Top 5 Hygge Teas
The Danish and Norwegian concept of hygge (pronounced “h(y)o͞oɡə”) is having a moment in the United States. Hygge means “everyday togetherness,” but also the characteristic of a setting and experience that is cozy, comfortable and safe, physically and emotionally.
Danish culture is coffee focused, with limited connection to the deep tea cultures of East Asia, the imperial English tea, or the modern American wellness tea. That means hygge tea is open to your interpretation. The focus on coffee may be to warm the body and lift the mood and energy during the short winter days of northern Europe.
We put together a short list of teas that evoke the same sense of hygge as coffee in Denmark.
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Top 5 Hygge Teas
1) Teapigs English Breakfast Black Tea
This blend of whole leaf black teas from Assam, Ceylon and Rwanda gives you the kind of quality you find in loose leaf teas with the convenience of the tea bag. Teapigs has gone to great lengths to offset the environmental effect of teabags, making all of the packaging compostable or recyclable. They are members of the Ethical Tea Partnership and the Rainforest Alliance. Perhaps there is more value in loose leaf, but this gets close. It brews strong, has fairly high tannins, but still a balanced structure.
This is the tea of my childhood, most often sun-brewed by my grandparents in a gallon jar set outside in the morning before lunch. When I imagine the smell of hygge tea, this is the tea that pops into my mind. Lipton Black Tea is also Rainforest Alliance certified. Perhaps not the most refined, but a reliable brand with consistent flavor and scent over decades. Those with a refined tea palate will scoff at the quality.
3) Stash Double Chai Spice Black Tea
Mulled wine is the ultimate evening hygge, scented with cardamom pods and star anise. This Stash black tea has double the spice as their regular Chai, including cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamom, coriander, allspice and nutmeg. Stash, an Oregon-based company founded in 1972, is known for consistently high quality traditional and flavored teas. This is not a refined, single origin black tea, but a perfect option for adding the scent and flavor of a traditional spice blend to your tea ritual.
4) Dayi “7572” Pu erh Ripe Tea, Menghai Tea Factory, Yunnan, China
Pu’er or Pu-erh tea can easily lead one down a rabbit hole, always searching for a more complex and refined scent and taste experience. It is the robustness and depth that lends pu-erh to hygge. The “raw” form undergoes a natural partial microbial fermentation and further oxidation during aging. Pu-erh is made from wild tea leaves in the Yunnan province of China. In “ripe” form, it undergoes an accelerated, primarily anaerobic fermentation intended to mimic the longer aging process of the raw tea. Ripe teas are characteristically “earthy,” but not bitter, in a way that no other tea achieves. This offering from Dayi is one of the market leaders for an accessible ripe pu-erh.
Made from high-quality Egyptian chamomile with no additives. This tisane has light floral notes with hints of apple as well as grassy, herbal undertones.
