An herbal tea with light floral notes and a pleasant lingering finish, tending light pink in color.

The Dark Ages was the time when monks pioneered agriculture. Each monastery had its own orchard, vegetable garden and a hortus conclusus, or closed garden. The closed garden was used to grow herbs that were both spiritual and curative. The importance of these gardens was such that, around the year 800, the emperor Charlemagne sent his lieutenants a list of those plants that were to be cultivated in his empire.

The document was known as De Capitularis, and of the ninety plants listed the iris and rose were first and second respectively, followed by several other commonly know herbs such as sage, rosemary, cumin, mint, mallow and coriander. These plants played important roles in both food and medicine.

During the 1100s, the Crusades came to the Italian town of Salerno, which was the site of a renowned medical school founded by four doctors: an Arab, a Roman, a Greek, and a Jew, each of whom was appointed the guardianship of the secular knowledge of their people. These men were recognized as true masters and their teachings would influence European medicine for centuries to come.

Following the blooming of a rose, a rose hip develops, which contains a multitude of vitamins with properties for enhancing one's skin, among other properties. There are more varieties of roses than any other plant in the herb category, and each produces rose hips of one description or another.

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