Downton Abbey® Lady Cora's Evening Tea

I’m continuing my 2025 sip-down, going through older teas from my cupboard. Consequently, this review should be taken with reserve, since it’s not exactly fair to rate a tea that’s languished in the back of my cupboard for a number of years. Having noticed that the other two reviews of this Downton Abbey blend didn’t like it either—and they were written 4 and 10 years ago tells me it was never that great an herbal tea in the first place.
When Downton Abbey the series was first ending in 2015, I ordered a few different teas that Republic of Tea was selling, tied to the series. I selected this one based on its being caffeine free.
Even when I drank this tea when newly bought, I remember not being able to discern the more unusual flowers in this blend. Both orange blossoms and passion flower are supposed to be included in the tea (they’re on the label), but they’re not included in the Steepster list of flavors, which I why I mention them here.
For a tea which has lemon balm as its first ingredient, and five different flowers, I barely taste any of them. I understand time has passed, so that’s why the upper notes of the florals are missing. The only deeper floral note I detect is some sweetness from the orange blossom (and possibly the linden, but I’m not really familiar with that).
It’s really a pretty nondescript cup of tea, rather muddled tasting, and watery, to boot.
My major complaint of most RoT teas is too little tea within each bag. For a total weight of 46.8 grams, divided by 36 bags = 1.3 grams per teabag. Really minimal. So I used 4 bags in 25 oz of water, let it steep for 7 minutes, so I could better taste this tisane.
Just blah. While I can taste the chamomile, it’s oddly like a watery mushroom-infused liquid, for some reason (maybe the valerian root?). The only thing it’s got going for it is that it IS caffeine-free. With only 8 teabags left, that’s only two more 25-oz half-pots for me to get through…thank goodness. Think I’ll add a couple other teabags of other tisanes to help!

My husband said “it smells like stinky socks.” I tasted it; it tasted even worse. I threw out all of it. Never buying again. We regularly drink valerian, chamomile, and passion flower teas but this was AWFUL.

And Noowwww I know what valarian tastes like. I was beginning to think it was an exaggeration.
It’s not.
Definitely not. xD
Oy.
Thanks for the sample though, Darby!