Sun Mar 06, 2022 10:05 pm
I started on drinking tisanes, not "real teas," about 20 years before I did much with better tea. The hippie theme was a part of that. I was living in Vail, Colorado in the early 90s and got into teas and tisanes through products like Tazo teas, which mixed both. If better real tea had been around I would've started tea interest then, but tisanes were instead, in "hippie" shops. Of course I was drinking Celestial Seasonings blends then too, which were mainstream by that time, nearly 20 years after these early starting points covered in this thread.
Tisanes kept being available in natural foods shops, in other places I lived like Austin, Texas, and later yet Honolulu. The "hippie" angle died down and it was more just about organic foods and such, but the two never really fully uncoupled. I didn't experience better loose tea until I traveled in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Japan, and China, and it was mainstream and all over the place then. In retrospect I was still running across so-so quality versions, but it was decent loose tea.
One early hippie shop in the Vail Valley sold blends with names like "Immuni-tea." Now that seems timeless, pushing a health angle and using tea puns for branding. I don't think I knew anyone else there into herb teas like I was, but there must have been some of them around, since a few shops stayed in business. Sort of mainstream brands like Alvita cut ties with any such sub-culture reference, and tried to normalize the form of plain herbs (so not the point here, but someone could mix those on their own).
Being in my 50s I always wonder if factors like drinking a lot of tisanes, juicing (not steroids), or spending a long time as a vegetarian had significant positive health impact. But you don't get to know what led to what, and avoiding sugar and junk food was probably a more significant factor, and exercise, getting decent sleep, etc.