An organic Portuguese herbal infusion built on lúcia-lima — lemon verbena — with tangerine. Caffeine-free, and one of the most Portuguese things in the shop.
Lemon verbena is not a European plant, despite how it is used here. Aloysia citrodora comes from Argentina and Chile, and Spanish botanical expeditions brought it back to Europe in the late eighteenth century. It was named in honour of Maria Luisa of Parma, queen consort of Spain — hence lúcia-lima in Portuguese and luisa in Spanish. Within a couple of generations it had become so thoroughly naturalised in Iberian domestic life that most people assume it has always been there. Portuguese grandmothers still grow it by the kitchen door.
It is the most lemony of all the lemon herbs, and by a clear margin. Its principal aroma compound is citral — the same molecule that gives lemon peel its character — and lemon verbena carries substantially more of it than lemon balm, lemongrass or lemon thyme. That is why an infusion of it smells sharply of sherbet and lemon drops rather than of grass, and why it needs no sugar to taste sweet.
Tangerine alongside it adds roundness rather than more acidity: the peel oils are softer, sweeter and warmer than lemon's, which stops the blend from being one-dimensionally sharp.
An honest note on herbal infusions generally. They are pleasant drinks. The European Union has authorised no health claims for botanicals of this kind, and where a herb carries a European traditional-use registration, that status rests on long-standing usage rather than on clinical trials. We will happily tell you an infusion is delicious, caffeine-free and comforting in the evening. We are not going to tell you it does anything to your body.
Available at Só Verde, an organic concept store in Foz, Porto.
Biohême
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Biohême
Biohême
