Hemp seeds and goji berries make an unusual pairing, and this blend leans into it rather than smoothing it over. The base is bulked out with apple and pineapple pieces, carrot flakes, beetroot and blackberry leaves, with red cornflower blossom for colour and natural flavouring layered on top. The result is fruity and herbaceous with a citrus edge at the finish, and it pours a ruby-red cup, light rather than dense.
Hemp here means the plant Cannabis sativa, a tall, bushy species with palmate leaves that originates on the Indian subcontinent and has since spread across Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas. People have grown it for roughly 10,000 years, mostly for fibre, and it has been worked into paper, textiles and oil along the way. The seeds used in this tea carry none of the plant's psychoactive reputation. Goji berries come from Lycium barbarum and Lycium chinense, shrubby members of the nightshade family native to the Himalayan valleys, where they grow into small trees with purple flowers and ellipsoid berries ranging from orange to black. In Traditional Chinese Medicine they carry a long association with skin and eye health, and both hemp and goji show up in folk use tied to digestion, sleep and general wellbeing — claims worth knowing about rather than taking as settled fact.
To brew it, use freshly boiled water and steep for five to ten minutes. It is best drunk plain, without milk or sweetener, so the fruit and herb notes come through clearly against that citrus finish.
