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Flavour: Vermont Maple Ginger

Ingredients: Ginger, cinnamon, natural maple flavour with other natural flavours, luo han guo (monk fruit) and vermont maple sugar

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: Purchased by Ginger on a trip to Canada, we expected this to be awful. However, on brewing it, Tulsi took a sniff and said, ‘This might…not be terrible.’  It smells strongly of maple…but with something oddly savoury mixed in there…a hint of fruit…and then cinnamon. That sounds weird, we know. The point is – we were pleasantly surprised by this blend. On the first sip, you mainly get ginger and cinnamon. Then, as it goes down, you get a hint of maple syrup, but nothing overwhelmingly sweet. It doesn’t taste fake. In fact, it’s quite a pleasant dessert tea to have after a meal, and soothing in the evening. Not our absolutely favourite flavour out there, but Celestial Seasonings have definitely proven that you can do weird sweet treat flavours like this and make them good.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime

Best time of day to drink this: After dinner / evenings

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Flavour: Rhubarb & Custard

Ingredients: Rooibos, rhubarb pieces, calendula, vanilla pieces, flavouring

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £7 for 50g

Review: It smells exactly like rhubarb and custard. In fact, you can smell the rhubarb across the room. It’s strangely fizzy, too, a little like one of those rhubarb carbonated drinks. The flavour is milder, though – you definitely get the rhubarb, and the vanilla makes it a little creamy, but thankfully it’s not super sweet. It’s really nice! A lovely, balanced dessert tea to have in the evening. We can also imagine it being delicious served chilled in the summer. All in all, a winning blend!

Best time of year to drink this: Summer

Best time of day to drink this: Afternoon or evening, especially after a meal

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Flavour: Banana Bread Chai

Ingredients: Rosebuds, cinnamon, ginger, freeze-dried banana, cardamom, vanilla pieces, natural flavours

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £7 for 50g

Review: It smells like…cinnamon! And tastes like…cinnamon! …and other stuff. You get that slight sweetness from the rooibos, and only a very faint hint of banana – which is a relief, because we really worried it might be disgusting. Instead, it’s a warming evening treat, ideal for the colder months in lieu of sweet treats after meals. Highly recommended!

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn / winter

Best time of day to drink this: Evenings

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Flavour: Honeycomb Cookie D’oh!

Ingredients: Rooibos, cocoa nibs, Sri Lankan black tea, puffed quinoa, oat flowering tops, stevia, natural flavouring

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £7 for 50g

Review: Interesting, mixing black tea with rooibos, as usually rooibos is used as a tea substitute. This one smells and tastes really sweet, which is unsurprising with stevia in the mix. It’s almost vanilla-y but not very honeycomb-y, in our opinion. It wasn’t our favourite, simply because it wasn’t that exciting. It wasn’t bad, though. Someone will definitely think this is a nice dessert tea to have after meals – lunch, especially, so you’re not kept up all night by the black tea.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime?

Best time of day to drink this: After lunch, for a calorie-free treat

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Flavour: Chocolate Digestives

Ingredients: Shri Lankan black tea, cocoa nibs, cocoa shells, fenugreek, liquorice, natural flavouring

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £7 for 50g

Review: Bird & Blend are this magical company that manage to make all manner of flavours that sound like they’re going to be disgusting and artificial…and then turn out to be heavenly. This blend is no exception. It smells malty, a bit like a biscuit dunked in chocolatey black tea. The flavour is similar, but light on the chocolate. It has an edge of caramel, but not too sweet; you can’t distinguish the liquorice. The black tea is mild, not bitter at all. Overall, it’s gentle, warming and soothing, the ingredients mixed together in a delightful balance. It’s a perfect afternoon treat, like a calorie-free chocolate digestive, just as the name promises. Gorgeous!

Best time of year to drink this: It feels wintry

Best time of day to drink this: Afternoon, to get you through a long work day

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Flavour: Redbush Caramel Velvet

Ingredients: Redbush, caramel flavouring (2.5%), safflowers (1%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: Around £6

Bags Per Box: 15

Review: It smells like rooibos with artificial vanilla. The flavour is also strong on the rooibos, a little creamy, and very sweet…and very fake. For that reason, it’s not for us. However, we can imagine some people liking it. The main issue is the price. It’s so expensive for something that is ultimately a very generic tea with artificial flavouring. It’s not terrible, but we don’t see why anyone would bother. It’s also a total mystery why the safflowers are in this blend or what they’re meant to add to the taste.

Best time of year to drink this: …autumn?

Best time of day to drink this: After lunch or dinner

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Flavour: Nutty Chocolate Flavour Assam Tea

Ingredients: Black tea, cocoa nibs (20%), hazelnut flavouring (8%)

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: Around £2-3

Bags Per Box: 12

Review: It smells like…tea and hazelnut flavouring – really sweet. The taste was surprising. We expected an overwhelming hazelnut flavour, but it’s more like gentle black tea with a subtle sweetness. It doesn’t taste artificial. In fact, it gets nicer with each sip and makes a very pleasant brunch treat.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime

Best time of day to drink this: Brunch / afternoon

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Flavour: Glass Slipper

Ingredients: Black tea, orange, blue cornflower petals, natural vanilla flavour, natural bergamot flavour, natural crème flavour

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £7.99 for 50g

Review: Smells like tea, tastes like tea. From their Fairytale collection, this is a light, mellow blend. It’s basically black tea but with a creamy texture and a faint citrus edge, making it less bitter than your average tea. The vanilla makes it slightly sweet, which is good if you’re the type to add sugar to your tea but you want to cut back. It isn’t the most exciting blend we’ve ever tried, but it was nice enough.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime

Best time of day to drink this: Morning / afternoon

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Flavour: Autumn

Ingredients: Rooibos (28%), cocoa husk, ginger root (15%), apple pomace (12%), cinnamon pieces (10%), citric acid, flavouring (macadamia, brittle, roasted almond, cheesecake, hazelnut), sunflower petals, safflower petals

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £11 for 125g

Review: Unsurprisingly, this smells and tastes really fake. It goes through two phases. First you get the natural ingredients, and they’re quite pleasant. Then you get the flavouring, and it just lingers. It’s this indistinguishable sweet flavour that hangs around for a party and dehydrates you. Why why why throw in all that flavouring? Especially for that price tag! Cut all that out and this could have been really nice. Someone will probably like it, but for us, it’s a no.

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn, they say

Best time of day to drink this: After a meal – it’s definitely a dessert drink

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Flavour: Strawberry & Elderflower

Ingredients: Hibiscus, orange leaves, elderflowers (10%), natural strawberry flavouring with other natural flavours (9%), juniper berries (8%), rosehips, orange peel, natural flavouring, liquorice

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: Around £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: It smells like hard strawberry sweets, e.g. fruit pastilles / Haribo strawberries. One of us quipped that it’s ‘berry sweet’ – groan. The flavour is very similar to the smell, but with a subtle hint of elderflower cordial. There’s also an interesting earthy flavour, likely from the juniper berries. That might all sound like a vile combination, but it’s quite pleasant. We can imagine it iced in the summer, with fresh mint leaves, although it works as a hot dessert tea, too. And despite all the ‘flavours’, it tastes completely natural. We would happily buy this again…though it should be noted that we apparently had it the wrong way. The box says you have to drink it in a ‘glass mug’!

Best time of year to drink this: Summer, especially

Best time of day to drink this: Afternoons, or after a meal

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