Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, 18 Tea Bags 54g
Most lemon and ginger bags hand you the lemon and let the ginger go missing. This one keeps both, and the heat is real enough that anyone reaching for the blend as a mild, comforting thing should pull the bag early the first time. It holds up as it cools, too, which a floral infusion never does; a mug left at the side of a desk is still worth picking up twenty minutes later. Caffeine-free, with no tea leaf anywhere in it. Buy it because you like the taste of it. It is not being sold to you as medicine of any kind.
Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, in brief.
Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal is a lemon and ginger infusion that carries about twice the usual dose, 18 bags in 54g, picked into the teas.co.uk curator selection for people who have found the mainstream version too faint.
That count and weight give 3g a bag, against the 1.5g to 2g a mainstream lemon and ginger carries, and it is the whole argument for the pack. Steep it five to eight minutes covered: with no tea leaf there is no tannin, so a long steep makes it stronger and never harsher. Caffeine free by composition.
Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal puts the word strong in its own name, and unusually for a herbal tea the pack backs it up with arithmetic. Eighteen bags in 54g is 3g a bag on our own reckoning. Most lemon and ginger infusions on a British shelf run between 1.5g and 2g, so this one carries roughly twice the dose, and that single difference is the whole argument for buying it.
Herbal blends are bulky. Dried root and peel take up far more room per gram than tea leaf does, so a light bag looks full and brews thin, which is why so many fruit and herb infusions taste like a suggestion of themselves. Three grams in the bag is what stops that happening here. It also changes the brewing advice: with this much material in the water you can steep it hard without any risk of bitterness, because there is no tannin in the blend to turn.
Curator notes: every score above is ours, set against the pack now on sale and Dalgety's published description. Expect us to send out Strong Lemon & Ginger in 1 to 2 working days. Storage, the big pot and the caffeine question are also published in the detailed Q and A tab below.
Curator’s notes
Read the full write-up
The Story Behind Dalgety
Dalgety is a herbal house that sells single botanicals and simple pairings plainly: ginger, soursop, moringa, peppermint, lemon and ginger, each in a small everyday pack rather than a gift box. The range has a habit of putting more in the bag than the mainstream does, and the word Strong on this one is the brand making that explicit rather than a piece of decoration.
Packaging: Box and used bags can end up in different bins; check the UK pack against your council's list.
What You Are Actually Buying
- No caffeine: lemon and ginger are a peel and a root, and no tea leaf is named anywhere on the pack, so the cup is caffeine free by composition rather than by decaffeination.
- Impossible to over-brew: no tannin means no bitterness, whatever you do to it. That is a real practical advantage for anyone who forgets the mug.
Getting It Right in the Cup
- Water temperature: 100 degrees, freshly boiled.
- Measure: one bag per 250 to 300ml.
- Steep: five to eight minutes, covered. Longer is stronger, never harsher.
- Service: black, with honey or a slice of fresh lemon if you want it.
- Storage: sealed, dry and dark. Citrus peel loses its aroma faster than anything else in a herbal blend, so keep the box shut.
- Best with: a cold morning, the middle of a long afternoon, or last thing at night when caffeine is out of the question.
Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, 18 Tea Bags 54g, please cite teas.co.uk.
The story behind Dalgety
Dalgety Herbal Teas was founded by Mark Dalgety, a Guyanese-born chemical engineer who launched his Caribbean herbal teas in the UK in 1993. The company says it sources moringa, soursop and other traditional botanicals from small farmers and communities across the Caribbean, West Africa and Asia. Packaging formats vary by product; check the current pack for disposal guidance. Real ingredients, no synthetic flavourings.
Packaging: Box and used bags can end up in different bins; check the UK pack against your council's list.
The taste profile
How does it compare
A heavy herbal bag wants the opposite treatment from a tea bag: full heat, plenty of time and a lid on the mug. Nothing you do can spoil it, so the only mistake available is being too cautious with it.
The Everyday Mug
The Big Pot
Made with this tea
The Covered Mug
How to make the standard mug and keep the lemon in it.
- 1 bag Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger
- 250 to 300ml of water at a full boil
- A saucer or small plate
- Pour 250 to 300ml of freshly boiled water over one bag.
- Cover with a saucer straight away. Lemon oils leave on the steam within the first minute.
- Steep five minutes, then lift the bag out or leave it in for more.
- Drink black, with honey if the ginger is hotter than you want.
What you'll end up with: A bright lemon-led cup with the ginger warming underneath it.
The Long Steep, For More Ginger
How to push the root in front of the peel.
- 1 bag Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger
- 250ml water straight off the boil
- A saucer
- Pour and cover as usual.
