Reviews of Teas & Herbal Teas
Page 1 2 3 ... 14 15 16 of 16 pages with 379 results
Parlour Room Blend from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Blend59 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5
Mar. 13th, 2024
This is one of those uncommon tea blends that smells and tastes exactly as advertised—no hidden "flavours" (as it's spelled where sold), no surprises, no Trojan horses. That's a good thing, if you like a smoky rose tea with some fruity elements. Murchie's describes this as, "Evoking the atmosphere of a Victorian si...
Read Full ReviewDarling Grey (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Earl Grey Tea – Region: Blend85 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 4/5
Feb. 24th, 2024
Given how much of a waste of time and steeping water Whittard's standard Earl Grey was, expectations for this version ran low. What a pleasant surprise instead!
Not only did this tea actually have a detectable and pleasant aroma upon opening the wrapper and sniffing the dry bag, that carried over quite strongly i...
Teepee Dreams from Native American Tea Company
Style: Wellness Tea / Medicinal Tea – Region: Blend61 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Feb. 21st, 2024
Here's another box of this brand that I got overpriced at a Black Hills souvenir store. Like the others, the bags are both small and underfilled, docking the "value" category, despite this being a decent-tasting blend.
The dry-bag aroma came across as a disjointed melange of a lot of stuff, much akin to the "unde...
Mao Feng Green Tea from Teapigs
Style: Mao Feng Green Tea – Region: Anhui, China79 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 3/5
Feb. 6th, 2024
I've only chugged one other green tea of the Mao Feng type (a Tazo bagged offering), and enjoyed that, so I figured I'd try a bigger-leaf, sacheted version. This is one of the best green teas I've had, lots of personality, and mostly worth the slight premium one pays when shoveling a stack of bills across the counter ...
Read Full ReviewFestive Breakfast (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: Blend74 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Feb. 4th, 2024
Whittard has a single-sourced English Breakfast by name (from West Java), and an entirely different tea more of the traditional EB style—this one—composed of Ceylon and Kenya teas. Unlike the named EB, I couldn't find Festive Breakfast on Whittard's website, but instead, got it as part of a gift assortment.
Fo...
Peppermint Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Peppermint Tea – Region: United States of America85 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Jan. 25th, 2024
As much Murchie's tea as I've ordered, chugged and rated, and as strongly as I love peppermint, this was only a matter of time. Usually, I get a quick box of somebody's peppermint tea (usually Celestial Seasonings, which I've rated highly) at a retail store and go with that. However, lately amid price inflation of al...
Read Full ReviewEnglish Rose (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Rose Black Tea – Region: Blend71 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Jan. 10th, 2024
Two background caveats here:
1. I'm not a big fan of overt rose scent in beverages; something about drinking common garden flowers that I've cultivated, like rose, marigold or lavender, still seems weird to me (even though I do like jasmine tea...go figure!).
2. I haven't had rose congou tea from China yet, for com...
Vanilla Spice from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Vanilla Chai – Region: Blend88 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 28th, 2023
Looking over the large ingredients list for a loose tea (Keemun and Ceylon tea, cinnamon, ginger, fennel, cocoa nibs, cardamom seeds, roasted carob, Indian sarsparilla root, natural and artificial flavors), it seemed a little disjointed. I wasn't sure this was going to work. I'll assure that it does, very nicely.
...
English Breakfast (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: English Breakfast – Region: West Java, Indonesia77 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 24th, 2023
Given how unimpressed I've been with most of Whittard's offerings so far, this was a pleasant surprise. English Breakfast is their advertised "No. 01" mainstay tea since the Victorian era, at least in loose-leaf form, so presumably the bagged version shouldn't be terribly different.
Though not very strong, the dry...
Special Blend Tea Bags with Earl Grey from Sadaf
Style: Earl Grey Tea – Region: Blend45 / 100 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5
Dec. 17th, 2023
This tea came from a Middle Eastern eatery, and I took home an extra bag to try on home well water (instead of our heavily chlorinated city stuff that gets fishy this time of year when the lake turns over). Turns out not all the "fishy" element was from the water!
Here's the second Earl Grey tea in a row I've rev...
Snowflake from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Blend79 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 12th, 2023
For those who enjoy both coconut and almond, this seasonal tea should be heavenly. Sweetened enough, it's like marzipan candy in a teacup. I'm not a big fan of nuts in general, with almond probably being the one I can tolerate best, so the tea likely rates lower for me than it could otherwise. Still, the good news f...
Read Full ReviewEarl Grey (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Earl Grey Tea – Region: ?????42 / 100 Aroma: 3/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 2/5
Dec. 9th, 2023
Here's a rare flavored black tea where the flavor itself is fairly feeble, and the tea dominates it (not necessarily in a good way, either). Save your money and get an off-brand, food-service tea at a cheap motel, for an experience that is comparable, if not better.
I got this from a gift pack of sampler boxes, wi...
Harvest Blend Herbal Tea from Trader Joe's
Style: Herbal Tea – Region: Blend90 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Dec. 4th, 2023
"Harvest Blend" firmly ranks among the few best herbal teas I've had, and it's a store-brand product. A few options are out there for excellent, comparably delicious, fall-winter, "cinnamoney" seasonal herbal teas, but with the value of a low price point innate to Trader Joe's, I can't think of any better for the buck...
