The Herbal Tea That Tastes Like Coffee

Not your typical herbal tea

When tea drinkers think of herbal teas, they imagine lightly colored infusions with floral and fruity flavors. Most brands sell tea bags with at the most 2 grams of herbs per bag. Even if the teas contain heartier herbs, like peppermint or rooibos, the infusion still has a light and watery body.

Not Teeccino! Our herbal teas are deeply robust, full-bodied infusions that are dark in color and have a wide variety of flavors to meet many different taste preferences. However, one thing they all have in common is our signature roasted herbs that produce that unique depth and body that Teeccino is famous for.

And importantly, they have 6 grams of herbs in each tea bag – three times more than other brands put in theirs!

How do we get that rich, bold flavor?

Yet I do so love a roasted brew! I surveyed a number of herbs that were drunk as coffee alternatives around the world.

Foremost among them is chicory root, which the French have made famous as their secret ingredient in ‘French Coffee’ – the coffee of choice in New Orleans. Chicory is an amazing plant with many species, some of which you find in your salad bowl (think Radicchio!). The root has the highest amount of inulin, a natural prebiotic found in many foods, but no tin concentrations as high as that of chicory. Roasted chicory became a core ingredient in all my Teeccino blends and puts prebiotic benefits for good gut health in every cup.

Roasted barley is the favorite roasted coffee replacement of the Italians where you can find it in every coffee bar and restaurant. It’s also enjoyed in Asia where Koreans and Japanese love it as a cold beverage for a spring tonic tea but the Chinese drink it hot. When thinking about creating a tea that tastes like coffee, roasted “orzo”, as the Italians call barley, was a must to include in my blends.

In countries surrounding the Mediterranean, you find roasted carob pods are often used as a chocolate replacement. When brewed into a tea, roasted carob has a delicious, light sweetness due to its chocolate-like flavor. Carob is high in antioxidants and contains pinitol, a phytonutrient that helps produce a natural energy boost. Of course, I had to include it in my Teeccino blends!

I pioneered the collection of ramón seeds by working with the Guatemalan government and ultimately the villagers in the Maya Biosphere Reserve to figure out how to dry the seeds and roast them. With the help of great partnerships in Guatemala, we have been buying ramón seeds for our dark roasted Maya blends for more than 20 years. The harvest of this non-timber crop has fulfilled my commitment to help people in Guatemala live in harmony with nature by becoming good stewards of the forest!