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This tea features the contrast of both the sweetness and tartness of the oranges and cranberries, with just a touch of hibiscus. (The hibiscus is nowhere near as heavy handed as in the Celestial Seasons Zingers, if that helps.)

Surprisingly, the combination of orange and cranberries do not remind me of the fall or Thanksgiving at all. I’m enjoying this tea quite a bit, both iced and hot, in the middle of the summer heat and it doesn’t seem out of place at all.

I expect this tea to find it’s way into my top 10 or so iced tea rotation.

Tried it both cold brewed as an iced tea and hot, but it’s just not my thing. The tea smells strongly of sage, but the flavor does contain large amounts of orange pulp and lavender. In the end, I think the sage flavor is just very off to me. I like it with chicken, but not in my tea. If you like it in tea, well, your mileage may vary…

I pretty much completely disagree with the description for this tea provided by the seller. I don’t drink this in the morning and I don’t think it’s a boldly flavored tea. Even though we may disagree on those points, I do think this is a great tea.

I find the flavor to be almost delicate. There is a subtle malty sweetness that’s hard to describe, but is always present and always welcome. While I do enjoy this tea hot, I prefer to drink it iced. It’s one of the top iced teas I drink when it’s hot out and I’m looking for something cool and refreshing to drink. I’ve even been known to put it in my bike’s water bottle for a treat.

Perhaps it’s the official tea of cycling in the Washington DC region? Either way, it’s great hot and iced.

A simple, medium body black tea with a hint of lemon when hot. It’s not bitter and it’s not sweet, all at the same time.

This tea really shines, however, as a cold brewed iced tea. I tend to think of it as the middle of the road, basic sort of iced tea that you would get at a restaurant, except much better. If you’re looking for a tea to serve to your friends that just want Lipton, but don’t want to go through the hassle of keeping a box of it in your kitchen, this is the tea for you.

Capital Teas refers to this as a bold tea, and it most certainly is. The base teas form this very strongly, in your face flavored tea. There are both caramel and toffee flavors very present. The combination doesn’t work for me. I think it’s the pu-erh that just pushes it in the wrong direction to me.

I tried it both hot and cold brewed as an iced tea.

Capital Teas Irish Rum Cream has some of the more pleasant facets of this tea without the ones I don’t like. I’ll stick to the Irish Rum Cream, which is great both hot and cold brewed, next time.

Edit: I tried this tea again hot and added some stevia and I enjoyed the tea a lot more. I added half a teaspoon of stevia to about 10 oz. of tea and it really helps to balance the toffee and caramel flavors, while muting the coconut flavor even more. I still prefer Irish Rum Cream much better, but if you’re looking for a sweeter, strongly toffee flavored tea, this could be the one for you.

I open the pouch and the leaves are curly and it smells somewhere between honey and caramel, both of which are typical of Golden Monkey teas I’ve had before.

The color after brewing is this wonderful coppery color. It’s a slightly malty and sweet tea. Honey seemed prominent with a slight almost raisin flavor in the background. The caramel I smell is nowhere to be found after brewing.

It’s considerably better than the Teavana version, which always seems to sweet for me. Golden Money style teas are typically not my favorite, but so far this is the best of the bunch I’ve had. I’m still not sure if I want any more of it, though.

If Golden Monkeys are your thing, this is one to try out.

A very gentle tasting rooibos creates a neutral backdrop for sweet oranges, tart cranberries and a hint of spice in this tea. Even though all three flavors are distinct and somewhat prominent, the tea seems almost perfectly balanced. It may be one of the most balanced things I have ever tasted.

Against my better judgement since I never like spicy iced tea, I decided to try this tea cold. Luckily I rarely listen to those warning bells in my head, because this tea was great after cold brewing it overnight. Somehow the cold really highlights the sweet and tart flavors and the spiciness complements them perfectly.

While certainly anything with cranberries, orange and spice invokes Thanksgiving celebrations, I can imagine myself enjoying this tea iced on a cool spring day at the beach, as well as enjoying it hot after a fall or winter morning bike ride.

Overall, a very enjoyable, balanced experience. I will be getting more of this tea.

Included as a sample with some other tea I’ve purchased, and I’m so glad it was.

I’ve held a pomegranate, cut one open, smelled it, ate the seeds and have had the juice, but I can’t remember exactly what it tastes like. I’ve never had a dragonfruit that I know of, so there’s that.

This tea smells tropical. Like being back at a BBQ on the beach in Aruba. It smells so good I don’t even want to put it in the water, but I do, because that’s how it works.

The aroma is significantly muted after I brew the tea, but that tropical taste is still there. I really don’t think it has anything to do with the pomegranate, but I could be wrong. There’s a small underlying taste that I associate with green tea that I think most people would call “burnt green tea.” I either don’t know how to brew green tea or I just plain don’t like unflavored green tea. I can’t taste any hint of the white tea.

So, what I’m trying to say is I like this tea quite a bit. I don’t think it tastes too much like pomegranates, if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s a nice, tasty reminder of good weather and the beach when it’s cold and rainy out.

The base black tea is not too mild and not too strong. It has a slight malty flavor that I can’t quite place. Pumpkin is the primary flavor with background clove and cinnamon notes. A tasty treat for a cool morning that also pairs nicely with desserts.

It tastes more like pumpkin pie filling to me. There is no “crust or cookie” flavor, if that makes any sense.

I finally got brave enough to try this iced. Honestly, it came out better than I thought, but I’m not planning to make any more. I can understand why some people may enjoy it, but the iced tea doesn’t work with the spices for me.