These Jacob Hooy hemp tea bags from Holland & Barrett offer a quick and easy alternative to loose ‘leaf and flower’ blends. They are presented neatly and are full of finely ground leaves from industrial hemp plants. The simple cardboard box holds 20 bags and displays a distinctive cannabis leaf print.
Unlike CBD oil, this product uses the entire hemp leaf and not an extract. So, you will get a full range of all the substances that can be infused into the tea. This includes cannabinoids, flavonoids, terpenes, other plant substances and nutrients. However, the highest concentrations of hemp’s beneficial ingredients are found in the flowers, leaving me wondering as to how effective the Jacob Hooy hemp teabags can actually be.
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Contents
Who is Jacob Hooy?
Founded in the oldest, traditional pharmacy in Amsterdam, Jacob Hooy have over 250 years of experience in producing good, natural, healthy and honest products. They continue to trade in items such as herbs, spices, oils and exquisite herbal teas.
In the Netherlands, they achieved such an impressive reputation that they became official suppliers to the Royal Family and were awarded to the title, ‘Purveyors to the Court by Royal Appointment’. Here in the UK, their range includes hemp tea, CBD capsules, CBD+ Coconut Oil and CBD oil in two strengths.
Who are Holland & Barrett?
Found in most towns and cities throughout the UK, Holland & Barrett are ‘health and wellness retailers’ and stock everything from specialist foods to protein powders and herbal skincare products. They are best known for their wide range of healthy products including options for those who follow a vegan or gluten-free diet and an impressive selection of herbal teas.
They’ve been trading for more than 145 years and have stores in several countries, including the Netherlands, Malta, the United Arab Emirates, China and India. While they offer convenient access to a wide range of reasonably priced health products, they have a poor reputation for online customer service.
Third-Party Lab Tests
These aren’t available for any Holland & Barrett CBD products which is one of the most noticeable differences between them and leading CBD retailers. Because this is a natural product with little done to it, other than grinding, it should be a good source of a range of beneficial ingredients.
Nevertheless, teas should come with full third-party certificates of analysis because the quality and contents of natural hemp products can vary greatly from plant to plant. We did ask Holland & Barrett to provide this information, which they did not. We covered this in more detail as part of a review into the Jacob Hooy 5% CBD oil if you would like to find out more.
Considering that the tea has an 18+ requirement it seems odd that there is not more information about the substances that it contains. With no precise data, it is hard to gauge the exact amount of cannabinoids that you are consuming. While I would consider Holland & Barrett to be a trusted brand, anyone selling cannabinoids in any form should be able to produce lab test results at the point of sale.
Ease of Use
These tea bags couldn’t be easier to use. They are a standard size and have a paper tag to help you take them out of the cup. The directions suggest that you should use one bag per cup and steep them in 200ml of boiling water for 5 to 8 minutes.
I found that 5 minutes and a quick stir with a teaspoon was more than enough to create a tasty brew. It’s worth hanging on to your used tea bags, you can either get another brew out of them or use the leaves to infuse another drink or dish.
Jacob Hooy Hemp Tea Bags Taste
This is a clean-tasting tea with no bitterness. Some people find hemp tea to be an acquired taste, but I enjoyed it from day one. This one is particularly good; it tastes like a smooth cup of black tea without any of the tannin or other harsher notes. There is a hint of grassiness but it’s not overpowering.
The taste lends itself more to be a relaxing evening tea, but a dash of lemon or lime juice adds the zing it needs to make it great in the morning too. With its beautifully clear green colour and fresh, slightly hash-like smell it’s an all-around enjoyable experience. If you’re on the fence about hemp tea this would be a great one to start with.
Potency/ Effectiveness
This is a gently effective tea that gave me an all-over sensation of relaxation shortly after drinking it. Whether that was the CBD or just the act of having an enjoyable hot drink, either way, it worked.
Over the weeks that I tried this, I found the effect slightly dimmed and I didn’t notice any long-term positive effects. To have a great impact I found the best way was to take a strong CBD oil 2 or 3 times a day and a cup of hemp tea in the evening. The best effects of the tea seemed to be more readily available when it is used in combination with other CBD products.
Value for Money
For £5.99 you get 24gs of hemp leaf divided equally between 20 tea bags. This compares well to the BioBloom and Biopurus tea bags at £11.90 and £12.99 respectively. However, these teas are made from hemp flowers and have certificates of analysis readily available. Because of the extra information and the certainty about content and safety given by the certificates, I would be happy to pay the higher price.
Would I Buy Again?
Holland & Barrett not wanting to share the lab reports with the public prevents me from being able to make this one of my recommended hemp teas. If they did share these results, I have no doubt that this product would appear in our best CBD teas review, until then we wouldn’t recommend it.
Jacob Hooy Hemp Tea Final Scores
