Celestial Seasonings

St. Elias Specialty Hospital serves this tea alongside Green Mountain coffees in their little Keurig stand. It’s the only tea they have (and they’ve also discontinued serving hot cocoa, which would be wonderful with the 3 ft of snow we already have and the 2+ ft we’re supposed to get). I finally tried it in a clean paper cup, so I’m finally comfortable rating it.

It’s ok. I’m left feeling like I want more, though. I personally think it’s more about the Keurig machine than the leaves, though. The flavor is a bit difficult to put a finger on, and it’s pretty weak for a black breakfast tea. However, I have been a bit under the weather, so maybe it’s more a personal thing than a tea thing.

I’d have this tea again just so I don’t have to have coffee anymore. However, I personally like to bring my own teabag and get hot water from the Keurig machine. If only they also served 2% milk besides half and half….

Wow! I am really impressed. I’m drinking it right now so I can’t attest to how fast it relaxes and puts you to sleep, but the taste alone is great compared to a pure chamomile tea or similar teas from other brands. This is definitely my new bedtime tea!

Delicious! With honey this is awesome. Perfect calm end to an evening.

My daughter and I are getting ready to host a Christmas Tea, so when she saw this tea in the grocery store she said we had to try it. Into the cart it went. This afternoon we made cucumber sandwiches and cups of Nutcracker Sweet. My daughter loved it. She said it taste like snicker doodle cookies (she added sugar to her cup). I drank mine plain and did not enjoy it as much. There was a strange aftertaste. It wasn’t bitter, but it was… off. Next time I’ll add a bit of sugar, too.

After we had our tea my girl decreed that Nutcracker Sweet would be included in the tea party. And so it shall be. :)

This will forever be a part of my earliest tea memories. I remember having this tea with my childhood friends. The allure of Celestial Seasonings’ artwork on the tea boxes gets me every time! I believe I liked the old artwork for this Sugar Plum Spice blend instead of the newer image.. but then again, isn’t it the TEA that matters? Its scent is sweet and spicy — very much a holiday blend. The taste is a combination of spices, plus a heavy layer of something sweet. I don’t think that it’s exclusively plum flavor, but just a general fruitiness. I’m also tasting a bit of a licorice note in the sweetness (& I don’t like licorice in tea). I suppose I’ll keep drinking this because it’s a nice caffeine free, festive tea and it’s too deeply embedded in my tea memories for me to let it go.

Well, my apartment complex’s office has a Keurig now. However, I didn’t want to be down there any longer than I had to, despite the cookies, so I snagged the pod and got the hell out.

The leaves are not in good shape at all, crushed to pieces about the size of sugar in the raw. However, that might have something to do with it being compatible with the Keurig, so I’m not complaining. I brewed them in a steel infuser instead and got what I assume are the same (if not similar) results.

This is a little weaker than what I’ve been having lately, as far as black teas go. The flavors are very straightforward and a little coarse, but it gets the job done. I think Adagio’s English Breakfast was much better. Anyway, this is a fairly boring tea, but I wouldn’t turn it down if it were free again.

Really delicious mellow minty tea. The vanilla note definitely gives this a candy cane flavor, as opposed to a peppermint green tea. Personally, I wish the mint flavor was a little bit more pronounced, but I have a million peppermint teas if I am looking for a mintier cup. Definitely really tasty and refreshing tea, perfect to end the day.

The smell alone is incredible.

Totally delicious, Rich Green Tea with cooling Mint and the perfect dash of Cinnamon. I found that this is one tea that you don’t need anything to add to it. You don’t need sugar or creme/milk to add to it to make it perfect. Just steep and sip this one. Perfect for curling up with the one you love in front of a heater or fireplace cuddling and watching the perfect movie. Two thumbs up!

This does not hold up well to the “en-K-cupping” process.

I am in the office for the week.

I may need to go buy loose tea and a basket.

’Tis the season, as they say. But why should bad, seasonal herbal infusions have to dominate the shelves thusly? This is yet another poorly fathomed attempt by Celestial Seasonings to pervade a wide-open Christmas tea market. Any black tea, even filtered through a dirty sock, would taste better in comparison. Fail.

Ewwww. That’s the most proper thing that I can say as a gentleman when it comes to this herbal nightmare. Sickly, sour and flat. Tried it twice to make sure I wasn’t steeping incorrectly. I wish I’d only tasted once. There is nothing at all redeeming about this product. Ewwww again.

Smells like a sugar cookie, tastes like a sugar cookie. How does Celestial Seasonings do it?
There is a slight citrus note, which I’m not sure why Celestial Seasonings decided to stick in there, but it’s yummy all the same.

Backlog: I have just a couple bags left from the 2012 Christmas season. It’s always sad when I run out. I enjoyed one of these while watching my latest guilty pleasure, Amish Mafia. I find it hilarious – especially as someone who studies the “real” mafia. Anyway, this is a delightful cuppa, tastes like Christmas. Perfect for cold nights – and snowy afternoons. I may allow myself another one today when I get home from work, if there is snow again!

