So, I was going to start this post by talking about how long it’s been since I posted about my trip to Basel and the London Tea Co, but I checked that post and apparently I did not write anything about tea in there. I’m not sure what past me was thinking, but I probably intended to write a post about the London Tea Company and then never did it because it took me some time before I opened these tisanes!

My visit to London Tea Co.

It will come as no surprise that before my trip to Basel, I made sure to check if there were any tea shops and this was the one I found! As the name implies, the London Tea Company was set up in London by two Swiss and five Englishmen. But they quickly set up another shop in Basel the same year it was founded (1896), and the company has been based in Basel since then.

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The shop in Basel is pretty small and it actually reminds me a bit of Twining’s flagship store at 216 Strand. The shop is narrow but chock-full of teas! I read online that there was a tea room, but when I went there, I found out that it was closed so I just bought two tisanes and left.

I did consider getting a Swedish breakfast tea, but these two tisanes are made with Swiss Herbs and I thought they would be good for when my Bled teas run out (I finished Bled Memories yesterday, which is much faster than I expected). So here are my thoughts on these two tisanes:

Guete Morge Tee (Good Morning tea)

This is the description on the packet:

“This tea is ideal for getting you[r] organism going smoothly. A unique top-quality Herb tea made of pure Swiss mountain products. This Good Morning tea is composed of ingredients like peppermint, fennel, mallow, elder, ribwort, lady’s mantle and marigold blossoms.”

This mainly tastes like peppermint tea and I don’t really taste the other herbs. It’s been some time since I had peppermint tea but I think the contribution of the herbs might be that it just makes the tea taste a bit sweeter than if it was just peppermint alone? As a fan of peppermint, I’m not going to complain about its dominant taste and this was actually my favourite of the two tisanes.

Guete Oobe Tee (Good Evening tea)

Here’s the description of the tea:

“This tea is ideal for enjoying a cup in all tranquillity in the evening hours. It is made of controlled Swiss mountain products and composed of herbs like lemon balm, anise, hop, lime blossoms, stinging nettle, ladys [sic] mantle and corn flowers.”

I quite liked the scent of the dry leaves, but I don’t know why there’s this weird fish/boiled vegetable smell when brewed. It definitely took a long time to get used to it (even now, I get a “fishy” vibe when I drink it, even though that sounds very well). The only way I can drink this if the water isn’t boiling hot, I don’t add too many tea leaves, and I use an extremely short steep time. With all this, the “fishy” note is kept to a minimum and I can taste a pleasantly sweet herbal note. Still, I can see this being a challenge to finish.

And these are the two tisanes that I got! I clearly prefer to Guete Morge Tee to the Guete Oobe Tee, but it’s always nice to have alternatives on hand. I’m actually tempted to make this for my friends and see if anyone has the same reaction to the tea as I do, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing to do when my goal is to turn everyone into a tea fan.