Tissane / The

[idun]

I do not like french tissanes, never found one with 'taste', the cup always smells wonderful and then a watery drink with next to no flavour.

And french tea, just the breakfast stuff is generally 'weak' and the only one I found with a good flavour, The des Indes in Carrefour, is no longer.

However, I do like, and when I say that, I mean like some of them a lot.... Liptons flavoured teas. Favourite is Peche Mangue, then caramel, which at first taste is odd but I really do like it.

My son recently brought me some Liptons The poire chocolat...... which frankly sounded awful. I have my cold from xmas that just keeps on giving...... sore throat from time to time.... blocked up........ a little more coughing. So I decided to not try it until my taste buds were back to normal.

It is odd, it is one of those things that are really comforting....... it tastes like a lovely chocolate and poire pudding with custard.......... which I would not want to drink all the time, but a couple of times a week and I am really enjoying it.

As it happens I am now having to send 'english' tea to my son's home, as his girlfriend loves builders tea, the stronger the better...... and all the herbal tissanes from here........ and she will not share any of them and cannot stand any french versions.

She had no idea that tea could be properly left to brew and drank as a strong drink and she was hooked immediately.

So that is a french girl, I have plenty of english friends who literally like a tea bag dipped in and out of a cup of hot water and love their tea like that...... although it just looks like hardly coloured hot water to me.

Coffee in England.......... well I can get decent stuff, but it is so often so weak....... beurk!

[mint]

Strange you should mention these teas because, like you, both OH and I have had this horrible cold that never seems to go away.  Sore throat, coughing fit to bust, the odd headache thrown in, nose and throat bunged up with gunge.  And I do mean week after week...........

To avoid milk (I have read many times that milk makes you produce phlegm and that that is the reason singers avoid it) we have taken to drinking tisanes.

I have a small packet of spectacular rouiboosh (sorry if not correctly spelt) flavoured with some different floral scents and with caramel.  Unfortunately, that one is only a treat as I would not know where to get it again.

I have mostly had orange and lemon teas from Lidl which I do not dislike but I will try some of the Lipton ones you mention.

I also like a hot drink that I make with fresh lemon juice and fresh root ginger.  OH takes it with some honey but I can't stand sweet drinks of any kind and so I take that neat...........OK then, maybe not neat tea but tea with a drop of neat whisky[;-)]

[pomme]

If you have a Norma (www.norma.fr) near you, they changed there tissane range recently and the new tissanes are very good.

[Gardengirl]

Oh dear, both of you too, sorry to hear that. We both started with it before Christmas, it was called adenovirus by our gp and lasted well into January. My husband was prescribed antibiotics because of his medical problems and his cleared up soon afterwards. Mine improved, then returned as bad as ever, imoroved again and was back yesterday - my ribs are already aching again after a day and a night coughing.

I don't drink tea, haven't for years, drink coffee at times if I feel like it.

I enjoy mint tea, which I drink a lot of in both countries, and especially love fennel tea - I export the one we prefer to France and I've put enough for 3 weeks in my suitcase ready for returning for a quick visit. I drink quite a few others too in France, but don't like fruit teas/tissanes.

Mint, I love fresh ginger and lemon, but I do put honey in when I have a cold or sore throat - I've drunk gallons if it with honey in since December 19th!

[idun]

 I do not like honey, but as I could not taste a thing and I know that it is good for a sore throat had plenty of honey and fresh lemon drinks until mid January when my taste buds started working again.

Yes, the cold that keeps on giving. Haven't seen the doctor about it, no point, no infection, just a rotten lousy miserable cold, cough, sore throat.......[:(].

[mint]

I know EXACTLY what you mean about this cold.  I've had it for about 3 weeks now, and OH possibly a couple of weeks longer.

No, no point going to the doctor because you might give it to someone else in the waiting room.

However, I had a tooth removed and the dentist asked me whether I wanted to take some antibiotics as a prophylactic measure so I said well just give me the ordonnance and I'll see if I need to take them.

Then I thought they might equally help the cold but, alas, NO benefit whatsoever as far as the cold goes but the tooth socket seems to be nice and clean!

Will go get those Lipton tisanes tomorrow.

[lindal1000]

I don't like most of the teas but I do like the liquorice and mint one.. Lavazza coffee as well.

I had the cold as well.. still get the occasional cough.

[Chancer]

Not even a sniffle let alone a cough for 12 years now, famous last words and all that.....................................

 

Smell but no taste, sums up goûter for the French, they want to sniff everything but recoil in horror at the thought of actually imbibing something new [blink]

 

My favorite is Chai tea and am surprised at the différences there are, I have some Tescos finest chai which tastes fine but gets a film of scum  when you add milk due to the hard water here, I am brewing a cup of Twinings Spicy Chai at this second that tastes even better and does not do that at all, what can the secret ingredient be? It comes in the obligatory single sachets so beloved of the French.

 

For the guest rooms I use Intermarché breakfast tea because its dirt cheap, something like 29cts a box and ticks all the right boxes for the French, smells of something and has the tag and string with some untrue text on it saying how luxurious it is.

[mogs]

Strange but I recently had a 3 week holiday and after flying on the Saturday, by Monday I was thick with a cold and cough which really spoilt the first week of my holiday. I haven't had a cold for years and years, can't remember the last one so typical to get one then.

As for teas, I quite like the Lidl nuit tranquille tea, it has camomile and fleurs d'orange. It's cheap too.

[mint]

Yes, mogs, I have been drinking that one last thing in the evening though the taste (and smell) took some getting used to!

Hope you enjoyed your holiday.  The recycled air in aircraft often means a cold is inevitable after long plane journeys.

[idun]

I rather like Holland and Barratts Night time, I think it is called....... but only sometimes.

I can drink some teas all the time, ie lady grey, followed by earl grey and the others I have to fancy them.

[Pierre ZFP]

I've had a horrible hacking cough since before Christmas so I've been drinking a mixture of fresh ginger, lemon, honey and a little chilli in hot water.  Not sure if it does anything but I feel a bit better after it.  In the end I have given up with the cough and went to the Doc.  She was very good and explained that what probably started with a viral infection has been going on too long and I have probably got something bacterial as well.  She diagnosed it as 'Spastic bronchitis'

Anyway I have pills to loosen mucus, huge antibiotic pills and an inhaler that sprays powder into your lungs.

All a bit strange but it works!  After 4 days I feel nearly back to normal and the wretched cough has nearly gone!