This is my first review of an ice tea made with alpine herbs 🌱🌿🍃. This is a type of ice tea that is quite popular in Switzerland, for obvious reasons, and which you will find a number of varieties from different brands. They’re not my favorite, as they’re usually not very sweet (and I personally like my ice tea to be sweet! 😋😊).
The one I tried here is from Holderhof, a farm and small brand which makes organic, locally produced drinks (Link to their Homepage). Originally specialized in elder based drinks, they now make all sorts of syrups, lemonades, smoothies and two ice teas.
- alpine herbs tea
- organic
- Swiss
- local
Color
As most herbal teas, it has a very light and clear color. It’s a very light yellowish and the clarity of a herbal ice tea is usually a sign of both its freshness, but also of its probable lack of sweetness.
Taste
At the first sip: Very refreshing! Almost like a herbal candy, it clears up your throat and refreshes my mouth. In the beginning its also quite easily drinkable and has a flavorful taste.
But the way I see it, this taste has very little in common with an ice tea. What I taste are all the alpine herbs, but no one particular herb gives it a distinct flavor or base taste (such as green or black tea). So when I keep drinking, the permanent refreshing of my mouth by the herbs, without a particular taste that lingers, is almost like a big show of a menu that still leaves you hungry.
I don’t know if it’s the lack of caffeine or sugar because it’s not black tea, but I just miss a certain fullness in its flavor. (I meanwhile found out that Holderhof also produces a lemon ice tea, the Bio Tea Zitrone. This would probably make for a better comparison, but I didn’t yet get a chance to try it.)
According to its label it contains: Balm, chamomile, lady’s mantle, nettles, peppermint and verbena. (And also sugar and citric acid.)
Sourcing
I love the fact that most of this teas ingredients come from a local farm and the one’s surrounding it, so that if I wanted to, I could go there and visit it… And it’s great that all then ingredients are certified as organic.
That said, it is not entirely clear if all ingredients are locally sourced (e.g. the sugar could be imported).
Availability
From what I can gather, this ice tea is available in a number of organic shops and delis all around Switzerland 🇨🇭. (I got this bottle at a small deli-kiosk in Zürich.) But I’m not sure it is available anywhere outside of Switzerland.
(I guess maybe in parts of Germany, as there is also a German address printed on the label.)
+ refreshing
+ organic
+ locally produced
– not sweet enough
– overwhelming herbal taste
Overall Rating: 7/10
