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I’ve never had a fresh lingonberry, but I do love the preserves that IKEA sells. Lingonberry tea sounded too awesome to pass up. Who could resist the awesomely designed packaging?

Unfortunately, I think I prefer the packaging to the tea itself. The flavor of the lingonberry is a bit too artificial for my tastes. It’s quite sweet in a somewhat unappealing cotton candy-like way. The sencha is very vegetal and maybe a bit too grassy to be paired with the lingonberry.

I’m glad I only invested in a tagalong tin. While I’d love to repurpose the full sized tin into something awesome, I don’t think I could have soldiered through all 20 sachets.

I managed to fix my steeper, but forgot it at home, so today’s another day of bagged tea at work. I received a sachet of this as a sample with my last H&S order.

The liquor was a pale green. The taste was very vegetal and a bit spinachy with a buttery finish. There was no bitterness at all. It’s a perfectly fine plain green tea that I wouldn’t mind drinking every now and then when the mood strikes me.

I love chocolate, and I love tea, but there’s just something about choclate teas that I sometimes just don’t get. When placing my last H&S order, I picked up 3 of the 4 Ambessa teas thoroughly convinced that I probably wasn’t going to like this one. I decided to give it a try because dark chocolate, peanut, and apricot sounded like a potentially awesome mix.

Fast forward three months, and I’m just now trying this out for the first time. I was in a rush to go to a meeting, so I grabbed a bag of tea and my mug, and filled up using the hot water dispenser in the conference room (don’t judge!). The entire meeting I couldn’t help but wonder what ingredient made this tea so damn tasty. See, after three months I’d forgotten why I even decided to order this. As if I needed another sign that my tea hoarding is a problem!

The secret to this tea’s deliciousness is the apricots. They add a sweetness that just works so well with the other ingredients. The chocolate is very subtle in flavor but has a pretty strong aroma. I didn’t taste a strong peanut flavor, but there were definitely some nutty notes. Overall, a tasty tea.

This tea is a staple in my decaf collection. It doesn’t have an “off” taste that some decaffeinated teas tend to have. I think it tastes a lot like the regular black tea that H&S uses in its blends.

While it’s not the most natural peach flavor I’ve tasted, it’s quite good. The sweetness from the peach balances well with the black base. I wish the base was a little bit stronger, but I tend to prefer my black tea strong.

Last night I took my steeper apart to clean it out, but managed to break it instead. So today I’m drinking bagged tea in the office. Frankly, this tea is so good I don’t really notice much of a difference.

After seeing Sil’s review of this tea, I knew I had to try it out. I checked out a few stores that carry Ahmad, but couldn’t find this one. I finally tracked this down in a store that carries grocery goods from the UK (as well as Dr. Who and Downton Abbey memorabilia) and ended up picking up a few varieties of Ahmad’s flavored tea. Spoiler alert – they are all phenomenal!

I REALLY love the black tea used in these bags. I grew up drinking Ahmad’s straight black tea, so maybe nostalgia factors in a little bit. But in all honesty, it’s perfectly strong without being astringent. The strawberry flavor is sweet and juicy. There is a candy-like quality to it, but not in a terribly artificial way. This is a really nicely done tea. Love it!

Sipdown! Oh, Cucumber Kiwi Honeybush, I will miss your tart, yet refreshing deliciousness. I hope that you will someday be reblended so that I may enjoy you once again.

I tried this hot and didn’t particularly enjoy it. The rooibos had no flavor, and the spices were completely underwhelming. After it cooled to room temperature, I took a few sips to see if it was still bland. As it turns out, the spices really pop when cool. The cinnamon and ginger are the most predominant flavors, with the cloves and nutmeg having a larger presence in the aftertaste. I’ll kill off the rest of the box by making a few pitchers of iced tea at home. At $1/2L, I really can’t complain.

Sipdown! Sil sent me enough for 2 regular sized cups of tea, but in the spirit of sipdowns I dumped it all into my steeper to make a ginormous mug. The aroma of this tea is aaaaamazing; it really does smell a lot like salted caramel. I could taste gooey burnt sugar and buttery toffee. The salt balanced out the sweetness without making the tea too savory. This was a marvelous dessert tea. Thanks, Sil!

Sipdown. Yum, this is a Thin Mint cookie in black tea form! The mint is the first flavor that comes through, and then the chocolate makes for a smooth finish. I didn’t really taste the vanilla or peppercorn components at all, which is a bit of a bummer. Even so, it’s really quite tasty.

Thanks for sharing, Marcel Duchamp!

Sipdown! I found four bags of this while reorganizing my stash of bagged tea, and decided to use them all up. Steeped all four in 16 oz, and immediately poured into my iced-filled water bottle. The strength ended up being perfect, so I may just have to repeat this method to get rid of some of my other Celestial Seasonings teas.

This tasted mostly like hibiscus, but I didn’t find it to be overpowering or unpleasant. There was a spicy aftertaste, but it was bit on the weaker side. I’m not overly impressed by the quality of the rooibos, but it’s perfectly acceptable for a $2 box of bagged tea. Safari Spice, it as nice to know you, but I don’t expect that our paths will be crossing again anytime soon.