Celestial Seasonings

Just purchased this yesterday. It may be a bit too early to drink Christmas-themed tea (for some), but I certainly don’t regret purchasing this. It has a very, very calming aroma and a lovely taste. To my surprise, despite being green tea, it’s not the least bit bitter.

Lemongrass, mint, chamomile, ginger, and – who knew! – catnip! Agreat relaxing blend. I love this at work, but I also love drinking it when I have a cold. It’s comforting. Maybe I will start offering it to my clients!

I was expecting strictly lemon, tart and citrus, but this surprises with the fruitiness of hibiscus blossoms and rose hips. It is not overly acidic, nor is the added flavour overpowering. I like it.

A few weeks ago I made up a short list of teas I wanted for autumn. This tea was on it. The fact that I wanted it is pretty remarkable considering my history with various chais. I try them pretty regular but hardly any merit a second purchase.

I ran out of this some time back and didn’t replenish it, probably because I was up to my eyebrows in lesser teas and was making myself drink them first. Then near the end of summer as I became open to new purchases, the local stores were running out of all the good teas including this one, so I had to make due without. Now they’re stocking up for fall and it’s available once more.
I opened my box this morning. The first whiff of those spices reminded me why I had bought it and made me chide myself for waiting so long to replace the last box. Cinnamon, of course, but with warm undertones of far more. Ginger, cardamom, a hint of something buttery. I read the label and smiled at the mention of carob—I’m allergic to chocolate so carob blends have a special place in my heart.
I drank it hot, a departure from my usual cold brewing method, and found that I like it both ways. No cream or sugar were added, though I’m sure they’d be good in it too. But like any good tea that makes my second purchase list, it could stand alone. Too often, they get so heavy handed with the cinnamon you can’t taste anything else. Not the case here. Yeah, it tasted like cinnamon, but there was far more going on in my cup. Plenty of other flavors balanced it into a wonderful autumn spice blend. It was a pleasantly spicy way to start my day.

The spell failed and not just once. I’m on my third or fourth round of this and it doesn’t matter whether I diffuse it cold in the refrigerator or brew it up hot. It tastes like mint and that’s all. No chicory, no orange, no cinnamon. Magic? What magic? All I can taste is mint.
Worse, it isn’t even really good mint. Here in the Ozarks, we get a kind of wild relative of mint on our lawns in early Spring. That’s what this smells like. Though it has a nice strong wild scent when you bruise it underfoot or cut it with the lawnmower, it’s a bit obnoxious and isn’t really the quality I would expect in a boxed tea.
That’s not to say this tea is nasty or anything. It’s OK. But it’s just mint. No magic to it at all and really quite unremarkable. So unremarkable according to my husband that I forgot that we tried this some years ago.
Funny,I was quite certain upon seeing and reading the label that I had never tasted this but my husband insists we have bought it before. Maybe he’s immune to its power but I’m not. So some day I will likely walk into the store and, hypnotized by the picture of Merlin and false promises of chicory, orange peel, and cinnamon, buy another box.
Cause that’s where the magic comes in. Ah, now I see….

I like this for a bedtime tea every once in a while, when I want something stronger than herbal but don’t want to keep myself awake with a black tea. I’d agree that the vanilla is strong – maybe too strong, even – but you can still taste the rooibos under it, and the overall taste/smell is wonderful. It’s also great as a dessert tea with a bit of milk and sugar.

I’ve enjoyed this tea iced many times. Today, for a change, I brewed a cup of it hot. What a lovely way to brighten up a gray rainy morning! It was a warm deep red orange, smelled of cloves and spice and tasted bright and orang-y. Very orang-y, but the spice keeps it from becoming obnoxiously so and balances the flavor enough that I don’t crave sugar to round out the fruitiness or cream to cut the astringency.
A tea that can stand alone is a good thing, particularly for one like me who must watch her waistline. One reason this tea is a staple in my cupboard is because it’s great all by itself. I’m not saying it wouldn’t be fun trying it with cream and sugar (I probably will some day) but the fact that I have drank this tea many times with no urge to make this addition speaks well for it.
The fact that I haven’t had it hot before is my own loss. I’m going to have to do this more often.

If you dislike cinnamon, run away! It tastes a little like cinnamon potpourri, but you can, in fact, taste the apple sweetness, especially if you let it brew for a looooong time. Adding some warm apple juice to the cup sounds like it would make it delicious.

My favorite tea right now—maybe just because it’s fall and I haven’t tried many spiced teas yet. But I just love the smell and the fact that it’s sweet and spicy on its own without me having to add any sweetener. The longer I steep the better.

