Celestial Seasonings

A very, very mild mint tea but still enjoyable. I’m pretty easy to please though when it comes to anything mint. No caffeine makes it a good choice right before bed, but it’s really nothing special. The tea is your regular bagged, finely-chopped supermarket variety— which could be a bit jarring when you’re accustomed to full leaf tea snobbery. I would actually choose their Peppermint tea if I was looking for something stronger.

Well, I decided to try my Florence/Bengal Spice hybrid tonight. Brewed up 2 tsp Florence with one bag Bengal Spice in 12 oz water for 5 minutes.

Alright, this is pretty good. Initially, the tea tastes like a cinnamon infused Florence, but the chai spices are present towards the end of each sip. This really makes me want to invest in a chocolate chai, perhaps 52teas Mayan Chocolate Chai. The chocolate and spice are quite good together. I may just finish up my box of Bengal Spice this way (but maybe not since Florence in at the less-than-half a tin stage).

Tea 2 of my bagged chai trio this evening. If you’ve ever had Bengal Spice, you would probably agree that the most noticeable flavor in this is of the cinnamon. Some might even go so far as to say that this could be labeled just a cinnamon tea…and they wouldn’t be far off. However, when adding a bit of milk and sugar the cinnamon taste becomes slightly subdued which allows the other chai spices to make their appearance. It is still a tea very heavy on the cinnamon though, so if you don’t enjoy cinnamon this is not for you. Overall, this is a decent tea but once again not a typical chai.

I’m thinking this would be great steeped with a black tea in order to smooth out the spices and make it more of a traditional chai. In fact, I am thinking it would be great with Florence…chocolate, hazelnut, cinnamon chai – sounds like a good combo to me. I may have to try this later tonight.

Alright, I’m up finishing homework tonight and decided that I would make some chai. I am out of loose leaf, but I had this and thought it might taste good. I boiled 1 cup of water and dissolved 1.5 Tb of brown sugar. I added 2 bags of Bengal Spice and let it simmer for 5-6 minutes. Then I added 1 cup of skim milk and stirred it all together for 3 minutes at a simmer. It smells amazing – very spicy and like burnt caramel…yum. My whole apartment smells like this, it is a wonder the smell didn’t wake my husband up!

Okay, I put this in a cup and tried it….EEEK!! This tea is so heavy on the cinnamon it is crazy. This didn’t fill my cup up much because a lot of the water evaporated, so I added about another cup of milk to my cup. Much better. It is a cold drink, but that is fine. It is pretty good and worth it for the amount of work it takes.

This is my favorite from Celestial Seasonings. I wish they had it year-round! Anyway, I love the scent—so malty and shortbread-like. I love the soothing and smoothly sweet taste. And milk thistle is so good for the liver. This is great to drink after you overindulge—very appropriate for the holidays!

I’m not a fan of Rooibos. I usually don’t like citrus in my tea (exception: bergamot). I am particular about how I like my Cinnamon, and I hate cardamom. Never been a fan of lemongrass either.

Having said all that, this tea wasn’t half bad, which is very strange. I don’t see myself buying this myself, but I won’t completely rule it out either. I had a big meal, somewhat greasy, and wanted something refreshing. None of the black or green tea was appealing, and I didn’t really want berry flavored stuff. I don’t particularly like this tea, but it was a very good herbal choice for this afternoon. Thank you, Janefan! It’s always nice to try something new.

I didn’t really purchase this for myself, but I gave it a try anyways. It was a pretty boring and dull tasting tea which almost tasted like medicine, so I didn’t really like it. It also has some kind of dryness to it since it makes my mouth dry after drinking it. I guess it wouldn’t be that bad if you tried using it primarily to make you sleep.

This is a nice tea. When I opened the fresh box, I really liked the pear scent & flavor and the vanilla didn’t take over the tea. Now that the box is about three weeks old, the scent and flavor have changed considerably. The vanilla scent is much too strong and the flavor is too unbalanced to enjoy. Since I throw my “boxed” teas separated in air-tight canisters (learned that the hard way!), I don’t see how the pear could have dissipated to this point in 3 weeks.
When new I kept the steep time down to about a minute or so and the light pear flavor came through well. I agree that the vanilla was not always a good addition, based on what I was eating at the same time. I use “getting close to boiling” water, around 195 to 200F.
I don’t know that I’d purchase it again since the flavors were good only for the first week or so after the box was opened.

