Toronto Total Health Show 2009 Tea Review

This is a tea website so of course I am going to review all things tea having to do with the 32nd  Total Health Show 2009 at the Toronto Metro Convention Center.  The show lasted for 3 days from April 17-19 consisting of health exhibitors, health experts and of course, many things tea!  I wasn’t able to go until today, on the last day, but even on the last day the show was a lot of fun.

Liz and I arrived at 10am and to my delight, the first exhibitor I saw was Flora, was showcasing their Flor-Essence 25 day detoxification tea cleanse.  The tea was really good.  It was mild and gentle in taste.  The ingredients of the tea, besides purified water, are a blend of burdock root, sheep sorrel herb, slippery elm bark, watercress herb, turkish rhubarb root, kelp, blessed thistle herb, and red clover blossom.  The specific blend of these herbs has been designed to help the body cleanse gently at a cellular level.  I had 3 cups!  You can check your toxicity level here and see if you need to do a detox, most people do!

Flora Flor-essence 25 day tea cleansing program

Next I bumped into Tea2Gather.  Wendy, one of the co-founders, gave me a sample of their blooming tea, so I will be reviewing them in May.  Right before lunchtime, I also had the opportunity to speak Linda who owns Black River Gatehouse.  Their site will be up this week!  Linda, had a very cool booth with lots of herbs and teas for remedies such as dill (I got a sample of and I will be reviewing!).

Black River Gatehouse dill tea.

We then breaked for lunch and I had an awesome raw noodle dish from Live Organic Food bar.  There were lots of amazing raw food products and booths at the show, I was impressed!  Of course meaning Kombucha was there!  The brand of Kombucha that was being sold was called The Fairy’s Tonic.  It was really good.  Not too strong, but still with all the benefits of this raw fermented tonic.  I love their website, it’s super down to earth – check it out.

The Fairys Tonic Kombucha a.k.a. raw fermented tea

Other amazing companies I bumped into included Zen Tea. I will be reviewing their tea samples that they gave me in May.  I also got Pukka tea samples so I will be reviewing them as well.  Vega by Sequel, which I think is one of the best supplement companies in the industry, came out with a new powder called Vega Sport.  Their new blend includes kombucha, yerba mate, green tea and a ton of other good stuff.  I’m going to review the product later on in May as well.

Don't you love my red light district lighting?

Last but not least, I want to mention this super cool product I stumbled upon called a herbal press that is sold by Therapeutic Delight from Thailand.  I got a free 5 minute massage with one from Lana, the owner of Therapeutic Delight.  Each compress contains different herbs.  The large body ball contained plai, turmeric, lemongrass, kaffir lime, camphor, tamarind leaves, sweet flag, mountain ebony leaves, somboil (acacia concinna), and jeang leaves. I’m going to make my own with tea herbs and let all the benefits soak into my skin!

Therapeutic Delight Herbal Compress

Overall, I thought it was a great show.  Lots of friendly and interesting exhibitors.  Definitely worth checking out. Unfortunately I did not get a chance to attend any of the seminars, maybe next year!

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Tea Battle #1 – Pukka Detox Tea VS Traditional Medicinals Roasted Dandelion Root Tea Review

pukka detox tea

I’m a huge fan of both Pukka teas and Traditional Medicinals. They’re both well known companies with lots of research backing each of their products. Traditional Medicinals boasts using medicinal quality herbs. Pukka, from the UK, on the other hand actually launched a supplement line. I decided to try the Pukka detox tea and see how it would compare to a Traditional Medicinals Roasted Dandelion Tea in taste, quality and overall effacicy for this tea battle numero uno.

Round #1 – Ingredients, packaging and price

Pukka – Aniseed seed, Fennel seed, Cardamom seed, Coriander seed, Licorice, Celery seed
Traditional Medicinals – Roasted danelion root (1500 mg)

These teas are both organic and tisane, meaning they’re caffeine free, bonus points in my book.  The teas are both around the same price around $4.99 – $5.99 depending on where you get it.  16 in a box for TM and 20 in a box for Pukka.  In terms of packaging and packaging I have to say Pukka wins on this one. The trendy white box with their signature print all over it clearly states what this tea is for, detox.  The TM box on the other hand tells you what dandelion root is for only on the side of the box, if you can find it (increasing appetite and bile flow i.e. helps your liver function).  More ingredients does not necessarily mean better, especially when TM states the mg dosage you are getting from the herb.  However, because Pukka stated right off the bat what their tea is for I have to declare the winner of round 1 – pukka.

Round 2 – Smell and color

Okay the Pukka tea smells gross! If someone made the casear into a tea this is what it would smell like. It actually smells salty, with a bit of pepper. I think it’s the smell of the celery seeds that is really affecting me. Gross! I can actually imagine tomatoes swimming in my tea now. The color is a nice light yellow. The TM roasted dandelion tea on the other hand smells awesome. The smell is nice and light, the nice roasted honey notes really come through on the nose.  Love it.  The colorr is a deep browish yellow.  Winner TM!

Round 3 – Taste

Okay this was over even before it began, Traditional Medicinals clearly is the winner for taste.  If smell is any indication of taste, in which case it is in many times with tea, TM won.  The TM tea was sweet and not bitter at all.  The pukka tea as I predicted tasted like a warm casear.  I gave my Pukka detox teas away to a lucky reader already.  Overall, I would buy TM again if I wanted to use it for liver detoxification.  The Pukka tea does help with other functions though, aniseed and fennel seed help to relax digestion and flush the urinary system, cardamom seeds can help to clear excess mucus, coriander and celery seed help to wash toxins from the body, and licorice root is calming and tonifying.  So if you want  more of a full body detox and you don’t mind the taste of a warm casear, go for Pukka.

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