I believe there is some chemical interaction and synergy between blue lotus and kava. Blue lotus tea at 7g/cup, in my experience has a flavor of the sweet bitter dark brown herbs, like cocoa powder or chickory root. dandelion stems thrown in. it is a little more brown than amber and ends up being a complement to a shell. I haven't tried lotus more than the one time however, and I had one shell with it. Went nice with music and solitaire.
by the way the tea had hot water instead of red wine.