Grumpy Beastie's Other Lair

Tea Month 2025: Tea 16

Tea Review
Name: Maple Apple Cider
Brand: Stash
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
This was really good, but a little disappointing. The hibiscus overpowers everything; the rooibos, cinnamon, maple flavor, nutmeg, apple flavor, and caramel flavor; all of it. When you open the bag, the hibiscus is all you smell. Once the hot water hits it, you do get the warm, spiced apple cider smell, but once it's brewed and you start drinking it, the hibiscus is the dominant flavor. I do like hibiscus and the tea does taste good. It just doesn't feel like you're getting the tea you've been told you're getting.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 7
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3 stars

Tea Month 2025: Tea 14

Tea Review
Name: Cozy Cinnamon Vanilla Chamomile
Brand: Stash
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
Hopefully, I haven't reviewed this tea before. I forgot to double check. This tea was good, but disappointing. It smelled absolutely amazing, but it tasted like chamomile tea, with some slightly warm notes. The more I drank, the more I could also taste the vanilla, but I also think that's because I was looking for it. It is a good tea, but with cinnamon and rooibos as the first two ingredients, I was just expecting something a little spicier.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 10
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3 stars

Tea Month 2025: Tea 12

Tea Review
Name: Dragon Green Tea
Brand: Just Ice Tea
Type: green tea with less than 1% juice blend
Canned

Notes:
This is the other premade tea I wanted to talk about. I love this. I found it at the discount grocery in 4 pack boxes. I don't normally like sweetened green tea, but this is just lightly sweetened with agave syrup and passionfruit juice. And those two flavors plus some pineapple flavoring are subtle and go well with the green tea, as bonkers as that sounds. It's even better cold.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 8 1/2
Flavor: 8 1/2

Overall Rating: 4 1/2 star

Tea Month 2025: Tea 10

Tea Review
Name: Blend No. 1851: Portland Breakfast
Brand: Smith Tea/Steven Smith Teamaker
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
This is a blend of black teas: Pu-erh, Keemun, and Assam. It has a bold flavor very similar to other breakfast blends, such as Celestial Seasonings' Morning Thunder, but it's a lot smoother. It would go very well with pastry. (It made me crave something buttery, at any rate.)

The description of the flavor on the package is as follows: A big, strong, full-flavored, no-no sense cup of tea with notes of malt, leather, spice, and just a touch of peat. Perhaps not quite as astringent as your typical breakfast tea. Rich, dark, and perfect for a rainy Portland morning-or evening for that matter. [I Sachet]

Yes, it oversells the tea a bit, as expected, but it accurately describes the flavor notes.

The brewing instructions are also worth noting: Bring spring or freshly drawn filtered water to a rolling boil. Steep 5 minutes under a postcard of Mount Hood.

Despite my enjoyment of the tea, I am deducting a star for not only the plastic net bag, but having a plastic net bag while having two different organic certifications and bragging about not having micro plastics on their website.

(There was also a joke hidden under the fold in the packaging I didn't find until I had finished up with the rest of this.)

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 7 1/2
Flavor: 8 1/2

Overall Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Tea Month 2025:Tea 8

Tea Review
Name: Darjeeling
Brand: TAZO
Type: black
Tea bag

Notes:
In the tea's defense, I did over brew it a bit. To me, it tasted like your basic black tea, but a bit softer and maybe a slightly nutty aftertaste.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 6
Flavor: 7 1/2

Overall Rating: 3 1/2 stars

Tea Month 2025: Tea 6
(And the last one for today)

Tea Review
Name: Peppermint
Brand: Celestial Seasonings
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
Another tea from the herbal tea sampler. I almost didn't review this one because it's a tea staple in our house, but I also hadn't reviewed it before. So, here we are. As you may have gathered from other posts, I kind of live off peppermint tea from time to time. Celestial Seasonings' peppermint tea is one of the few that it's sole ingredient is peppermint instead of a blend, which is nice. The flavor is a bit sharper than other brands, which is neither good not bad. It does mean that if you accidentally severely over brew it, it's, um, just trust me, don't. That being said, it's a good tea, a solid tea, a tea that will be there for you when others have betrayed you with weird blends when all you want is something comforting. It is in my top 3 of peppermint teas and is always in my tea stash.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 8 1/2