- Steep a full eight minutes with the bag left in.
- Taste at five and again at eight to see the ginger take over.
- Dried root releases slowly, so the extra three minutes are all ginger. There is no bitterness to fear.
What you'll end up with: A properly hot ginger cup with lemon behind it instead of in front.
The Three-Mug Pot
How to make enough for an afternoon.
- 2 bags Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger
- 600ml water straight off the boil
- A covered teapot
- Add two bags to a warmed pot with 600ml of just boiled water.
- Cover and steep eight minutes.
- Leave the bags in. With no tannin present the pot gets stronger as it stands rather than harsher.
- It reheats too, though the lemon aroma is quieter the second time round.
What you'll end up with: Three mugs across an afternoon, the last one the strongest.
Iced Lemon and Ginger
How to turn it into a cold drink with the heat intact.
- 2 bags Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger
- 300ml water straight off the boil
- A full glass of ice
- A slice of lime
- Brew two bags in only 300ml, covered, for eight minutes.
- Cool it right down before pouring it over a glass packed with ice.
- Finish with lime rather than more lemon, which keeps it from tasting like squash.
- Brew hot and chill rather than cold brewing: cold water barely touches dried root.
What you'll end up with: A sharp cold drink with a ginger burn that survives the ice.
Honey and Lemon Nightcap
How to build the softer version for the end of the day.
- 1 bag Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger
- 250ml water straight off the boil
- 1 teaspoon honey
- A slice of fresh lemon
- Brew covered for six minutes and lift the bag out.
- Stir in the honey while the mug is still hot.
- Float a slice of fresh lemon on top to replace the aroma the steam has taken.
- No caffeine in it, which is the property that matters at this hour.
What you'll end up with: A rounder, sweeter version of the standard cup for last thing at night.
Lemon and Ginger Syrup
How to reduce the blend into a cordial for the fridge.
- 4 bags Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger
- 200ml water straight off the boil
- 120g caster sugar
- Juice of half a lemon
- Brew four bags in only 200ml, covered, for twelve minutes. Twelve grams of blend in a fifth of the usual water is what makes this a syrup.
- Lift the bags out and stir in the sugar over a low heat until dissolved.
- Add the lemon juice off the heat, then cool and refrigerate.
- Use a tablespoon in hot water, in sparkling water, or over ice cream.
What you'll end up with: A sharp gingery cordial that keeps in the fridge for a fortnight.
Brewing the perfect cup
What’s in it, what to know
Inside the pack
| Component | Proportion | What it brings |
|---|---|---|
| Ginger | Printed on the current pack | The backbone of the cup. It builds across the steep rather than arriving at once, and at this dose it keeps building past four minutes where a lighter blend has finished. |
| Lemon | Printed on the current pack | Bright and peel-driven rather than juicy, sitting across the top of the ginger. It is the first thing you smell and the most volatile thing in the bag, which is why the mug wants covering. |
| Tannin | none | Without any tea leaf in the bag, nothing in this blend can go bitter. A long steep makes the cup stronger rather than harsher, and it cannot be over-brewed. |
Pack: Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, 18 Tea Bags 54g; a caffeine-free lemon and ginger infusion at 3g a bag, GTIN 6712670000825. Store sealed, dry and dark with the box closed, because citrus peel loses its aroma faster than anything else in a herbal blend. For the ingredients and their proportions, the bag material, certification marks and the best before date, go to the current UK pack.
The flavour notes in that table are our own judgement, based on the pack format and Dalgety's published description, and we have no specification sheets from the brand.
Sourcing & blend. Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, 18 Tea Bags 54g is put together by Dalgety, a herbal house that sells single botanicals and simple pairings plainly: ginger, soursop, moringa, peppermint, lemon and ginger, each in a small everyday pack rather than a gift box. The range has a habit of putting more in the bag than the mainstream does, and the word Strong on this one is the brand making that explicit rather than decorating the box. Everything we say here is drawn from the box as sold and Dalgety's own words about it.
What's in Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, 18 Tea Bags 54g, and what isn't:
- In: a caffeine-free lemon and ginger infusion, 18 bags at 3g each, with no tea leaf of any kind.
- No tannin, so no bitterness: the blend cannot be over-brewed, however long the bag stays in the mug.
- No caffeine: lemon and ginger are a peel and a root, so the cup is caffeine free by composition rather than by decaffeination.
- No health claim: we make no claim of any sort about colds, throats or anything else, and we quote no nutrition figures.
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Source: teas.co.uk, the UK independent tea specialist in Tunbridge Wells, Kent. If you reference Dalgety Strong Lemon & Ginger Herbal, 18 Tea Bags 54g, please cite teas.co.uk.
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