A chill is in the air, so it’s definitely time to brew up a strong ginger tea to keep your immune system in check! This week, I’m reviewing Clipper Restoring Roots (renamed ‘Ginger & Turmeric’ tea since I purchased my pack) for an organic and spicy cuppa that’s perfect for these autumnal evenings.
Clipper is a decent British brand with a range of organic infusions and classic teas. You can find them in the supermarkets, but you’ll usually get a better deal if you buy them online – I’ve included links below.
If you are new here, my tea reviews cover the flavours you can expect, the ingredients you should know about, and my tried-and-tested method for brewing this particular tea.
Clipper Ginger & Turmeric Tea at a Glance
Izzy’s Rating
- Blend: Ginger, turmeric, lemongrass and cinnamon with black pepper and flavouring
- Flavour: Earthy turmeric with spicy ginger notes
Clipper Restoring Roots is earthy, spicy and naturally sweet. It’s crying out for a teaspoon of honey – deny it, and it may make you cry instead. This tea has one hell of a kick!
Full Review – Clipper Restoring Roots
- Type: Tagged paper filter teabag (unbleached)
- Ingredients: Ginger root, turmeric, lemongrass, cinnamon, black pepper, natural ginger flavouring
- Health Benefits: Reduce inflammation, clear the airways
- Flavour Notes: Earthy turmeric, intense gingery fire
- Aroma: Dried ginger, orange zest, turmeric earthiness, subtle sweetness
- Serve: With honey
- Where to Buy: Amazon UK or supermarkets
From the very start, this tea woke. me. up. It has a strong dried ginger aroma with turmeric earthiness and a slight orange note emanating from the teabag. It promises to be a seriously strong brew!
Once brewed into a cloudy turmeric yellow shade (there will be a fair amount of dust that settles to the bottom of the cup), the aroma intensifies with turmeric notes and a slightly sweet edge. It’s pleasant but quite basic.
The flavour is… wow. It took a few sips to get over the very intense fiery notes and detect the flavour beneath it. Turmeric is the star of the show, adding a very earthy and drying sensation. Ginger is there, but only in spirit. It’s hot and spicy on your tongue, but it lacks body – it’s like they’ve used dried and powdered ginger rather than fresh ginger root, which has a natural sweetness.
Once your tongue has acclimatised to the heat, you’ll find that this tea is strangely hydrating. Your mouth floods with hydration after every sip, rather than being dried out by the spicy roots.
Clipper should not have renamed this tea – restoring roots was very apt!
How to Brew Clipper Restoring Roots Infusion
The instructions were simple – put one teabag in your mug, pour over roughly 250ml of boiling water, and let it steep for 3 to 5 minutes. I strongly recommend taking a sip at 3 minutes before you even think about brewing for the full 5 minutes!
Honey is a must for this tea. The sweetness works so well with the earthiness and spiciness. It brings more complexity to the cup and rounds out the flavours, so you can comfortably sip right to the bottom of your cup without coughing and spluttering when the ginger gives your throat a tickle.
This tea is technically an infusion, as it doesn’t contain any leaves from the Camellia sinensis tea plant. That also means it’s caffeine-free, so you can drink it late into the evenings without worry.
Why Try Clipper Tea?
The herbal tea market in the UK is incredibly saturated, so why should you buy Clipper Restoring Roots? Well, Clipper play to the eco conscious. They use unbleached teabags and market their teas as organic. On the face of it, they’re a good option. And certainly, when you compare them to the other teas available in the supermarket, they’re a few miles ahead.
But let’s take a step back.
Unbleached teabags are good, but loose leaf tea is even better as it reduces teabag packaging waste. At the time of writing, Clipper do not sell loose leaf tea.
Second, not all their tea ingredients are organic. In this blend, the ginger root, turmeric, lemongrass, cinnamon and black pepper are organic, while the “natural” flavouring is not.
Ultimately, their tea is good quality, and their teabags are easy to brew. They are definitely more eco-friendly than other supermarket tea brands, but there’s still room for improvement. To be fair to Clipper, they need to consider convenience for the masses.
Ginger Turmeric Tea Health Benefits
Ginger and turmeric are both known as anti-inflammatory ingredients. According to Healthline, ginger can reduce nausea, treat arthritis by reducing inflammation, and aid digestion. Turmeric is similar with those anti-inflammatory benefits, and as I wrote in my in-depth article, the anti-inflammatory compounds in turmeric (curcumin) can be even more bioavailable if they’re combined with black pepper. This tea has black pepper!
While Clipper Restoring Roots won’t cure anything, it has the potential to reduce inflammation and at the very least it’ll clear out your sinuses with ginger heat!
Summary
Restoring Roots is an incredibly flavourful tea, whether you believe the health benefits or not. If you want a warming and fiery tea for the autumn months, I highly recommend trying it. You can find it on the supermarket shelves or on Amazon.
Tea Recommendation
If you are getting into herbal teas and want anti-inflammatory options that don’t wipe out your tastebuds with turmeric and ginger, my top recommendation for you is Offblak Brighten Up. It’s a tasty mix of hibiscus, apple and forest fruits for a berry-good flavour.