Chrysanthemum: Instant

I'll be honest with you up front... I'm not particularly experienced with traditional Chinese drinks. I like them enough but don't ask me for advice - I'm no medicine man. But I have been told by those wiser than myself that chrysanthemum tea is supposed to be good for me and has anti-biotic properties. Is this true? I don't know... but it does soothe my sore throat in the winter time. At least, this instant variety does.

Presented in a typical silvery foil packet, this is a single serve product that makes a decent sized mug of warm tea (although, it would also have you believe that you could serve it cold). Logic would dictate however, that hot water desolves any drink mix better than cold water would.

The content of the foil packet is sweetly scented; so far so good – the ingredients seem rather straight-forward. It listed simply chrysanthemum then sugar and honey. And yes, it does smell very real. But like I said before: I'm not big on genuine Chinese herbal drinks so I'd be hard pressed to tell you if that's really chrysanthemum extract I'm drinking.

It's enough to say that I'll take their word for it. It does taste and smell like a sweet flowered tea (a little bit like jasmine). In any case, I can't get over how good it feels. I have a feeling this'll easily replace my taste for hot chocolate on a cold day.