Labrador Tea Grade 1

This was a gift from Derk, thank you so much!

I had no idea quite how to brew this beautiful tea, which looks like long twigs and pine sprigs. Camellia Sinensis’ website recommended 3g to 500ml at 194F, and I mostly followed that, except I had a little over 4 grams and just dumped it all in my 500ml teapot so I wouldn’t have a weird amount left over. Steeped for five minutes.

The dry leaf has a really fresh, pine aroma. Steeped, I have a harder time describing the aroma… still a bit of pine, a citrusy zing, and a soft florality I can only describe as the smell of cotton sheets straight out of the dryer. The taste has a wonderful pine overtone that lingers on the tongue, with a lemon citrus note and something a bit woody or earthy underneath… like a cross between oats and bark.

Definitely relaxing… I normally sleep through my weekends so I’m not going to say this tea caused drowsiness, but my nap definitely felt very restful!

I put the spent leaves in some cold water and added the remains of my now-cold-after-napping teacup and will see how that turns out for iced tea. Not sure how well the spent leaves will fare cold-infusing, but no harm in trying. I figure even slightly piney-tasting ice cold water would be okay in this heat we are having here.

Last year, or was it early this year, I placed an order with Camellia Sinensis because I saw they offered some unique herbal teas that are wild-harvested from Québec. Labrador tea is in the genus Rhododendron — the leaf underside and stems are covered in a dense, rust-hued fur.

It smells so good in the bag, like an evergreen forest. It reminds me of my times in Canada, the Pacific Northwest and of the wintertime redwood forest here in northern California. Crisp, clean air. Breathe. This is the kind of fresh smell that makes me aware of my own being and the lightness of mind and body I am capable of achieving in nature. It elicits a sense of presence, away from the smells of humans and the industrial worlds we create.

In the description on this page, Camellia Sinensis says of this tea: “a lively and light liquor, supported by strong citrus and camphor aromas. Its vegetal character is reminiscent of lichen and cedar.”

Had I not read that, I would describe it as… let’s see… the same as the smell of the leaf but with some sweetness of strange origin, a thickness that reminds me of silver needle white teas, perhaps due to the fur. Cool evergreen forests. There’s also a bit of pungency — resinous, tar-like, reminding me of kerosene? more than sap. You know, it also reminds me a lot of Bitterleaf Tea’s Jingmai Crab Legs but without the hint of milkiness (https://steepster.com/teas/bitterleaf-teas/78526-2016-jing-mai-crab-legs) and of Juniper Ridge’s Douglas Fir Spring Tips with a thicker, more robust, sweet taste and less of a “green” flavor (https://steepster.com/teas/juniper-ridge/14722-douglas-fir-spring-tips).

It’s recommended by the internet-at-large to not steep these leaves and stems for more than 5-6 minutes due to a high concentration of tannins in the tea that can cause stomachache. I tried to follow the parameters on the bag with 2tsp (crumbled), 250mL, 90C for 4-5 minutes but time often gets away from me. With what was probably an 8-minute steep, I did experience some bloating and big gurgles about an hour later. With that, though, also came an intense sleepiness. I was out. Labrador tea is used as a treatment for insomnia which wasn’t the purpose of my drinking but dang did it work, and it has worked the few other times I’ve sipped.

When tea drinkers live dangerously. That’s actually kind of true here. Apparently you’re really not supposed to drink this stuff if you’re pregnant or breastfeeding, and it has a ‘slightly stupefying’ relaxing effect. So it’s basically beer. In flavor it reminds me of….gin? Definitely a bit medicinal but not bad. It’s just a little piney. I’m definitely relaxed, but then, I’m spending an evening drinking tea, reading a cookbook, and playing with my dog. Really hard to pin down the culprit here. Still, I really think I need to keep this around.