TeaHQ

Leaves

The largest group, and the one closest to tea without being tea. A leaf infusion behaves like tea in the cup — it steeps rather than simmers, it can be re-steeped, and it goes bitter if pushed — which makes these the easiest botanicals for a tea drinker to start with and the ones most often mistaken for tea on a label.

44 recordsThe largest group, and the one where drying temperature decides most of the quality.

All 44

  • Bamboo leaf
    Very clean and lightly sweet with a cool green note, closer to cucumber water than to anything grassy. It is one of the mildest botanicals in the catalogue.
  • Basil
    Sweet and faintly aniseed, quite unlike tulsi’s pepper and clove. The two are not interchangeable despite the shared genus.
  • Bay leaf
    Resinous and faintly medicinal-smelling in the way of the laurel family, with a clove-like warmth underneath and a firm bitterness. Two leaves is a pot.
  • Birch leaf
    Green and mildly astringent with a faint sweetness and a cool note at the finish. Late-picked material tastes of nothing much.
  • Blackberry leaf
    Tannic with a mild dried-fruit sweetness when fermented, and flat and grassy when not. It is doing structural work in a blend rather than flavour work.
  • Blackcurrant leaf
    Recognisably blackcurrant on the nose with a sharp green edge, and astringent in the mouth without the fruit’s sweetness. One of the few leaves that genuinely smells of its fruit.
  • Cistus
    Strongly tannic and resinous with an amber-like sweetness on the nose that the cup does not deliver. It dries the mouth in the way a young red wine does.
  • Curry leaf
    Aromatic and slightly bitter with a citrus-anise character that is instantly recognisable to anyone who has cooked with it and unfamiliar to anyone who has not.
  • Fireweed
    Dark, faintly fruity and malty with a soft body and no astringency to speak of. The closest thing to a black tea that any European plant produces.
  • Greek mountain tea
    Softly honeyed with a dry mountain-herb note underneath, and very little bitterness. Simmering rather than steeping is what gets the honey character out.
  • Guava leaf
    Astringent and green with a faint aromatic lift from the myrtle family it belongs to. It does not taste of guava fruit at all.
  • Guayusa
    Round and slightly sweet with a light hay character and none of the harsh green bite of yerba mate. Roasted material picks up a cocoa note.
  • Honeybush
    Sweeter and rounder than rooibos, with an apricot note the red bush does not have. The two are frequently confused and honeybush is the softer.
  • Hyssop
    Sharp, cooling and bitter with a pine-camphor character that is instantly recognisable from green herbal liqueurs. Assertive enough that most blends use very little.
  • Kuding
    Overwhelmingly bitter at first with a sweet aftertaste that arrives some seconds later, which is the whole reason people persist with it. One leaf per glass is the correct quantity.
  • Lemon balm
    Softly lemony and slightly green, with none of the sharpness of actual citrus. Dried material is a shadow of the fresh leaf.
  • Lemon myrtle
    Overwhelming clean lemon with a eucalyptus edge behind it. Far stronger than any other lemon-scented leaf, and unpleasant at the quantity you would use for lemongrass.
  • Lemon verbena
    Bright clean lemon with almost no bitterness and a slightly sweet finish. Distinctly sharper and less waxy than lemongrass, and it holds up under a long steep.
  • Lemongrass
    Bright and clean, more lemon peel than lemon juice, with a faint warmth behind it. Holds up well to boiling, unlike most leaf botanicals.
  • Loquat leaf
    Roasted material is nutty and rounded with a faint almond note; unroasted is greener and flatter. Neither tastes of loquat fruit.
  • Makrut lime leaf
    Intense lime-peel aroma with a green bitterness, and quite unlike the juice of any lime. Bruising or tearing the leaf before it goes in the pot roughly doubles what comes out.
  • Moringa
    Distinctly vegetal — closer to a leaf vegetable than to a drink, with a bitterness that most people find takes adjustment. It is more palatable in a blend than alone.
  • Mulberry leaf
    Mild, green and slightly savoury, quite close to a light bancha without the astringency. Steamed material tastes markedly more marine than pan-fired.
  • Nettle
    Strongly vegetal, closer to a broth than to a floral tisane, with a mineral edge and real body. It tastes like what it is, which is a dark green leaf.
  • Olive leaf
