A friend in Korea mailed some instant traditional Korean brews over. There's no good description of how they taste online despite material on their health benefits, so I'm documenting how these drinks by Songwon taste. I cover Balloon Flower and Pear drinks (Tea and Extract) by Songwon in this post, and in the next I'll cover Schizandra Tea also by Songwon.
First, I'll point out that there's some discrepancy in the naming. The official name is Balloon flower for both, but the red one has "black" added to it, and some e-commerce sites call it "Black Bellflower and Pear" instead of Balloon Flower. I found out that Bellflower and Balloon Flower can refer to the same medicinal plant, and the bulk of the Korean characters in the middle look the same to me, so I assume it is the same plant. (Click to enlarge the photo.)
Balloon Flower and Pear Tea
On to the Balloon Flower and Pear Tea. This version came in a tea bag, and I brewed it normally like tea. The Balloon Flower (Platycodon grandiflorus) is a violet-blue starshaped flower, and its root is used in traditional Chinese and oriental medicines to treat various kinds of infections, inflammation, hypertension and so on. It apparently tastes bitter, similar to ginseng, so the pear is probably added to enhance the overall taste.
Nonetheless, when I tried it, there was none of the ginseng or burdock bitter root taste. It tasted very much like the strong local ginger tea (teh halia) for the most part, including the distinct warm ginger spice, but there was another strong spicy taste of the type you find in spiced liquorice tea, although I'm not sure what that is. (Googling turns up sarsapilla as the spiced ingredient that is not the typical cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom or star anise. It could also be similar to Tulsi leaf spice taste.)
It also did not taste like pear at all. None of the usual fruitiness or sourness.
Here's a closeup of the tea bag - you can see there's a bunch of non-leaf ingredients. Online, the stated ingredients are indeed ginger, pear, brown rice, balloon flower and jujube. So I have no idea where the unusual spicey taste came from, unless it was just very concentrated ginger. I also do not know how the pear or jujube contributed to the taste.
Black Balloon Flower and Pear Extract
Next is the Black Bellflower and Pear Extract. Extract meant that it came in concentrated liquid form, as you can see.
The concentrated liquid had an interesting smell. It reminded me exactly of the smell of candied maltose that waft from those live candy maker stalls.
I added a bit of water (2-3 parts of water to 1 part of extract) based on gut feel and the colour.
After adding water, it tasted -exactly- like a mild, diluted prune juice that was not very sweet. It's good that I didn't add too much water. There was none of the maltose candy taste.
The pear probably provided the slight fruity and tart aspect of the taste, but I couldn't match the rest of the taste to anything related to ginseng. I couldn't find the ingredients list to confirm either.
I personally would not drink either of these just for the taste. But if you believe in the medicinal effects of the Balloon Flower, the extract version was way more palatable and much easier to prepare. You can down it in one gulp direct from the packet, or else I would recommend adding a bit of cold water for a refreshing fruity drink.
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