Herbal

Roots & spice

Root and spice infusions are the most intense in the herbal category: ginger is warming and pungent; licorice root has a deep natural sweetness; turmeric is earthy and slightly bitter; ginseng is mild and slightly bitter with a long-standing functional reputation. These are frequently blended together or with true tea for chai-style preparations. They typically require longer steeping times or simmering to fully extract, and they are the herbal family most likely to influence a drink's texture or body alongside its flavor.

teabert, the tealytics teapot, keeper of the kettle

These are the heavyweights of herbal tea, pungent ginger, sweet licorice, earthy turmeric, and they need a long steep or a gentle simmer to give anything up. Roots spend their lives underground holding on to things, and it would be unreasonable to expect them to let go in a few minutes.

Styles in this family

Ginger

Ginger tea is an infusion of the ginger rhizome (Zingiber officinale), caffeine-free, delivering a warming, pungent, spicy cup with a clean citrusy edge. It is…

Licorice Root

Licorice root (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is the root of a Mediterranean and West Asian legume, prized for an intense natural sweetness many times stronger than sugar.…

Ginseng

Ginseng tea is an infusion of the root of true ginseng (genus Panax), caffeine-free, with an earthy, bitter-then-sweet, faintly woody character. It has been…

Turmeric

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is the golden rhizome at the heart of South Asian cooking, dried and brewed (or stirred in as powder) into a warm, earthy, slightly…

Valerian

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) is a flowering plant whose root is one of the oldest and best-known traditional sleep herbs in Europe. Brewed as a tisane it…