Hottea Mama Herbal Tea “Supermama” Gift Set Review

Reviewed by Jennifer Seymour

This lovely Gift Boxed set arrives in a cardboard box filled with black shred. Whilst all recyclable, the box set still looks classy in its packaging. This herbal tea could be used by anyone who needs a relaxing drink before bedtime to help them to sleep, but the brand and box (again 100% recyclable) creatively shows that it is designed for pregnant ladies or new mums in need of sleep. The logo which could be seen to be steam rising from a lovely brew, is also in the shape of a pregnant lady with her hand rubbing her back (a common pose for those towards the end of a pregnancy! I remember it well!). I loved this design and the design of the whole box. Classy colours that you wouldn’t mind sitting on top of your stylish breakfast bar.

Hottea Mama seem to have thought of everything: a soothing warm drink that is caffeine-free and will not keep you up all night. New mums and pregnant ladies often want to use herbal remedies to soothe pregnancy ailments and those that you might suffer as a new mum and Hottea Mama bring you some of these in the form of high-quality tea bags that can be re-used. Each box contains 15 biodegradable pyramid tea-bags that they say can make up to 30 drinks. You leave the bag in to suit your tastes – a dip for a hot water with a tinge or 3-5 minutes (as the box suggests) to really get the flavours.

As I say, for those new to tea infusions rather than the usual English Breakfast tea, the box explains how to best serve it. 3 pictures show you to put the tea bag in your cup, add boiling water at 100 degrees and leave for 3-5 minutes – the time it takes to change a nappy (!) or so the box says. I’m not sure I would be sat drinking this so soon after a nappy change – it might be more something I turn to as I just manage to get baby off to sleep! But I like the sentiment!

There are lots of products in the Hottea Mama range. I tried the “Night Owl”, which is marketed as calming and sleep-inducing. The ingredients are Chamomile, rooibos Valerian root, lime flower, lavender and cornflower. I usually prefer English breakfast tea, peppermint or chamomile at a push, but would usually avoid other herbal teas. However, I like chamomile tea and you can certainly taste that as the significant ingredient. Whether it induced my sleep or not, I can’t say, but we all know it is nice to go to bed with a warm drink – indeed a warm glass of milk before bed is what we would encourage our kids to help them to sleep as part of a good bedtime routine, so why not think of something similar for us mums! I think it is a lovely alternative to a caffeine-fuelled warm drink, as we would not want to be drinking coffee or a normal black tea so close to bedtime.

Other products are designed to have the opposite effect and actually give you the boost you need to start your day with the energy that you may not otherwise have after a night with restless sleep, but that you may not be able to get without caffeine, which many women avoid during pregnancy and whilst breastfeeding in order to avoid any possible harmful side effects on the baby. These include: “Get up and Go” – a fruit tea with zingy flavours to get your tastebuds flowing early in the day; and there are products which are designed to help with morning sickness, which I can imagine would be really useful (a warm herbal tea to sooth the stomach. I used to eat ginger biscuits which worked, so I can imagine that the lemon and ginger tea would too). The tea which I really liked the idea of was “the Final Push” – it is an old wives tale (I cannot confirm if it is any more scientific than that) that raspberry leaf tea will bring on an impending birth, so you should never have this supplement when you are too early on in your pregnancy, but after 32 weeks (it says on the box) many mums have been known to give it a try! You will try anything at this stage! You should read up on the bast time to take raspberry leaf tea and for how long (because I remember you needed a significant amount for it to be effective). I cannot obviously recommend a product to be used in this way, but if you want a nice soothing drink at this late stage of pregnancy then this is also sold by Hottea Mama.

I should say that again, I do not advocate the use of the different herbal products that Hottea Mama use and you should check these out yourself. However, what was really useful here was the blog on the Hottea Mama website. The topics for the blog are all really cleverly set out in an easy to navigate section at the top of the blog and you can easily click onto the blog you want to read. There are some really well-written blogs on there, which I enjoyed reading with my cuppa!

Hottea Mama products are stocked on many baby shower gift websites and natural health product sites such as Natural Baby Shower.co.uk, My Little Bubba.co.uk and The Food Market.com (a natural food wholesaler), but are also available directly from Hotteamama.com.  What is great is that the products seem to be available for similar prices on each site – £6 for a box of 15 biodegradable re-usable tea bags. You would have to order a lot to get free delivery (on orders over £45), but there are lots of gifts on the site and you may soon be tempted. With a best before date of 2 years away, these tea bags will last in your pantry.

I wasn’t sure that the “supermama” biscuit was worth £4, but it was a nice addition to a gift set for mothers’ day and there were other gifts that would perhaps last a bit longer. My personal favourite was the “sleep like a baby mug”, which states I don’t want to sleep like a baby, I want to sleep like my husband!!! I think many mums might echo that one he he!

As the Hottea Mama website states, whether she is a mum of 3 (like me) or a new mum-to-be, when hugs aren’t possible at the moment, these teas are a unique mothers day gift to show the supermamas out there that you are thinking of them. Give them a hug in a mug with this calming and soothing mix of natural ingredients.

Rating:5/5

RRP: £6 (for 15 tea bags)

This product can be purchased from Hotteamama here.