Celestial Seasonings

I tried a cup of this at my local coffee shop this afternoon. I had added soy milk and a pinch of sugar but wasn’t really impressed with it. It wasn’t bad but all I could pick out was peppermint. I added a tiny bit of agave when I got home and voila, candy cane! It was delicious and I’ll probably pick up a box of this the next time I’m out.

This was one of the K cup options at church and I wish I had made a coffee instead. Very disappointed on the flavor in this tea. Weak tea flavor but over powering cardamom/cinnamon flavor that was not pleasant. This was a bad choice for the end of a great tasting tea day :( This is why we need a Steepster app. I could have looked up the reviews before making my final decision :)

I love love love mint tea! This is so fantastic for upset tummies. It’s definitely not subtle, so be prepared to be knocked on your ass by it.

I am obsessed with holiday teas right now, and last weekend I found three different ones by Celestial Seasonings. This one is delicious. I put the teabag in a big mug of boiling water and just leave it in there the whole time while I sip. Doesn’t need sugar or anything, it’s much nicer than basic peppermint.

Perhaps I’m doing something wrong here. This is the second time I’ve tried this particular flavor. The first, I allowed the bag to steep for 4 1/2 minutes as directed (I felt 6 min was a bit too long) and it was quite bitter with only the slightest hint of mint. Tasted more like a cough drop than anything else. 2nd time around, just a few moments ago, I steeped for 2 minutes and, sadly, had the same result. Won’t be trying this one again anytime soon.

Backlogging. I’ve had this one several times now and got it quite awhile ago.
I love mint teas, and I don’t have a lot of greens in my cupboard so I thought this would be a good one to try.
It has a nice sweet mint to it as the main flavour. There’s also sort of a Christmasy spice note in the aftertaste that makes it more warm/cozy than refreshing. I like that the tea itself is mild and doesn’t compete with the mint. It’s really nice and soothing. This is my go-to this season for when I’m not feeling well (it isn’t too rich for an upset tummy, and it feels nice on sore throats). I also gave a few bags of it to a friend who had strep throat; she found it soothing on her throat as well.

This tea is extremely strong in both scent and taste… and perhaps shouldn’t even be considered your typical tea. I brewed a cup of this at a friend’s place, not expecting too much from it at first. As is typical with opening a box of tea, I expected a nice smell, thought nothing of it at first. Then I poured hot water over it. As the steam wafted from my cup, I was surprised by the strong spicy scent in the air, as well as my neighbor sitting beside me. It smelled so amazing, that I had to lean over and take some deep whiffs; wonderful! It smells stronger than a warm apple cider. With a bit of sugar in this tea, it tastes similar to that—a cider… but not quite as heavy with sugar— when brewed in the aforementioned manner, it gives you a wonderful balance of taste and light sweetness. I’m going to buy a box or two for myself the moment I see this when I go out next. Best thing I have ever drank (even outside of the range of teas) maybe… but that’s just my opinion. :³

Alright, I admit it. I have a pumpkin obsession!! So as soon as this tea caught my eye at Fairway I quickly picked up a box, or two, or three…before I even tried it. And I’m not disappointed – this is a great tea and it does taste like pumpkin! It’s not a very spicy tea so if you are looking for a Pumpkin Spice tea, this is not the one. That being said, it’s still great.

I allow the tea to brew for a while and leave it in until I finish the cup. Add milk and sugar and it’ almost like Thanksgiving in a mug.

Another Celestial Seasonings buy from Whole Foods yesterday, at least they’re cheap. :)

Yeah, like a lot of people mentioned this IS pretty sweet. Also Stevia leaves a bit of a funky aftertaste in my opinion. This does remind me a bit of Bengal Spice and I would say I’m detecting more spice than pumpkin. I added some soymilk to this which made it better, I think. It does remind me a little bit of Bengal Spice but it’s sweeter. I think this would have been fine without the Stevia and I’m not sure why they felt the need to put it in there!

Mmm. it’s a sipdown! I might get some more of this next Christmas but I still have plenty of tea left! This is a very yummy combination of mint, vanilla and decaf green tea. I haven’t met too many decaf green teas I like, but in this case there’s so much mint that you can’t taste the green tea anyway.

I’ve had a busy day! I’m applying for non-profit jobs but I haven’t heard a peep from any of the ones I responded to. I’m not sure what the problem is, but I might need to go back to grad school. Thinking about having to take the GRE is stressful! Math just isn’t my strong point, I think I’d have to take GRE prep course and maybe a basic math class just to be able to pass….

Only 11 am and I’m already hyperactive – time for some decaf. I like this blend but you can’t really taste the green tea. It’s all mmmmmint!

Tea of the eveing here. I’m not exactly ready for the holidays but I was ready for dessert. Lately I’ve been trying to banish all sweets from the house which is probably good for my waistline. this is a nice substitute, especially with a little bit of soymilk and stevia, which is how I like to drink it. I wonder if I will finish off my box from last year before Christmas? In any case, I’m kind of looking forward to the holiday teas.

