Sencha green tea with lemongrass, lemon peel, lime essential oil, mint, marigold flowers and vanilla extract. Sharp, green and aromatic — the best iced tea in the range, and rather good hot. Organic.
No alcohol, despite the name
Worth saying plainly since the name invites the question. There is no rum and no alcohol of any kind in this. It is a tea blend built around the flavours of a mojito — mint and lime — which is a genuinely good idea, because those two are the whole point of the drink.
Sencha
Sencha is the everyday green tea of Japan and accounts for the large majority of Japanese production. What distinguishes Japanese green tea from Chinese is the first step after picking: Japanese leaves are steamed within hours of harvest, while Chinese leaves are pan-fired.
That single difference explains the taste. Steaming halts oxidation while keeping the leaf's fresh, marine, grassy character; pan-firing gives the toasted, nutty, chestnut note of Chinese greens. If you have wondered why Japanese and Chinese green teas taste so unalike despite being the same plant, that is why.
Lime essential oil, and a note worth knowing
The lime note here comes from lime essential oil rather than dried peel, which is why it is so bright — the oil carries the fresh top notes that dry out of peel.
A general fact about citrus oils, which does not apply to this product but is genuinely useful: expressed lime and bergamot oils are phototoxic on skin. The compound involved, bergapten, reacts with UV light and can cause serious burns and lasting pigmentation — the classic case is squeezing limes outdoors in the sun, which dermatologists call "margarita dermatitis". It is a real thing that catches people every summer. Drinking it is entirely fine; it is putting it on your skin before sunbathing that causes trouble.
Brewing green tea properly
Water at 70–80°C, never boiling. At 100°C the catechins extract harshly and the tea turns bitter and astringent. Boil the kettle, let it stand three or four minutes, then pour. Steep two to three minutes.
This matters more here than in most blends, because bitterness kills the lime.
Caffeine and iron
Sencha contains caffeine — roughly a third to a half of a cup of coffee. EFSA advises keeping total caffeine below 200 mg a day in pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Tea tannins also bind non-haem iron and reduce absorption substantially. If you are anaemic, vegetarian or taking iron tablets, keep tea an hour away from the meal or the tablet.
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