Exploring Dandelions as I was, I thought I would try some Dandelion teas and approached the matter with my usual thoroughness. For the last eighteen months I haven’t drunk any tea and coffee so, given that I’m starved for tipple, this research had a practical aspect to it.
The Clipper Tea on the top left is, I think closely inspecting it, the flower dried. It doesn’t actually say on the packet what part of the plant. This is a bit like a Chamomile tea which, being truthful, I have never enjoyed.
The Dandelion Root on the top right is another organic product, this time from Poland. The Polish look like they have fields of the stuff. This was not roasted and had a slightly dank, watery flavour. Apparently often combined with Burdock for a proper witch’s brew.
My journey into Dandelion Teas started with this Roasted Dandelion Coffee on the left. I picked this up at the legendary health food store G. Baldwin & Co on the Walworth Road.
I really like this product which is packaged up by a company in Wotton-Under-Edge in Gloucestershire. It actually tastes very like coffee! It really does! Most like Nescafe instant in fact, which I was quite delighted about, given as how I’m not much of a espresso snob. What bothered me though was that it wasn’t organic. So picky!
After a bit of research I then found this last Organic Roasted Dandelion Root variant on the right. This comes in sachets, is nearly as tasty as the Cotswold Dandelion coffee, but has too many airmiles on its account, travelling as it does from “sustainably wild-collected meadows of Eastern Europe”, to be packaged in America, to then be delivered to the UK. Craziness. Yeah, that’s no good. So I will likely stick with the Cotswold.