Tasting Notes
Koseret has complex and exciting flavours. It has delicious aromas of basil and tomato vines. The taste is mildly sweet and herbaceous, with a light lemon finish.
Cold infusion brings out a more pronounced tomato vine note and sweetness.
Both hot and cold, it makes an extremely refreshing drink.
Quantity
For a hot infusion use 1g of leaf per 150ml of water.
For a cold infusion use 1g per litre of water.
Temperature
For the optimum infusion use 100°C (212°F) water.
For a cold infusion, fill at room temperature and place in the fridge to infuse.
Time
Infuse for 1 - 3 minutes, tasting regularly.
(This is one of the rare herbal leafs that will become bitter with longer infusion, so make sure you try little and often.)
For a cold infusion, infuse for 8 hours or overnight.
Infusions
You can infuse these herbs at least three times. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.
Lippia adoensis
Verveine d’Afrique
Koseret is traditionally taken as tea to fight off flu and is a stable of Ethiopian cuisine, especially in celebratory meals.
Lippia adoensis, its botanical name, honours Augustin Lippi, a French-Italian botanist who died on a journey to visit the Ethiopian emperor in 1703. It's part of the Verbena family (in French it's called Verveine d’Afrique, literally African Verbena) and shares a similar leaf shape and citrus background.
UNITY
Andinet Spice Cooperative
The Koseret is grown and tended to by the women of the Andinet Spice Cooperative. Andinet means “unity” in Amharic and together these women have built a cooperative. They work small plots of land near their homes in the Biosphere Reserve.
Kafa Biosphere
Afromontane Cloud Forests
The Koseret is grown in the Kafa Biosphere Reserve, located in the stunning Afromontane cloud forests in southwest Ethiopia. Historically, this region was home to the Kingdom of Kaffa and is renowned as the birthplace of coffee.
The Biosphere Reserve was created to protect the biological diversity and cultural heritage of the people.