I’ve now tried this one twice with no additives and I’m not loving it. It smells wonderful and the black cherry comes through strongly, but it’s weirdly bland otherwise. I do want to try it with some almond milk and sweetener and see how that goes.

For me, this is one of Celestial Seasoning’s blunders. Maybe it’s low quality leaves, maybe it’s something they add to it, but it doesn’t have the good clean fresh taste other green teas have. It is, in fact, really gross! I bought some as a cheaper replacement for loose leaf green teas and I couldn’t finish the box.

My mom used to drink this tea when I was a kid as a replacement for coffee, so the aroma and flavor hold a strong sense of nostalgia for me. This IS a weird tea, now that I’m a more experienced tea drinker, perhaps an acquired taste. But the musky sweet aroma and bitter coffee-like flavor is really enjoyable if you give it a chance. Great with a dash of cream and honey, a favorite for cold winter mornings for me. Also wonderful blended with a smidgen of Scottish breakfast tea for a little kick of caffeine!

I got this tea for work, and it was pretty good. I went so far to bring some home so I could have it there as well. There are definitely a lot of different berry flavors going on which kind of threw me off, despite the name. I think I was expecting to me almost more blueberry-esque only to get a lot of tart.

I wouldn’t get it again, but I did enjoy it while I had it.

A good tea! The blueberry smell is a bit stronger than the taste, but I don’t say that in a bad way necessarily. THE SMELL IS QUITE GOOD THO.

IT REALLY DOES HAVE A LOT OF ZING it’s really powerful and bursting with tangy flavor. Sometimes I over-steep it and it gets to be TOO much for me, personally HAHA. But it’s generally pretty delicious as I do really love raspberry flavors. I bet this tea would taste great iced too.

I’ve tried steeping anywhere from 2 minutes to 15, and as much as I love green tea, I can’t get myself to like this one. Taking a sip for me is really a delight, but I have a really hard time swallowing it due to the lemon/citrus flavors.

artificial smell.. mild orangy mandarine hibiscus spice flavour. Partly artificial taste. meh

backlogging way too many cups of this! I finished the box yesterday!

BTW…I’m looking for people to FOLLOW my Blog here
http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/

Each month I am going to do a give-away on my blog and choose a random follower. I hope you will join me! :)

Having a cup to cleanse the palate and get minty fresh breath…ahhhh

I’ve STILL been drinking this…back logging about 12 cups :)
See other notes

But…I’m BACK :)
Missed you all!

I’ve been drinking this one almost exclusively for the last week and a half due to a life-long digestion issue that has become more and more intense and disturbing.

Because of this…I have changed to a HIGH Raw and near vegan diet. Roughly 90% of my food intake has been raw for the last week. I’m thinking this is my new norm. I have laid of the tea for a bit and have just done minty tisanes. BUT…I will be getting back into REAL tea SOON.

As for this one it’s Peppermint and nothing else. I have been drinking this to sooth my stomach and intestines, etc. It seems to be doing the trick. It’s minty and soothing yet cooling and comforting.

I’m drinking this tea tonight because I needed a simple tea (without caffeine) after all of the food I had today. This weekend I am studying for a big exam on Monday and when I get stressed I have the urge to bake. It sounds strange, but baking helps me relax. I made a gooey butter cake (thanks to the 52Teas blend in its honor & the suggestion from Azzrian) for dessert tonight and couldn’t deal with all of the sweet teas I have. I used two teabags for this cup tonight and it tasted significantly smoother than my first cup. I think I will keep using two teabags with this tea. As for the butter cake… so good. It’s the kind of thing I can only have probably once a year!

This has been on my shopping list for a long time. Rooibos + vanilla is always a reliable combination for me. I also saw that it has french vanilla flavoring in it.. Mmmm, a cup for me please! I haven’t tried this tea for so long because I never found it at any grocery store near my house. The other day, I finally saw this tea and grabbed a box. I find that tea from Celestial Seasonings gives up the flavor quickly… I let this rooibos steep for a while to see what kind of cup it would make.
It reminds me a bit of the Good Hope Vanilla Red tea from Republic of Tea. The rooibos is the most prominent flavor. It’s not the smoothest rooibos in the world. It’s woody, but also has me expecting splinters in the sip. Sorry, that’s not the best image. I don’t taste a whole lot of vanilla.. it’s still sweet, though. Given the choice between this tea and Good Hope Vanilla Red, I think I would pick Good Hope Vanilla. That tea seems to be more smooth, sweet and creamy. I still have quite a few bags left in the box. They’ll be useful for when I’m looking for a relatively simple tea at night.

I had a cup of this ealier this afternoon. This is a good tea to me. And tastes like good. peppermint and vanilla today. I used some sugar.