My first in-person conference this decade yielded a few new teas to try and to rate. This was one. As always with such "freebies", value is based on the online and/or local store price.

This is a tea I would call "socially awkward" if it were a human. It hides quietly in the corner when you expect a meaningful interaction, and gets assertive when it normally shouldn't. The three listed ingredients are peppermint, spearmint and tarragon. The latter is a first for me in a commercially prepared tea, though I've made and enjoyed tea with chopped tarragon leaves in a strainer. It makes a nice complement to a somewhat weak mint tea (both in dry-bag and in-cup aromas, as well as taste). I'm not sure why the mints were so subdued in the bags I had, both at the conference and on home well water. The flavor balance was pleasant, just nowhere nearly strong enough.

Interestingly, wet-bag scent offered the most potent sensation, with a great deal of mint oil still locked up in the leaves and wafting out when sniffed. It's a mystery why this is the case, given that I steeped for more than 5 minutes on a couple of the bags, and the leaves are fairly finely chopped. With the tarragon mixed in, this was a very enjoyable wet-bag breathing experience—borderline legit aromatherapy, and enough to bump the "aroma" rating up a full star from what it would have been otherwise. A nice mint/tarragon kick also showed up in the aftertaste, more so than in the active-drinking flavor.

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