If you've looked at Egyptian art, you've seen blue lotus. It's the flower being held to the nose in tomb paintings, carved around the necks of columns, laid across the chest of the dead. Nymphaea caerulea — a water lily rather than a true lotus, which is one of those naming accidents that never got corrected.
Where it comes from
It grew along the Nile, and the Egyptians paid it an enormous amount of attention. It opens in the morning and closes at dusk, sinking back beneath the water — which, for a culture organised around a sun that died every evening and returned every dawn, was not a small detail. The flower became bound up with the sun's daily return and with rebirth generally.
Tutankhamun was buried with them. Scattered over the body, still identifiable when the tomb was opened three thousand years later.
It shows up steeped in wine at banquets, held and inhaled in ceremony, and rendered in art so consistently that it's one of the most reproduced plants in the ancient world.
What it isn't
Blue lotus has attracted a certain amount of breathless writing lately. We'd rather be plain: we sell it because of what it contributes to a cup and because of that long history, and we're not going to tell you what it will do to you. It's a flower in a tea. Enjoy it as one.
What it's like to drink
Delicate. More floral than you expect from something with such a heavy reputation — soft, faintly sweet, slightly earthy underneath.
The colour is the theatre. Steeped alone it gives a pale gold-green rather than blue, which surprises people. The dramatic blue you've seen in photographs usually comes from butterfly pea flower alongside it — which is exactly what we do in The Dreamer, where the two together produce a deep, shifting indigo that gets darker the longer you leave it.
It rewards a longer steep. Eight, ten minutes is not too much.
Where we use it
In The Dreamer, our night blend, alongside chamomile, lavender, passionflower and butterfly pea. In Dream Drops, our evening tincture. And loose, on its own, in The Flower Ritual Set — for blending your own.
Buying it
Quality varies enormously. You want whole or near-whole flowers with visible structure, a soft violet-blue colour, and a real floral smell when you open the bag. Brown, crumbled, dusty material with no aroma has been sitting somewhere warm and bright for a long time, and will taste of nothing.
It's a flower that was worth painting on a tomb wall. It's worth buying properly.
Pregnant or breastfeeding, taking medication, or managing a health condition? Speak to your GP or a qualified herbalist before drinking herbal teas.