This is a nice, light tasting tea, very enjoyable. I liked the Goji berry and pomegranate together against the green tea; all three were very well balanced.
I’ll definitely buy this one again. I’ll have to try this over ice in the summer.

Made using Keurig machine at work

Not bad spices, not great tea flavor – I’m generally not impressed with celestial seasoning’s choice of black tea.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 1 flavia cup from hot water spigot
Steep Time: a little over 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Leaf Smell: Raspberry, grass
Tea Smell: raspberry and a funny citric tinge
Flavor: raspberry, slightly vegetal
Body: Full
Aftertaste: citrus, grass then sweet, short lived
Liquor: deep red, barely translucent

I got this from Janefan as a gift, based on my other experience with the green and white tea blend from celestial seasonings I didn’t have high hopes for this tea, but it surprised me and tasted like a solid herbal tea. The green and white teas get lost under the raspberry. I think this would be excellent iced.

Post-Steep Additives: none

I got this on a dare (I know, not a great start to a review) because it was next to the tea I really wanted but couldn’t have (gingerbread). If you take a glass of milk and a box of sugar cookies and liquify them in a blender for 10 minutes, you’ll have this. It really honest to god does taste like a liquid sugar cookie (with a tiny tiny orange liqueur in there). …Unfortunately, I hate sugar cookies which makes this even more weird and unsettling.

I’ve been drinking this on and off for a couple of years now and it’s pretty good if you don’t oversteep (a very bad habit I’m trying to break). My taste buds are a little on the stubborn side, but the mint, chamomile, and eluthero ginseng are the strongest flavors to me. Honestly, I love simply smelling the steam of a freshly brewed cup more than drinking it.

I always remember liking this tea when I pick it out and then find it not as amazing as I remember. I don’t like to steep it very much or the hibiscus gets out of hand. Still, the raspberry part of the blend is very present and I think I should try it as a sweetened iced tea before I decide not to buy it again.

I’ve tried many, many types of chai tea and I keep coming back to this one as my daily standby. I like my tea full bodied (which this one is) but I don’t tolerate bitter well, and I find this tea rarely if ever gets that bitter flavour, even when I accidentally leave the bag in for 10 minutes (isn’t tea supposed to improve memory?). It has more of a full-bodied, warm flavour then a really spicy chai flavour with the vanilla being very noticeable.

I find it tastes best with a bit of milk and honey to sweeten it up, though it needs rather less sweetening then other chai because of the vanilla flavour and aforementioned lack of bitterness. The only thing that makes me sad is that since Celestial Seasonings has revamped it’s packaging this tea has disappeared from most of the grocery store shelves around here! I’ve been forced to hit up Wal-Mart for my fix.

A comforting end of the day tea. Not spectacular, but nothing to complain about. I add a little extra honey to mine. The aroma is frankly the star of the show here.

As much as I would love a pear tea, I’ve found the vanilla in this tea to be overpowering, masking much of the pear tea. I tasted only a slight hint of pear. I will continue my quest for a pear tea with a stronger pear taste.

A great balance of the flavors – not too sweet, not too vanilla-y… I love the sweet vanilla aroma. Whether it’s a stressful day or I’m just trying to recover from asthma issues, I’ve found this tea to be soothing and a perfect way to settle down

Finally remembered to pick more of this up. Hoorah!

Aaaand another box of this stuff down. adding to shopping list

I know it’s not nice to call this my fake-me-out tea, but when I need a pick me up but it’s too late in the day for caffeine, this is so perfect. And I need one now, and… it’s so perfect.

My favorite fake-me-out-when-I-need-some-caffeinated-tea-but-want-to-sleep-tonight tea. Also good for mornings when I have time to throw a bag in my cup & run to a meeting. Like this morning. So lovely.