Good Advice
Would you smoke your herbal tea?
Sure, you can steep and sip your tea for its health benefits. Or, you can go the route of some New Yorkers, and roll it up and smoke it.
That’s what Liz Neves suggests. She’s the Brooklyn-based creator of Vivid Visions, an herbal tea blend that’s meant to be smoked, not sipped. And it’s flying off the Etsy shelves.
Since Vivid Visions was featured on FoodCurated.com two weeks ago, she’s been unable to keep up with the demand, selling out of batches of 150 within hours.
So why are people so excited to toke their tea?
“There’s something taboo about smoking things, and people are drawn to that,” says Neves. “It feels like you’re getting away with something.” And given that wholesome Brooklyn foodies were the first to discover her, even healthy types like that.
Liz Neves makes non-toxic beauty and cleaning products; but her smokable tea blend is her best-selling product
But there’s also the effect of smoking tea that a cuppa can’t give ya (because the smoke enters your bloodstream much faster, while sipped tea has to make its way through your digestive system).
What is it? Well, as its name implies, Vivid Visions has some properties that are a little trippier than, say, your Celestial Seasons Tension Tamer.
“The main benefit is a shift in your perception. It’s really subtle, but you just see things a little differently,” explains Neves. Don’t worry, the herbal ingredients aren’t going to get you arrested (at least in New York): Damiana is an antidepressant, lavender is a relaxant, and mugwort tends to induce vibrant dreams.
So you get the chilled-out, happy head rush without any of the chemicals and fillers found in tobacco products.
While we’re on board with herbal tea, we can’t help but question if its benefits are really counteracted by smoking it.
Neves says she’s not suggesting you keep a pack in your back pocket. It’s more like a having an occasional hot toddy.
“Smoking anything long-term isn’t great for your health,” she admits. “It’s a fun product, but I don’t want to get people hooked on smoking!” —Lisa Elaine Held
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This is actually kind of funny because one time I smoked tea “by mistake.” I was told it was … something else, but it turns out that I ended up smoking Peach Tea. Go figure.
I love Vivid Visions (VV)! Full disclosure: Liz is a good friends of mine, so I’ve been lucky enough to have access to the stuff for a while. I’m a pretty loose person, so tension is not an issue for me, but I love that I always have really vivid, fun dreams when I’ve smoked it before bed. I don’t smoke anything regularly, but VV is an awesome treat. I’ve also had VV as a tea, and it is really quite lovely and effective that way too.
I recently tried vivid visions and loved it. To sum up, I couldn’t stop smiling, or noticing all the pretty colors in the world around me. Overall, I was much more relaxed. All this while still being completely competent to go about my daily life.
I am not really a drinker and definitely not a smoker, so it is nice to have something like this to occasionally reward myself with at the end of a long, hard day. I definately fall into that “health conscious” category–heck, i don’t even drink coffee (my love of tea is what led me to Liz)–but this is as natural as can be.
Thanks, Raganella!
This is so interesting. As the founder of the best skin care clinic in Mumbai, I often advise Green Tea especially the Chinese ones to my patients for glowing skin and all the other positive effects – flavonoids, anti aging blah blah…Curiously I have had a couple of people ask me whether it is ok to smoke the tea leaves which I have dismissed as outrageous. But now I am curious to know if Vivid Visions is the same green tea that is sold everywhere or are there added elements in it? Thanks for the information though.
I have a hard time relaxing, tea unfortunately just doesn’t do it. Maybe I’m drinking the wrong blends, but there you have it. I just searched the Etsy site and couldn’t find it….how can I get some in Canada?
@Rebecca – I’ll have some more available by the end of this week (and we ship to Canada!). You can sign up for my newsletter to find out exactly when it’ll be available: raganella.com/blog (top right corner). Thanks for your interest!
@Dr. Sunita Banerji – there isn’t any green tea in the smoke blend. It contains Mullein, Coltsfoot, Damiana, Mugwort, and Lavender. I don’t know about smoking green tea, but I do know it would have an entirely different effect (possibly stimulating). Thanks for adding to the conversation!
I’m curious as to whether this is shipped in Eastern Europe, and if so, how? Thanks and have a nice day!
How can we order your smokable tea outside of New York? I would like to order some. I live in Indiana. Thank you
I do not create many responses, however i did some searching and wound up here Would you smoke
your herbal tea? | Well+Good NYC. And I do have a couple of questions for you if it’s allright. Is it simply me or does it seem like some of these responses come across as if they are left by brain dead visitors? :-P And, if you are writing at other online sites, I’d like
to follow everything fresh you have to post. Could you make a list of the complete urls of
all your shared pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?