Those ingredients that you just can't stand

[ravengown]

Hey there! o/

In light of the great Dreamwidth Renaissance happening right now (may it stick!) I found this community and was very excited as I love tea! I thought of an interesting little discussion point too, which is: "What are tea ingredients that ruin tea for you?"

For me, this has to be licorice root. It's a common ingredient in throat coat teas, which do their job, yes. In those cases I don't mind the medicinal taste since it's medicine adjacent.

But Stash Tea makes an herbal tea called Mango Passionfruit Herbal Tea and when I first saw it I was so excited! Mango! Passionfruit! Pretty loose leaf components!

I made a mistake. I didn't actually read the ingredients. I drank my first cup, and my second, and wondered, "Why does this taste funny?" And it's because of the sneaky licorice root.

Do you have any ingredients like this? Or can we just commiserate about surprise licorice root? Ha!

Comments

[mythicmistress]

Hello! Tea ingredients that ruin tea for me? That would be spearmint- I don't like the taste of spearmint in anything, definitely not tea. I've had to force myself through a package of teabags before because I didn't read the ingredient list. As for licorice root, I'm not sure if I'm really tasting it all the time? I mean, there are a few blends that I like that have licorice root in them.

[ravengown]

Yeah, the thing with licorice root is more that it has a funny mouthfeel more than a bad taste. For whatever reason I'm super sensitive to it.

I can't imagine spearmint in tea though, that sounds very... chewing gum like.

[octahedrite]

Too much cardamom ruins tea for me, it has such a strong flavor. If there's cardamom there should be very little to avoid it overpowering everything else

[ravengown]

I don't think I've ever had cardamom in tea - but it has a very strong smell so I can definitely see it impacting enjoyment.

[octahedrite]

Masala tea has it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_chai#Spices

[littlewolfteeth]

Nice, thanks for posting here so I could find this community! \o/

As for the question, for me it's the orange what-not in black teas. I can't remember the exact ingredient name but I'm not the biggest fan of it. I can still drink it but I prefer not to.

I really can't stand the taste of chamomile though. Which means I tend not to drink it even when I need it.

I've tasted licorice in my tea before and that doesn't bother me but I grew up with family members that like that candy so I was kind of used to it, I guess.

[ravengown]

Haha, no problem! Glad you found it!

Maybe you're thinking of bergamot for orange? It's pretty common with black tea.

Ironically I like the taste of black licorice candy (... sometimes), so maybe it's just being caught off guard by it.

[coprime]

I've been surprised more than once by unwanted licorice root in something that otherwise sounded tasty. (You're so right: that Mango Passionfruit Herbal Tea looks lovely aside from the licorice.) The other one that gets me is pre-sweetened tea. I don't normally add any sort of sweetener to my tea, so anything pre-sweetened is an unwelcome surprise.

[ravengown]

I remember David's being absolutely awful about this, and it's part of why I stopped buying from them. Please let me decide how sweet I like my tea... please.

[extrapenguin]

It's not a problem for me now that I drink plain tea with no added other things, but rosehip and hibiscus always made it undrinkable. If I'd wanted fruit soup, I'd have ordered fruit soup, dammit!

[hyperbole]

Seconding the hibiscus, it's my worst tea enemy!! It's so overpowering even when it's a tiny part of a many-flavoured tea.

[katarik]

I have a black tea with pomegranate and rose and hibiscus, and you know what you can taste?

Hibiscus. So disappointing.

[ravengown]

Yeah! It's so weird how these things happen - although obviously some people are way more sensitive to some ingredients than others. And it always seems to be those ones you don't like.

[ravengown]

Oh gosh, rosehip is so overwhelming. I have to be prepared haha.

[coyotegestalt]

Thank you for posting! It's nice to see this place a little more lively. (I say, despite not having posted anything myself in forever.)

Alas, for me it's roobios! It's so popular, and it seems like a flavor I should like since there a plenty of things similar to it that I do, but somehow it just leaves me feeling a little... off, somehow.

[ravengown]

I've tried rooibos, although I don't remember what. But I remember forcing myself to finish the bag because I didn't want to waste it.

And yes, this post ended up very lively, I wasn't really prepared...

[ane]

I don't like lemon added to tea. And probably bergamot, since I dislike earl grey tea.

[ravengown]

Oooh -- like, a squeeze of lemon, or any lemon flavor? Bergamot definitely feels like it's in that citrus family to me, so it makes sense to not care for either.

[goodandsteep]

I'm not a fan of hibiscus in hot tea, but think it's okay in iced tea.

I find that licorice is one of those flavors that you either really like or really don't. It's like hibiscus though, it seems to sneak into an otherwise unsuspecting sounding blend. ;)

[ravengown]

It really does! I think they both have that same kind of mouthfeel - at least, teas that have either seem to coat my mouth in a funny way.

[katarik]

For me, it's coconut.

For my partner, it's chamomile -- do you know how many lavender (which my partner Loves) teas also have chamomile in them? (Many. The answer is many. Not all by any means, Stash Breakfast in Paris is a lovely one for them, but Many.)

[ravengown]

I had chamomile-lavender tea once and I thought it was atrocious. I think it was in a sample box. I like chamomile in some things but not others. Lavender is one of those things that my brain is like "Oh, I shouldn't eat that."

Coconut definitely tends to overwhelm things, though. I only like it in a few very specific instances in food or drink.

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

It was a simple rather than a blend, but may also appear in blends: slippery elm. Like drinking snot. :P