Love this cinnamon and plum happiness! It’s seasonal and hard to find. Can’t wait for the next holiday season… Or perhaps I’ll jet out to Colorado and visit the flagship store to stock up on fresh boxes!

Backlogging: drank a cuppa this yesterday to combat my sickness (a terrible Migraine). I love, love, love this blend of sugary spices and pleasant plum – I kick off the holiday season with this one. Now it’s time to load up for the rest of the year! I’ve tried other cinnamon and plum blends and none of them are as good. …

Now I’m at work without a bag on hand and am wishing I brought one! I’ll brew when I get home, to kick off the weekend. Yums!

White tea is often too delicate for my tastes, having grown up on full-bodied black teas. But, I love to use this tea for blending with others to add character. Since it’s naturally decaffinated, I enjoy the opportunity to blend it freely and without reservation. By itself, this tea is a little sweet and lacking any true substance.

I tasted this again with a hotter steep, so I thought I should enter a separate note.

I steeped it this time at 175F for 3 min.

The color and aroma are unchanged. The tea flavor has come out more. It is quite a mild green tea flavor. I get some sweetness on the sides of my tongue that I didn’t get from the 165 F steeping. There is little nuttiness either from the tea or the rice, which is disappointing. There is still little bitterness. I get a light sweet aftertaste from this cup.

Funny that this is the Gen Mai Cha that “started it all” for me. A box of this was in the break room at work instead of the regular CS green tea. Now I taste it and wonder what I was so turned on by the last time I had it. I am coming back to it after tasting some other Gen Mai Chas.

I tasted this steeped 3 min at 165F. The color is a like the smily face in the rating bar below, a nice yellow green. The aroma is nutty, and toastier than other bagged Gen Mai Chas I have tasted recently. The nuttiness carried through to the flavor. I would like the tea and toasted rice flavors to both be stronger. No astringency. Smooth (but muted, in my opinion) flavors. Very mild bitterness.

This is one I should probably just leave in the mug instead of steeping only 3 minutes. I’m mild about this tea.

I’m still alive :) Busy times.
I’ve been getting hooked back on coffee since we haven’t had money to order tea online and there’s no good tea available to buy where I live.
Bought a box of this since I ran out of my organic peppermint from David’s. And it’s not too bad. Always got to have some peppermint around for digestive issues. I used to buy Twinings when I had to buy boxed, but sometimes it tastes so gross..very inconsistent. I’m going to call them about it.
Hope everyone’s doing well and enjoying a safe Halloween weekend. :)
<3

Last night I went to Walmart a little tipsy, and ended up spending $100 on a Keurig Brewer. They had intrigued me for a while, and I was surprised to see one for only $100. After looking for K-Cups a couple different places, I wasn’t too excited about their options for tea. I read quite a few reviews that told me just tossing in a tea bag was a bad idea…but I just couldn’t resist.

First I tried a white tea in the Keurig, and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was! I was so excited to be enjoying such yummy tea in under 2 minutes, that I just had to try a second bag. In the mood for something fruity, I ripped open my wild berry zinger out of my fruit tea sampler and decided to give that a whirl. I was pretty excited when I first smelled it, but didn’t want to get my hopes up. Fortunately I was not disappointed!

It tastes very similar to fruit punch to me. And I’m a huge fan of fruit punch. :) I suppose it has some tartness to it but it’s not overwhelming. I’m really curious to see what this tastes like iced. I bet with a bit of stevia it will be delicious! Hoping I can find a box of this this weekend- since it’s from the fruit sampler I only have 2 or 3 left.

One of these days I may try steeping this in my teapot just to see how it compares to the way it tastes from the Keurig. This machine of course doesn’t replace my kettle/teapot but I definitely see myself using this on mornings I have to be to class by 8, and at night when I just don’t have the energy to mess with steeping the old-fashioned way!

I’m excited I can make using of my new brewer without having to spend $12 for 16 cups of tea!

I am drinking this again, and it doesn’t please me as much as the first time. I think I may have overrated this, I think I was in a positive mood or something? It’s hard to rate tea because love tea so much and I often find every tea amazing. I think a good tea is one that is strong but subtle with unique flavors. I like a tea that tastes like tea, if that makes sense. I love really herbal-earthy teas, and I don’t have many in my cupboard, because I am a little child and my parents buy me fruity teas, so I think I have accustomed to them. But sipping this right now, I realize that this is not what I desire, I have just gotten used to this blandness! Sure it’s sweet, and nice by all means, but it does not give me the same feeling a good tea should give. I know I sound like a huge hippie tea drinker right now, but I think most of you will understand. It kind of feels like I’m drinking hot cranberry juice. So there’s my rant, and I decided I am going to go tea shopping.