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This is my first honeybush tea. The box says it’s honeybush and “other natural flavors,” whatever that means! I used 1 teabag in 8 oz of boiling water, steeped for 5 minutes. The unadulterated tea is slightly woody, with a sweet finish. I added 1 tsp of splenda, and wow – the sweetness really takes off! It tastes strongly of honey with just a little sweetening, and the woodiness disappears. I detect a little vanilla, and there could be some other herbal like chamomile in there, I’m not sure. It’s quite lovely. I do question how often I would want a tea of this sort, as it is a bit mild, but I think it will make a great “under the weather” tea.

Disappointing. Smells lovely in the tin, but it brewed up to taste weakly of chamomile, with the other spices pulling a disappearing act. I steeped for 4 minutes at 180 F. It does have a dark coloration, but the flavor is sadly absent. I’m not a huge fan of white teas, but I usually find them tolerable. I don’t think I like chamomile by itself either, so I wish the vanilla or almond promised by the scent had come out a bit!

Eh… I really have to stop trying these lighter Earl Greys. I love bergmot, so I’m nearly always disappointed in them. This one smelled sharp, which was promising, but it was ultimately indistinguishable to me from all the other baby Earls I’ve tried. It has a slightly bitter taste to the black tea – perhaps I oversteeped it slightly, trying to get it a little stronger. At any rate, it tastes like a weak cup of Earl Grey. No other citrus that I can detect, and it’s a bit harsh somehow. But do keep in mind, that’s just my personal taste – for someone who wants lighter bergmot this might be great!

Celestial Seasonings suggested this to me as a replacement for my beloved Cinnamon Rose tea. I looked at the box and thought “What the hey, Tiger” and then “Nope, looks like a chai.” However, I was at the grocery store with a coupon and celestial seasonings on sale, so I thought “why not? I like chai and this tea gets pretty good ratings.” Well, I tried it, and this is no not a chai. Maybe a cinnamon chai, but the cloves are playing a supporting role, and the cardamon has run off to hide from the wrath of all that cinnamon!

The tea is a typical celestial seasonings package – I like their dedication to minimal packaging. And I will say, they don’t skimp on the leaves. I was able to use only one bag in my large (14 oz) mug and it was plenty strong. The leaves smell dusty and strongly of cloves, which worried me – there are whole cloves in the bag that you can see when you take it out. I had a bad experience with Tazo Sweet Cinnamon Infusion, which was all cloves and licorice, so I am wary of spicy teas! I steeped it for 7 minutes in boiling water.

I took a sip of the unadulterated tea and immediately thought “Hot Cinnamon Spice.” The flavor is really similar to the Harney and Sons tea – it’s all cinnamon, so spicy that it has a little burn, with a great natural sweetness. It doesn’t have black tea, of course, which for me is an advantage, as I want spicy teas at night. I haven’t tried the herbal HCS, so I can’t say if this is similar, but I’d imagine it is after having both the black and green. There is more clove in Bengal Spice, but it’s nice – gives you a break from the cinnamon!

In the interest of comparison, I added 1/4 cup steamed milk and 2 packets of sweet and low. Here is where I was surprised – where HCS doesn’t take milk well (it kills the spiciness for me) this is great – it’s still spicy! My husband went out for Indian today, and came back asking me to make stovetop chai – I think he would like this one!

I’m really pleased to have made this supermarket discovery. This is the second Celestial Seasonings tea I’ve liked lately (I’m also loving Morning Thunder.) My Mom always had red zinger and Sleepytime in our cupboards, so I feel nostalgic when I see those cardboard boxes stacked up.

Oh, this is lovely! I was not expecting to love it so much. I picked it up at whole foods today (can’t leave without tea, you know?) and decided to have it after dinner (which was curry, so I thought the coconut would go well.) The leaves smell like barley – not much cocoa, and no real coconut. I opened up two tea bags, put them in my infuser basket, and brewed 14 oz of tea.

I let it steep for 10 minutes, based on the reviews on Steepster that it needed extra time. The initial aroma was still of barley, but then I smelled some cocoa coming through. I took a sip – surprisingly, this is all about the dark, unsweetened cocoa. I can’t detect much coconut. I added a splash of milk and a dash of sugar, as I do to all dessert teas. This brought out the coconut slightly, but it is still in the background. The cocoa, once sweetened lightly, blends with the barley to make a taste that is really different. I love it – it’s not too sweet or heavy, and it’s a bit exotic. I think it would work iced as well. Republic of teas is a bit pricey, but I do love these “cuppa chocolate” teas!

Chocolate mint is one of my favorite combinations. I love mint tea, but I have to say that chocolate teas have yet to impress me. I wasn’t expecting much from this tea, but I had to try it after reading the mixed reviews.

The leaves smell awesome – just like chocolate mint candies! I have enough experience now with chocolate teas to not expect them to be really strong, so I expected the mint to dominate the finished brew (mint is like that… I once had a friend give me a selection of mint liqueurs, and it ages to use them up, as everything I put them in turned to MINT in big capital letters.

I steeped in boiling water for 5 minutes (2.5 tsp of tea for 14 oz of water… I thought it would need extra due to the mint. I was right I think.) The initial taste had a strong blast of mint (as expected.) I smelled the tea, and I could smell the chocolate in the background. I added milk, having read reviews here that said that brought out the chocolate. I’m happy to say that it did! The addition of a little sugar helped to tame the mint as well. The result was really lovely – sweet and lightly minty with chocolate and caramel notes. This is a nice dessert tea, though I confess that a little more chocolate might be better. I’m not sure it rates buying more after my sample runs out, but I did enjoy this cup!

Bumping my rating for one simple reason – it resteeps really, really well. In fact, I think the second cup is usually better than the first! I frequently want more than one cup of chai, and since this is decaf I can drink it at night. The second time I frothed the milk to make it like a chai latte (well, one that’s rather light on milk!) Once again, the spices were stronger on the second cup than the first. So if you were disappointed in the spice level on the first cup (as I was) give it another try! The second steep can be a long one (I do about 8 minutes.)

Maybe I expected too much, as I love some of Upton’s other breakfast teas, but this left me a trifle disappointed. It’s smooth and easy to drink, but doesn’t stand up well to milk (I must have milk with my morning tea… I think it’s left over from being a coffee drinker!) It’s not a bad tea, not at all, it’s just not for me (for reference, I love the Scottish and River Shannon teas from Upton.)

I didn’t think this tea tasted like much – hot water with a faint herbal tinge. But I’m not a huge white tea fan (I keep trying!) I don’t think it was much of an Earl, but it might appeal to those who don’t want to be punched by the bergmot (I do, so this is not for me!)

Tastes mostly of lemongrass with a slight backdrop of jasmine. This is not the sort of tea I would ordinarily try, but I had a coupon that made the tea (on sale) pretty much free! The lemon is this is strong. At first I thought it tasted of cleaner (or what I imagine cleaner would taste like!) After I finished the cup, though, I found myself wanting more! There is little tea taste, and I also can’t detect the mint very strongly. This is a great bedtime tea. I’m actually pretty happy with all of the newer CS green teas. They aren’t super complex, but they are all good and flavorful!