Read Full ReviewDarjeeling (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Darjeeling Black Tea – Region: Darjeeling, India69 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 3rd, 2023
The photo is from Whittard's website where (as of this writing) 50 round, stringless bags sell for USD $9.50, not too bad for what I presume to be a decent-quality Darjeeling. [They also sell loose-leaf Darjeeling.] Mine came from a 5-bag sampler pack, each bag being of the fold-over type stapled to a string and tag....
Read Full ReviewWarm & Cozy from Teekanne
Style: Herbal Tea – Region: Blend77 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Dec. 1st, 2023
Teekanne does a lot of variations of some of the same herbs in assorted ratios—much as Celestial seasonings with its many "Zinger" teas and similar—but with Teekanne using material like fennel, licorice, and a couple others not often found in American herbals. Here, they toss in thyme with the fennel and licorice,...
Read Full ReviewWhite Chocolate from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Flavored White Tea – Region: ?????74 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Nov. 25th, 2023
Weird tea, but to me at least, pleasantly so! Connoisseurs of complex-flavored tea should like this, unless those flavors are not favorites. First off, the dry-leaf aroma (in the plastic sack), in-cup smell and taste are remarkably consistent with each other.
The hard part is describing what they are. I can see...
Spiced Apple Cider Herbal Tea from Bigelow Tea
Style: Herbal Tea – Region: Blend87 / 100 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Nov. 16th, 2023
While I had some of this tea at work, steeping in an open steel Thermos, my co-worker smelled it across a fairly large room, and asked me if I were drinking spiced apple cider. My response: "Yeah: a herbal tea by that exact name." I guess that tells you how closely this mimics real cider; if not, I'll vouch for it ...
Read Full ReviewChristmas Tea from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: ?????60 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Nov. 15th, 2023
I could write some verbose review of all manner of subtleties, nuances, tones, and flavors here, but:
1) This tea doesn't really have any; it's pleasant but straightforward in its presentation of black tea, orange and cloves, which makes it...
2) A slightly weaker (in taste and aroma) version of Constant Comment.
...
Royal Vinter from Gevalia
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Sri Lanka / Ceylon65 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Nov. 7th, 2023
Given the ingredients, I expected this expressly stated (on the box) seasonal offering to be a nice hybrid of a mild chai and a traditional "Christmas tea". Instead it had a nice but understated taste all its own.
The dry bag didn't have much aroma, but what I could detect involved modest allspice and cloves, lay...
Mango & Bergamot (Teabags) from Whittard of Chelsea
Style: Flavored Green Tea – Region: China61 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5
Nov. 5th, 2023
Here's the first in a gift set of bagged teas I'm trying from Whittard. "Value" is hard to judge due to the innate premium that goes with multi-pack samplers. Surprisingly, I got this at World Market for less than the Whittard website's stated U.S. price! As of this writing, Whittard apparently doesn't sell the teab...
Read Full ReviewComfort and Joy from Republic of Tea
Style: Flavored Black Tea – Region: Blend59 / 100 Aroma: 6/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Nov. 3rd, 2023
Once again, "value" per amount of product hurts a Republic of Tea tea. I got this as a roughly 1/4-cup free sample near the front of a World Market. Free is great, free is fun! I saw the shelf price, and had to run.
Paying $12 per 50-count cylindrical can isn't fun, nor about $8–10 at chain grocery stores tha...
Organic Nilgiri Black Tea from Trader Joe's
Style: Black Tea – Region: Nilgiri, India65 / 100 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5
Oct. 26th, 2023
This was a strange black tea, in that the in-cup and dry-bag aroma differed more from the flavor than the great majority of black teas I've had. As it turns out, that's a good thing, because the aroma wasn't bad—just weak and weird. The smells were reminiscent of something I don't often associate with tea: mild ch...
Read Full ReviewChamomile, Vanilla & Manuka Honey from Pukka
Style: Chamomile Blend – Region: Blend60 / 100 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 2/5
Oct. 22nd, 2023
My daughter-in-law served this at a gathering, and I found it to be a pleasant, smooth chamomile with nothing out of the ordinary, great nor bad. In dry-bag aroma, I could detect faint honey and vanilla. Oddly, both flavors vanished in the in-cup aroma and taste, so I sweetened with honey to bring one of them back. ...
Read Full ReviewRoyal Grey Tea Bags from Murchie's Tea & Coffee Ltd
Style: Earl Grey Cream – Region: Blend90 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 5/5
Oct. 20th, 2023
I strongly encourage readers to try this if they like extra-flavored Earl Greys. However, hardcore Earl Grey purists like my wife likely will offer a derisive, somewhat disgusted pout upon sniffing or tasting this product. Basis for my guess: she did. :-) I love it, so...high rating!
The packaging for the tea b...
Blueberry Hibiscus from Rishi Tea
Style: Fruit (Herbal) Tea – Region: Blend55 / 100 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 1/5
Oct. 11th, 2023
This blend appears to be identical to Rishi's "Blueberry Rooibos" loose blend, based on its list of ingredients (organic: rooibos, hibiscus, elderberry, blueberry, schisandra berry). However, each serving is too small, packaged in about 1/4 of a typically sized pyramid sachet, then in turn, in a 2.5x3.5-inch plastic w...
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