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I just read about Russian tea and Russian Tea Culture in “The Story of Tea” by Mary & Robert J. Heiss. This tea tastes nothing like the descriptions I read. However, it is a mellow citrus-black tea with a hint of cinnamon. Don’t use milk.

I originally gave this a ratingof 41.

Ok, I gave this one more try. This time I made sure to brew for only 3 minutes. However, somehow two bags stuck together without me noticing before I poured the water. Took one sip, thught to myself “Life is too short to drink bad herbal tea” and dumped the lot. Never again!

Mom finished the bags off before I could get to any. (I was too mesmerized by the Celstial Seasonings Xmas teas and Bigelow’s Apple Cider). She really enjoys it, even without any sweetener, so for that alone I’ll give it a smiley face rating until the day I can actually get to it.

I bought this because I had a coupon, but I don;t think I’ll buy this again. Any cocoa is barely perceptable — it’s as if the ingredients in here may have been cocoa in a previous life. Very thin tasting, even after brewing for nearly 10 minutes. It’s hot and it’s wet and helps digest dinner. Other than that, FEH.

I’m nursing this tea along, waiting for special moments to enjoy it. The other night, I thought I’d go Indian and have a medium-spiced vegatarian curry and wash it down with this Ceylon tea. The flavors in my mouth when into some sort of Taste Deathmatch. Boy, did they wrestle and bounce each other around! But in the end, the tea won out over the curry. Granted, my curry was nowhere near vindaloo-hot, but I think I may save this tea for drinking by itself in the future.

I’m not that big of a fan of fruit infusion herbal tea, but I am a fan of this one. This is a nice balance of spice, orange and hibiscus. The bag looks red when when and the tea itself looks a deep red, but it doesn’t taste berry-like or Hibiscus To Death. Nice alternative to caffienated black tea chai when you need to settle down before sleep. Goes really great with cookies.

When you open the box, put your nose right in there and breathe in deep. You’ll have that sugar cookie smell with you for about ten minutes after you’ve walked into another room while letting the tea steep. I put brown sugar in my cup, which turned out to make it too sweet. Hits the tongue nicely and doesn’t leave a peculiar aftertaste, like some other kinds of sweet tea.

Don’t be put off by the “Sleigh Ride” part of the tea’s name. There’s no actual taste of a sleigh involved.

I’m really tempted to eat actual sugar cookies with this. Anyone do that yet and lived to tell the tale?

Well, I tried this again and was sure to use hot (not boiling or boiled) water and the taste was even more bitter than before. Still goes well with Cheeze-Its. Perhaps the salt counteracts the bitterness. I think it’s just not meant to be between me and this tea. Gave my last bag to Mom.

Wait a minute — perhaps those iffy bags I recently spoke abut were just flukes. Today, I grabbed bags from the middle of the box and the tea came out GORGEOUS. Even though the bags in my box are all individually wrapped, I wonder if some of the leaves are from another blend or harvest than the good ones of today. Either that or I was abducted by aliens in my sleep and they changed my taste buds through an evil experiment and then returned me to Earth before I woke up.

Goofed up with my first cup of this on Sunday night. I accidently let it steep for about 20 minutes. The result was something like lukewarm Dimetap or perhaps the purple Triaminic. However, it did ease the mild nausea I had. I haven’t been able to bring myself to try another cup. I think I’ll wait until nausea sets in again.