Once, beside the presbyteries, there were simple herb gardens where the culinary aromatics and the herbs for infusions grew side by side. Jardin des Dix Herbes Bio recaptures that spirit: a teapot where leaves, seeds and flowers meet, without fruit or added flavour.

The ten lines of the composition bring together eight plants, two of them present in two forms. French peppermint, in fragments and whole leaves, leads the blend. Then come Egyptian fennel, Egyptian and Turkish anise, caraway, thyme, yarrow, cardamom, hop flowers and, once more, cardamom, this time ground. Fennel, anise and caraway are three umbellifers, that family whose flowers grow like parasols. Everything is organic.

When you open the pouch, it smells of an herbalist’s shop. The liquor, golden green, opens on the freshness of mint, then rounds out with anise and fennel. Thyme and yarrow then add a drier, aromatic note, almost of the garrigue, and the hop cones, the very ones that flavour beer, leave a fine bitterness on the finish. Despite the number of ingredients, nothing overwhelms.

Caffeine-free, it is made for the evening. For half a litre, use 6 to 7 g; water at 100 °C; and wait between seven and ten minutes. The longer the infusion, the more clearly the bitterness of the hops comes through.

It goes well with fresh goat’s cheese with honey, seed biscuits or a baked apple. Weighed to order, it should then be kept in an airtight container.