Label Impérial - Organic Green Tea with Spices & Orange

Label Impérial by Kusmi Tea, the spicy Russian winter green tea based on an ancient recipe

Label Impérial is a spicy-sweet green tea, inspired by a 12th-century Russian winter drink. Organic green tea with spices, licorice, orange, cinnamon, anise, and sea buckthorn. Note: contains licorice – people with high blood pressure should avoid excessive consumption. Loose in a 100g tin, from organic farming.

Label Impérial by Kusmi Tea is a Russian-inspired green tea spice blend from the house of Kousmichoff. For this recipe, Kusmi drew inspiration from an old Russian winter drink that has been consumed since the 12th century to ward off harsh winters.

The base is green tea, complemented by a spicy variety: spices such as ginger, cardamom, anise, and cinnamon, licorice roots, orange peel, sea buckthorn, essential orange oil, and natural vanilla and cinnamon flavoring. A tea that turns green tea in a wintry, spicy direction.

Important note: This tea contains licorice. People with high blood pressure should avoid excessive consumption.

Golden-yellow infusion, spicy-sweet with a slight licorice note

As soon as you open the tin, a complex aroma rises: the grassy undertone of the green tea, topped by the warm sweetness of cinnamon and vanilla, the bright freshness of orange peel, and the spiciness of ginger and cardamom in the background. The light green tea leaves, small pieces of orange peel, the reddish orange of the sea buckthorn berries, and light pieces of licorice root are all visible.

In the cup, Label Impérial appears in a warm golden yellow. The first sip is surprisingly sweet – the licorice root provides a natural sweetness that is reminiscent of licorice without actually being it. Then the spices settle in: cinnamon warms, ginger tingles, cardamom blooms. The orange keeps everything bright and fresh, while sea buckthorn provides a soft, tangy accent. The finish retains the pleasant warmth of the licorice, which clearly sets this tea apart from classic green tea.

For the cold season without sugar or with Christmas cookies

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

For a pot, you need about 2 tablespoons of loose tea per liter, brewed with 80 °C hot water, steeping for 3 to 4 minutes. If you want to fully exploit the wintry side, you can add a thin slice of lemon – this brings out the orange even more clearly. Milk, on the other hand, tends to mask the play of spices rather than enrich it.

Within the Kusmi green tea family, Label Impérial is the most wintry, spiciest variety. For the fresh side of the green tea register, we recommend Spearmint, and for the floral side, the Green Tea Rose. Those who want to experience the Russian winter tradition in the black tea register will find a related spice blend with cinnamon, clove, and orange in Prince Wladimir.

Pavel Kousmichoff and Russian winter drinks

The story of Kusmi Tea begins in 1867 in Saint Petersburg, where 21-year-old Pavel Mikhailovich Kousmichoff opened his own tea house. Russia has a long tradition of spiced winter drinks – Sbiten, Medovukha, warm herbal and spice infusions that helped people through the freezing months. Label Impérial picks up on this tradition and translates it into the form of a green tea infusion: spicy, sweet, warming – a tea that acts like a little winter house.

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

Control body FR-BIO-01 Non-EU agriculture