Overall Rating: 4 stars

Tea Month 2025: Tea 4

Tea Review
Name: Lemon Zinger
Brand: Celestial Seasonings
Type: herbal
Tea bag

Notes:
Also from the herbal tea sampler. I have had lemon zinger before, but it's been probably about 20ish years. My mother used to make sun tea with it and raspberry zinger (raspberry lemon zinger?) regularly in the summer, but I can't remember her having it in the house since before I went to college.

We know I love a lemon tea. This one is very lemony with a little bite. It's a good tea. Would recommend unless you are avoiding hibiscus or rosehips.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 8
Flavor: 8 1/2

Overall Rating: 4 stars

Tea Month 2025: Tea 2

Tea Review
Name: HT: Unique & Uncommon Tea Blends: Black Cask Bourbon (Smoky Black Tea with Vanilla and Caramel)
Brand: Harney & Sons Fine Teas
Type: black tea blend
Tea bag

Notes:
This tea was gifted to me by a generous person via Holiday Wishes. It is absolutely delicious and I love it. The smokey scent and flavor bring me back to the happy nostalgia bits of childhood, bringing to mind wood stoves, campfires, and pipe tobacco. It is a little intense for everyday drinking, but it's so good.

I also have to give a shout-out to the gorgeous tin the tea came in, which I will definitely be keeping after the tea is gone. It mostly black with copper colored metallic accents and small blue filigree designs. It also includes a lot of tea information including character description of the tea (prominent notes of vanilla, caramel atop a base of smoky black tea. Perfect for sipping slow and steady, as a bourbon should be.), ingredients, brewing instructions, storage guidelines, caffeine content, and the "Mike Harvey's Tea Rating." It rates the tea on briskness - does your mouth pucker?, body - does the tea fill your mouth?, and aroma - does the tea have a robust scent?. This tea got 2/5 in briskness, 2/5 in body, and 4/5 in aroma.

Rate
Appearance: 9
Aroma: 10
Flavor: 9 1/2

Overall Rating: 4 1/2 stars

Tea Review
Name: Peach Honey Chamomile Tea
Brand: Sun Orchard (?)
Type: herbal tea/juice blend
Premade in a jug

Notes:
When I bought this, I hadn't planned on doing a review on it. It was seriously priced to move in the refrigerator section at the discount grocery and it looked like a half gallon jug of sweet tea, which is a rarity here. Then I drank it. It was an odd experience. Cold chamomile tea is odd to start with, but it was also thick, close to syrup. This prompted me to read the ingredients: brewed herbal tea (water, chamomile flowers), sugar, peach puree, lemon juice, honey, natural flavors.

After I got over the initial surprise, it was actually quite good. It's not really sweet. You can clearly taste the chamomile and the honey. The peach is more of a hint of something. It was better mixed with lemonade flavored sparkling water.

The other weird thing was there was no obvious brand. The from label was just a picture of a peach with "Peach Honey Chamomile Tea" written across it. The back label was just the ingredients list with tiny type below that was the address from Sun Orchard LLC. Not even nutrition facts.

Rate
Appearance: 8
Aroma: 7
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Tea Review
Name: Lipton Detox Dandelion, Nettle, Grapefruit Herbal Supplement with Green Tea
Brand: Lipton, part of their Well-being by Lipton line
Type: herbal/green tea blend
Tea bag

Notes:
This one actually surprised me. It was a very mild tea with a citrus aftertaste. This is another one from the assortment of tea from my sister. The overall score is going to be low though because of the packaging - I couldn't find a complete ingredients list- and the tea bag was a plastic net.

Rate
Appearance: 7
Aroma: 7
Flavor: 7

Overall Rating: 2 stars