Grumpy Beastie's Other Lair

I am extremely embarrassed how long it has taken me to review this. Originally, there had been a tea before it in the queue, but things happened. I had not intentionally saved this for Pride month, but here we are.

Name: Tropical Mango Pride Punch Fresh Brew Iced Tea
Brand: Harney & Sons
Type: black tea & fruit
Tea bag

Notes:
It smells absolutely amazing. They are oversized bags that are supposed to make 8 cups of tea each. I brewed the first bag as per the instructions on the back, but I fear it might have diluted it too much, though still delicious. It's a very smooth tea with a light fruity after taste. The fruit included in the tea are mango flavor, mango pieces, orange peel, coconut pieces, coconut flavor, pineapple flavor, and orange flavor (listed in the ingredients in that order). All of them come through in the smell, though surprisingly the pineapple is the strongest. The taste is more of a vague "dried tropical fruit with shaved coconut." Overall, it has a desserty feel, but would also just be good on a hot day. It would be good with cookies.

The box it came in is also quite fun. The front and back are rainbow where the colors blend into the next. (It is a traditional rainbow, not a 5 stripe Pride flag rainbow, just for clarification.) On the sides, it has repeating chevrons in brown, black, white, pink, and blue. So, we've got the progress flag represented without it being BOOM flag. Also, a portion of the proceeds of this blend were donated to the Ali Forney Center, whose mission is "to protect homeless LGBTQ+ youths from the harms of homelessness and empower them with the tools needed to be independent."

This tea was gifted to me by stonepicnicking_okapi

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 15/10
Flavor: 9

Overall Rating: 5 stars

Tea Review
Name: Soothing Caramel Bedtime
Brand: Yogi
Type: herbal/rooibos/spice
Tea bag

Notes:
I was hesitant to try this because I hate caramel and I wasn’t sure how much it was going to actually smell or taste like it. Instead, it ended up being a smooth spiced tea that was very soothing.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

Name: Chai Green
Brand: Yogi
Type: green/chai blend
Tea bag

Notes:
Let me just start with this is a good tea. It's literally green tea with all the spices of chai tea (with no black tea). It's a little mentally confusing, but if you like both, I'd say it's worth a try.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 8

Overall Rating: 4 stars

Name: Wild Apple & Cinnamon
Brand: Pukka
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
Frankly, whatever you imagine a tea called Wild Apple & Cinnamon to taste like, that is it. It’s very much a “what is says on the tin” tea. It’s pleasantly spicy, which considering it has 3 different kinds of cinnamon, ginger root, and cardamom pod in it, that should be unsurprising. It smelled amazing, but drinking it, it also tasted a bit thin. I’m not sure if that makes sense, but that was the only way I could think of describing it. It also didn’t really feel worth the 15-minute suggested steeping time. I would definitely drink it again, but I’m not sure I would go out of my way for it. (And I feel bad saying all of that because I am 99% sure it was a gift.)

Rate
Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 10/10
Flavor: 7 /10

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

Name: Earl Grey
Brand: The London Tea Company
Type: black tea blend
Tea bag

Notes: It's a pretty basic Earl Grey tea. The bergamot was not as overpowering as it can be in some brands.

Rate
Appearance: 9/10
Aroma: 7/10
Flavor: 8/10

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars

Name: Pomegrante & White Grape Fruit Tea
Brand: MECO
Type: Fruit juice (pomegrante, grape, & apple) & tea mix
Prepackaged tea

Notes: See Thai Lime Fruit Tea review for package notes. At the price it was at, I had to try both flavors they had in stock. It was sweeter than the other one, but I still really liked it. While the individual flavors were fairly identifyable in the Thai Lime Fruit, this one was more of just a "fruit" flavor.

Rate
Apperance: 9/10
Aroma: 9/10
Flavor: 9/10

Overall Rating: 4 stars

Name: Super Mint
Brand: STASH
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes: I love this tea. Super mint is the perfect name for this. I used to have to hide the sealed tea bag packages from my mint obcessed cat. She would hunt down my mug whenever I'd make some.

Rate
Apperance: 9/10
Aroma: 10/10
Flavor: 10/10

Overall Rating: 5 stars

Name: Organic Zen
Brand: TAZO
Type: green tea/herbal blend
Tea bag

Notes: Another gift. This was one of my go to teas in college, but I hadn't had it in years. (I think the blend has changed since then.) It's a very light tea. Very nice for warm afternoons.

Rate
Apperance: 9/10
Aroma: 8/10
Flavor: 8/10

Overall Rating: 4 stars

Name: Peppermint
Brand: TEViVE
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes: It's a really nice peppermint tea. Not a lot to say about it. I like peppermint tea in general and it's hard to find a bad one. It was a gift and I enjoyed it a lot.

Rate
Apperance: 10/10
Aroma: 10/10
Flavor: 10/10

Overall Rating: 5 stars

Name: Honey Lavender Stress Relief
Brand: Yogi Tea
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes: I remember it being soothing and a fairly smooth tea, but even after several cups of it, I could not pinpoint a flavor enough to describe it.

Rate
Apperance: 9/10
Aroma: 9/10
Flavor: 7/10

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars