In the roller-coaster experience that is the Numi variety pack, I've hit a deep dip again. At least, unlike some literal roller-coaster riders, I didn't retch.

For the most part, the teas I've tried so far containing turmeric have been underwhelming, at best. This one strikes me as a randomly conceived herbal vector for turmeric delivery -- let's spin that drum, pull out some ping-pong balls with herbs' names on them, and toss 'em in there! -- as if supplying turmeric were the primary mission, all else being of lesser concern.

I do fancy cardamom, cinnamon, and vanilla bean a lot as individual tastes, as well as in most combinations, and can tolerate rooibos and honeybush, especially when well-flavored. Maybe turmeric just isn't a good match for all of the above, because the whole is less appealing than the sum of the parts implies. The dry-bag and wet-bag aromas at least match the flavor, which is not common in my experience; you'll realize most of what you're getting before you take a sip. I didn't find the taste awful, just devoid of much character, as if the ingredients were terms canceling each other out from the opposite side of some herbal-tea algebraic equation. However, the aftertaste lingers in a rather bitter and stale form that grows more moldy by the minute. I drank this rather quickly to avoid giving the aftertaste time to build, then rinsed my mouth afterward.

Addendum: curiously, this was the only tea in the multipack that came in a free-standing pouch, instead of being like each of the others that had bag with string and paper label. As such, it was in a flatter, wider wrapper, positioned off to the side in the box. Did marketing experts suggest to Numi a different packaging for the turmeric-consuming audience?

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Comments:

Alex Zorach wrote: on October 28th, 2017

It's really weird...Numi has no fewer than THREE different herbal teas with Turmeric as the main or featured ingredient...and I have tried none of them.

I actually love turmeric, and I've had some good herbal teas using it as a base, but...I think it combines better with some flavors than others. Rishi Tea has a Turmeric Ginger blend that also has a hint of licorice and citrus peel, and I find that one works well.

Another weird thing here is the whole thing of steeping turmeric in water; I cook with turmeric, and much of the flavor components of it are conspicuously fat-soluble and not water soluble. I find that if you just steep it in water, you don't get much out of it (contrast with ginger, where much of the flavor comes out by just boiling it in water), and for this reason I usually like putting turmeric in oil and then cooking things in it, and if I'm putting turmeric in a soup I make sure the soup has enough fat in it and I add quite a lot of oil if it doesn't have any visible oil on the top, because I know it brings out the flavor better.

As for this particular blend, I haven't tried it but the ingredients sound weird to me. Vanilla and cinnamon are both touchy ingredients to me...they can hugely change the character of a blend, and there are a lot of things I find they don't work well with, at least to my tastes. And...when you combine them, it's even more true. The famous and artificial-smelling "bubblegum" flavor is actually a combination of the flavor components of vanilla, cinnamon, and wintergreen. It may also have orange (I have seen some sources say it does, other sources not). I love wintergreen, and I hate the bubblegum flavor (I find it cloying and...to be honest thoroughly disgusting)...so I think it's safe to say that the vanilla+cinnamon combination is kind of...responsible for my dislike of that flavor. And like...the thought of combining those things with turmeric is also weird.

Tchuggin' Okie wrote: on October 29th, 2017

It was a strange combination, for sure. I didn't know about the fat-soluble nature of turmeric, but that makes sense, given how much turmeric-dominant Jamaican and Indian curry that I've eaten (and loved). I could taste the turmeric in this tea, but it just didn't seem to fit. I've tried one ginger/turmeric tea (Trader Joe's) and while its taste was tolerable, the aftertaste was memorably horrendous! My sample size is just two, but it makes me wonder if turmeric is the common denominator in delivering tea aftertastes best suited for a sewer. Funny, I don't get that experience after turmeric-laden foods, however.

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