Product Review: Pau d'Arco Tea

Photo Credit: Traditional Medicinals Website

I purchased this tea as part of my anti-candida diet as this bark is well known to have anti-candida properties. If you are interested in finding out more about how that specific aspect of Pau d'Arco tea, I recommend that you check out this page. I found and purchased Pau d'Arco tea locally at Wegmans, which is a healthy grocery store we are blessed to have in Erie. I've also seen it at Giant Eagle for a little bit more. Vitacost sells a few different brands.

The brand I chose is called Traditional Medicinals. My impression is that this is a high-quality brand with excellent product integrity. The tea is pure Pau d'Arco herb at a pharmaceutical grade level, so you know you're getting the real deal.

The taste of this tea is... just... strong and just very slightly bitter. It isn't a bad taste, but I find it difficult to drink just this tea by itself. That being said, I usually try to mix this tea with another tea with a more pleasing flavor. My favorite combination is Pau d'Arco with Egyptian Licorice, which I purchase from Wegmans or Vitacost (you can buy in bulk!) as well. The brand I chose for this tea is Yogi. It has a very naturally sweet flavor which adds balance to the strong Pau d'Arco flavor. I should mention, however, that it is not recommended that all people drink licorice tea since it raises blood pressure. Since I have consistently low blood pressure, Dr. Conley recommended that I drink licorice tea frequently as a natural blood-pressure stabilizer. I don't mind; it's yummy! :) Other recommendations of things you could mix it with are raspberry leaf tea. I've tried it with ginger tea, which is alright. Ginger tea is a digestive aid, so it seems that mixing these two teas is a good idea, even if the flavor is not the best in the world. I will be reviewing my particular ginger tea in a few days.

Let me know what you think of Pau d'Arco if you decide to try it!