Herbal tea is an old friend. We’ve met it vintage (the chamomile our parents drank), come across it convivial (the imitation mahogany display case of the after-dinner, thank you!), loved it pretentious (with sublime stems of lavender in a transparent mug)…and this winter it’s playing the amusing good buddy, just a little provocative. After an offbeat film at the beginning of the year, a campaign by the brand Elephant recently proclaimed, “We’ve reinvented hot water” (ha, ha, ha). Dedicated supermarket shelves display kilometers of funny little sayings, “Peace Mémé” (a play on words of Granny pee-pee water), “Chatouillis dans les Orties” (Tickles in the nettles), and others, “La Tisane qui rend heureux seul devant la télé” (the herbal tea that makes you happy alone in front of the TV), or “On n’est pas pressés” (We’re not pressed for time)---its citrus fruits, get it? At the very least, they come with complicit little names like “Sleepy Me” or “Mes Belles Gambettes (My beautiful Gams). How can you keep buying teas called Red Berry in these conditions, seriously!

The objective is pretty clear : it’s obviously to go from Granny pee-pee water to Millennial pee-pee water…and from the universe of women’s problems (with bags of Flat Tummy infusions hidden in the back of the pantry) to a more open galaxy, even one more virile. Under the name “Herbal Drinkers Club” , we note the birth of teas… “Especially conceived for men” : “The Festive”, “The Champ”, etc.…though we haven’t yet seen the infusion “Sex Addict”, a surprising lack of reaction to the latest headlines. Herbal teas now have their own box, 12 flavors to discover each month, we didn’t know that Mother Nature was so prodigious, but it does make a change from beauty boxes. It even has its “collabs” with chic ceramists or bloggers—like mostly everything that’s fashionable. Take the Advent Calendar, indeed! Will the Christmas Eve surprise be called “Santa Claus is a Stinker”? Suspense…this cool reincarnation bears its fruits. At Deux Marmottes, the 70’s store that you might know from skiing in Les Arcs—the combo fennel-verbena has been re-baptized “Selfie”, it’s in the bag: and the clientele of this brand now circulated everywhere is principally between 18 and 40.

This craze of the young crowd for infusions evidently surfs on the wave of detox and herbalism. And it has changed the way we drink it. Herbal tea is now taken the morning in place of ordinary tea, all throughout the day instead of coffee, it’s so much more Zen, so much more “Nature Lover”. It’s sipped cold too, it’s brewed in a flask at home to accompany you to your co-working office. You can buy it already made at Tis’up In/Fusion ( yes, it comes with a slash, and they carry it at WholeFoods !) or Ze Fresh Touch, in a bottle or a carton. We also like “blends”, (these clever mixes with ingredients that are fun, like pine forest buds, or funky, like hibiscus) rather than plain old verbena or mint. And bio of course. Should we look forward to infusion breaks, between two games of baby foot at start-ups? Since its buddy the quick smoke is becoming more and more politically incorrect, it’s a possibility…