    Firmly bitter and green in a way that recognisably belongs to the olive tree. Most people take it with honey and lemon, and in the growing regions that is the standard preparation.
  • Oregano
    Peppery, warm and firmly bitter, with a resinous depth that separates good wild Greek material from the grassy cultivated sort. Usually taken with honey.
  • Pandan
    Grassy and faintly vanilla-like, often described as the vanilla of South-East Asia. Subtle rather than assertive, and easily lost under sugar.
  • Peppermint
    Sharply cooling and slightly peppery, with a bitterness that arrives if it is steeped long. Far colder in the mouth than spearmint.
  • Persimmon leaf
    Mild and slightly hay-like with a soft green edge, similar in shape to a light bancha. Nothing about it suggests the fruit.
  • Raspberry leaf
    Astringent and slightly tannic with a hay note, and no fruit character at all. The fermented version is darker, rounder and genuinely tea-like.
  • Rooibos
    Naturally sweet and slightly woody, with a vanilla note and no astringency at all. It tolerates boiling water and a long steep without turning bitter, which very few botanicals do.
  • Rose geranium
    Rose-scented with a green leafy edge that no actual rose has, and slightly bitter if pushed. One leaf in a pot of mint tea is the traditional dose.
  • Rosemary
    Piney and resinous with real bitterness and a cooling camphor edge that arrives late. Assertive enough that most traditions blend it rather than drinking it alone, and a long steep pushes it from aromatic to medicinal quickly.
  • Sage
    Strongly aromatic, resinous and quite bitter, with a drying finish. A small quantity is correct; sage steeped like tea is overwhelming.
  • Shiso
    Distinctly spicy-herbal, unlike anything else in the mint family, with an anise-cinnamon lift. The red form’s drink is sharp and sweet once vinegar and sugar are added, and its colour change on acid is dramatic.
  • Spearmint
    Sweet and rounded rather than cooling, with none of peppermint’s cold bite. This is what most people who like mint tea actually like.
  • Stevia
    Very sweet with a green, slightly bitter tail that the refined extract removes and the leaf does not. A single leaf sweetens a cup and two make it taste of the plant.
  • Tarragon
    Clean aniseed with a green herbal base, sweeter than fennel and much softer than star anise. Russian tarragon is grassier and has very little of the anise.
  • Thyme
    Warm, herbal and mildly bitter, gentler than rosemary or sage. One of the more approachable Mediterranean herb infusions.
  • Tulsi
    Peppery and clove-like, closer to a spice than to a leaf, with a drying finish. Quite unlike the sweet basil of Italian cooking despite the shared name.
  • Vervain
    Firmly bitter and grassy with no citrus note whatsoever. Anyone expecting lemon verbena will assume they have been sold a bad batch, and they have been sold a different plant.
  • Wormwood
    Overwhelmingly bitter with an anise-camphor aroma above it. A pinch is a large dose and nobody drinks a cup of it on its own twice.
  • Yaupon
    Mild, faintly toasty and much less bitter than yerba mate, with no real astringency. The roast level determines almost everything about the cup.
  • Yerba mate
    Vegetal and genuinely bitter, with a smoky edge from the fire-drying. The bitterness is not a fault and is not brewed away; it is what the drink is.

Commonly confused within this group

  • Peppermint and Spearmint — Sold interchangeably as 'mint tea' and chemically different. Moroccan preparations want spearmint; using peppermint makes the drink cold and harsh.
  • Tulsi and Basil — Same genus, different species, and 'holy basil' on a label may mean either.
  • Rooibos and Honeybush — Both South African, both red-brown, and honeybush is regularly sold as rooibos to buyers who would not know.
  • Lemon verbena and Vervain — The most reliable mis-sale in European herbal retail. One is a lemon-scented South American shrub, the other a bitter European wayside plant, and both are sold as verbena.
  • Blackcurrant leaf and Blackcurrant — Leaf and fruit of one bush, and unusually the leaf really does carry the fruit’s aroma — but none of its sweetness.
  • Raspberry leaf and Blackberry leaf — Two Rubus leaves used the same way as tea substitutes, both often fermented, and routinely substituted for each other in bulk blends.

Guides covering this group

Other groups

Grouping is by the plant part used, which is a fact about the material rather than a judgement about flavour. A plant appears in one group only, so cinnamon is a bark and not a spice here even though every kitchen in the world files it the other way.