I’ve been drinking this for the past few days because I’ve been craving something minty. I am happy to report that this is really good iced as well as hot. I’ll be getting more next Christmas, it’s good to have a few decaf teas that don’t totally suck.

It’s been a long day, first a whole day of being at work and then drawing class in the evening. I got home kind of late and wanted something relaxing so I thought I’d have a big mug of this. I’m not always in the mood for something so minty but when I am, this tea fits the bill!

Maybe I’ll finish my box off before next Christmas?

It’s kind of strange that I’m drinking this tea in May but oh well… it’s a decaf so it’s good for the night time. I had a cup of coffee at 4 pm, so I’ll be amazed if I get any sleep tonight.

I was surprised that this was so good with soymilk added to it. I had never tried that before and it really helped to bring out the vanilla flavor. Still, this is one of the strongest mint teas I have ever had, aside from drinking plain old peppermint tea. Next time I make this I should steep it with an extra bag of decaf green tea.

Well, I have never had this particular tea before but so many people seem to love it! I was at Whole Foods tonight at decided to pick some up to try it.

First off, it is VERY minty. I can taste way more peppermint than any of the other ingredients, with cinnamon off in the background somewhere. I don’t taste too much vanilla and I decided to add a bit of coconut sugar because I felt it needed that to be more like a Candy Cane.

Ummm… I was hoping this would be a little less minty and have slightly more green tea and the other flavors. Sometimes peppermint gives me heartburn but of course I had to try it anyway! Still, it is a fairly nice tisane and most likely I will finish the box off someday. :)

It’s my favorite Zinger tea, but that’s not saying much. It’s all hibiscus with nothing else to balance it out.

One of my childhood favorites when my mom made sun tea, which mellows out the flavor a lot. As for hot tea? It’s too strong, but without the fun flavors of something like Passion tea. I’ll drink it if I’m out of all my other herbal teas.

The berry flavor is pretty faint compared to the sour hibiscus. Not bad with some honey, but not very fruity.

Hum, I haven’t figured this out.

The smell is strong and spot-on.

The taste is lacking. Maybe it’s that I’m used to the punch of loose-leaf now, but it was just kind of weak. Last night I put 2 teabags in my 16oz mug with a bit of milk and agave, and it was weak. Today, I put 4 teabags in the same mug, with milk and agave as well, and it’s strong, but not sugar-cookie strong. It’s not sweet enough. Maybe I didn’t add enough agave for the 4 teabags.

If I can figure out how to make this perfect, though, it’ll be delicious.

This tea has a number of very negative reviews on here, which certainly didn’t make a case for my trying it. What did urge me to do so was that it has almost the exact same spice mix as my holy grail chai—something I’ve been unable to get in other chais, maybe because they rarely have star anise and nutmeg, which I find really rounds out the flavour. The only difference between the ingredients is that this has vanilla, pepper, chicory, and black tea. Other than that, in its ingredients and in the thrust of the flavour, it’s somewhat reminiscent of my favourite chai, and more so than any other chai has been so far. Of course, the quality of the other chai is much higher, because it uses whole spices that are boiled for a long time and this uses a tea bag (and as anyone who uses spices knows, when spices are ground or cut into little bits, they lose their flavour and potency more quickly than whole spices do.) Wanting a spicy cup of deliciousness, faced with the lack of availability of my favourite chai, and unwell to boot, this chai was what I needed. Yes, this tea’s not fancy, but it does the spice mix pretty well and it’s a quick, easy treat.

I had this as a latte with sweetener, the way I always drink chai, so I can’t comment on the bitterness other people have had (I really can’t understand the idea of drinking chai unsweetened, anyway). This tea smells good, tastes good, and in stark contrast to my favourite chai, is quick to prepare. It’ll never be my favourite chai, but unlike a number of others I’ve tried, it’s worth drinking again.

I’m unclear on whether the reason people don’t like this may be because the spices are different to that in a lot of chais and that doesn’t appeal to them. It’s hard to tell, because a lot of them just seem to say, “It’s not good!” I’d say for me, the main disadvantages to this are the vanilla (not only was it a bit strong for my liking, I still kind of feel like vanilla is a bit inappropriate in chai [maybe that’s just because it’s easily overdone, though]) and the fact that the spices weren’t assertive enough with their spiciness. The combination of the spices not being spicy enough and the vanilla being a bit strong meant that, although the spice flavour itself tasted authentic, this execution of chai didn’t seem very much so. I missed that sense of heat that I got with my favourite chai, something that I think really adds to that “chai comfort effect”, and I felt like the strength of the vanilla in this pushed it into dessert territory in a negative way. Also, the black tea flavour doesn’t make its presence felt that much, but since I’m really in the chai for the spices anyway, that didn’t matter to me.

I guess if you’re looking for a robust black tea with heavy chai spiciness, this isn’t going to be for you. But if you’re looking for that, do you think you’re going to get it in a tea bag, and one with a dessert-y element like vanilla at that? If you read the box and thought that the black tea would be “rich and hearty”, the spices “lively”, and the vanilla present as just “a touch”, then I could maybe understand disappointment with the product.