tangerine Tisane which is good for digestion.

Ginger, Mint Stems, and Dried Tangerine used in the Meditative Tisane.

Calm The Spirit Tea for calming effects.

Dried Licorice, Red Dates and Triticum used for Calm the Spirit Tea.

The Rest of the Day

Thursday ended up being an out of sorts day for me. I had completely checked out of work on Wednesday night expecting to head down to my best friends induction for her baby and found out it wasn't going to be happening until Friday now. So into work I went Thursday morning which took me awhile to get on track.

Plus I was just hungry all day - or maybe just from being out of sorts my brain was sending me the emotional eating signals. To counter act the hunger pains I did hit the salad bar in the cafeteria and splurged on some vanilla mango frozen yogurt which was sooo delicious.

Fortunately , I did avoid the cookies at my 1 o'clock meeting - it was sooo hard - but I'm glad I didn't overindulge. They're just full of sugar and butter and flour and is a high glycemic food. Plus they are the kind of cookie that looks too perfect - definitely not home made - so I definitely felt good after getting back to my desk.

4 p.m. could not come soon enough and I headed home to leftover frozen chili from a couple of weeks ago and caught up on this weeks Top Chef episode.