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Time for tisane
By Ann | January 28, 2010
The French love their coffee, it is true, drunk in the morning with lots of milk, or in tiny cups after meals. But doesn’t the caffeine bother them? Don’t they ever have trouble sleeping? In a word, yes.
In fact, I’ve discovered that if there’s any drink the French are as passionate about as coffee, it’s the tisane (pronounced tee-zahn). What’s a tisane? It’s just another word for herbal tea. But, like so many other things culinary, in France it seems to have a spawned a whole industry of its own.
See this wall at the grocery store? It’s one hundred percent tisane. There are varieties to wake you up, to put you to sleep, to help you lose weight, to improve circulation. There are also simple herbal drafts — both the familiar, like chamomile or mint — and the more unusual like fennel, rosemary, or thyme. No, it’s not a recipe for roast chicken! Apparently rosemary and thyme are good for digestion.
My favorite tisane is verveine (in English, verbena) which makes a soothing tea, kind of like chamomile but more full-bodied. In a true sign that I am becoming an old lady, I’ve started drinking a cup every night before bedtime, while watching TV. Interesting side note from Wikipedia: verbena tea was once used to ward off vampires!
Last night I was in a taxi with a very chatty driver, who lurched between topics almost as abruptly as between lanes. Somehow he landed on the subject of tisanes and before I knew it he was giving me a recipe: snip a few leaves of rosemary, add some grated ginger, steep in hot water and then add a spoonful of honey. Not only is it delicious, it helps maintain sexual function well into old age. You heard it here first.
Topics: Sur ma table |
8 Responses to “Time for tisane”
Comments
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January 28th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Rosemary, ginger, and honey sounds good to me!
Incidentally, I always heard that ginger was good for digestion. Does it really help me to pack in a few more pieces of sushi, or is that a placebo effect?
January 28th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
I’ve been drinking verveine here, too — definitely helps with sleep and with soothing the anxiety caused by Baghdad (and by watching episodes of bleak chic Mad Men).
January 28th, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Thanks for the tea tip :). I love tea and will have to try adding the rosemary and ginger. Have you ever tried lavender?
January 28th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I’m a sucker for mint tea, and also the variety of flowery tea from Le Palais des Thés. Mariage Frères has some awesome tea selection too.
January 28th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
I think the tea craze is also catching on here in the U.S. Ever more brands and varieties … and a disturbing number are labeled clearly not by ingredient but my the maladie they claim to clear up or calm down. Here in Miami you also have the choice between the more bobo types (ie, at Whole Foods) or the ones for the Spanish speaking crowd at grocers like Sedanos.
January 30th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
I just had to chime in: verbena or chamomile tisane for the children (and the American), and Fendant (white wine) are the only two beverages allowed at my Swiss family-in-law’s fondue and raclette dinners: apparently anything else, like water, will make the cheese turn into a ball in your stomach and you will be indescribably ill thereafter. No one has quite explained the ways in which you will become ill, but there is a general agreement that it is Very Bad.
p.s. I just boiled some bits of “reglisse” branch I picked up this afternoon hoping for a sweet infusion like my favorite Yogi Egyptian Licorice Mint tisane. Instead it is very yellow. And it tastes like boiled sticks.
February 1st, 2010 at 2:38 am
The local Vietnamese market has a variety of fresh herbs, including varieties of fresh mint I never before encountered. One in particular has a lemon grass flavor that makes a delicious tisane. I wonder what it is.
February 27th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Not sure if it’s in your neck of the woods, but the Graineterie at the Marche d’Aligre sells lovely sachets of dried verveine, tilleul and the like, as well as some mixed tisanes. The owner is Jose, and both he and the store are lovely.