What is a tisane? (And is it the same thing as tea?)

To most of the western world, the word tea has come to mean any beverage made by steeping plants in hot water.

In fact, the right word for that concept is tisane.

Tea actually refers a drink made from the tea plant, Camelia sinensis. Because of tea’s popularity, over time it came to be synonymous with tisane, a French word that translates to “an infusion of plant matter in hot water.”

Most of the time, this is a harmless mistake, and context clues will tell us what’s what. However, once we begin speaking in the language of plants and herbal infusions, things can get confusing quite quickly if we don’t understand that “tea” means one thing, while tisane means another.

Because we at Mosscap make blends from various herbs including but not limited to tea, we take care to distinguish between tisane + tea in our shop page.

The difference between tea and tisane can become meaningful when we considering who’s drinking too. While leaves from the tea plant contain caffeine, most of the herbs we use in our blends are not caffeinated. So if you’re looking for something to help you sleep at night, or if you’re pregnant, you can know to avoid tea, but that there are probably herbs that would be helpful to drink. We recommend Hypnos!

Did you know about the difference between tea and tisane? Did this surprise you? Let us know in the comment section.

warm breezes + aroma of the bearded iris,

Arthur