Label Impérial - Organic Green Tea with Spices & Orange

Label Impérial by Kusmi Tea, the spicy Russian winter green tea made from an old recipe

Label Impérial is a spicy-sweet green tea, inspired by a Russian winter drink from the 12th century. Organic green tea with spices, liquorice, orange, cinnamon, anise and sea buckthorn. Note: contains liquorice - excessive consumption should be avoided if you have high blood pressure. Loose in a 100g tin, organically grown.

The Label Impérial by Kusmi Tea is a Russian-inspired green tea spice blend from Kousmichoff. Kusmi was inspired by an old Russian winter drink, which has been drunk since the 12th century to ward off harsh winters, when creating the recipe.

The base is green tea, supplemented by a spicy variety: spices such as ginger, cardamom, anise and cinnamon, liquorice root, orange peel, sea buckthorn, essential orange oil and natural vanilla and cinnamon flavour. A tea that turns green tea in a wintery, spicy direction.

Important note: The tea contains liquorice. People with high blood pressure should avoid excessive consumption.

Golden yellow infusion, spicy-sweet with a light liquorice note

As soon as you open the tin, a complex aroma rises: the grassy undertone of the green tea, over it the warm sweetness of cinnamon and vanilla, the bright freshness of orange peel, in the background the spiciness of ginger and cardamom. Visible are the light green tea leaves, small pieces of orange peel, the reddish-orange of the sea buckthorn berries and light pieces of liquorice root.

In the cup, Label Impérial appears in a warm golden yellow. The first sip is surprisingly sweet - the liquorice root brings a natural sweetness that is reminiscent of liquorice, without really being liquorice. Then the spices settle: cinnamon warms, ginger tingles, cardamom blooms. The orange keeps the whole bright and fresh, sea buckthorn adds a gently tart accent. The pleasant liquorice warmth remains in the finish, which clearly distinguishes the tea from classic green tea.

For the cold season without sugar or with Christmas pastries

The Label Impérial is a classic winter tea for the cold season. It goes well with gingerbread, cinnamon stars and speculoos during Advent, with honey cake and spiced bread, with apple strudel or a piece of baked apple. It also provides a nice contrast to hearty Russian cuisine - pirozhki, pâté, borscht. The liquorice content makes sugar unnecessary: the tea brings its own gentle sweetness.

For a pot, you need about 2 tablespoons of loose tea per litre, poured with 80°C hot water, steeping time 3 to 4 minutes. If you want to fully exploit the wintery side, you can add a thin slice of lemon - this brings out the orange even more clearly. Milk, on the other hand, tends to cover up the interplay of spices rather than enriching it.

Within the Kusmi green tea family, Label Impérial is the most wintery, spiciest variant. For the fresh side of the green tea register, Nana Mint is recommended, for the floral side Green Tea Rose. If you want to experience the Russian winter tradition also in the black tea register, you will find a related spice blend with cinnamon, cloves and orange in Prince Wladimir.

Pavel Kousmichoff and Russian winter drinks

The history of Kusmi Tea begins in 1867 in Saint Petersburg, where 21-year-old Pavel Mikhailovich Kousmichoff opens his own tea house. In Russia, there is a long tradition of spiced winter drinks - sbiten, medovukha, warm herbal and spice infusions that help people through the icy months. Label Impérial takes up this tradition and translates it into the form of a green tea infusion: spicy, sweet, warming - a tea that acts like a small winter house.

After the Russian Revolution, the family fled to Paris in 1917. Since 2017, almost all teas have been organically grown, and bottled in the modern factory in Le Havre. In our Kusmi Tea collection you will find an overview of all blends.