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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: Sleepytime Echinacea Complete Care

Ingredients: Echinacea, European elderberry extract, European elderflower extract, eucalyptus, stevia leaf, chamomile, spearmint, peppermint, lemongrass, tilia flowers

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: Now, we know what you’re thinking – elderberries, no! But stick with us, because this is one of the best teas out there. It’s also significantly different from their standard Sleepytime blend.

The scent is minty, with a planty undertone. It’s earthy, restful and soothing. The flavour is more flowery, like a fruity, floral spearmint. Stevia leaf gives a hint of sweetness but in just the right dose, without overpowering the blend. In fact, even if you dislike half the ingredients that go into this one (we’re not great lovers of lemongrass or elderberries, or straight chamomile), the balance here is spot on. Every sip is a special moment in itself. It’s smooth and gorgeous and refreshing and best of all, it knocks you right out within a half hour of drinking it. You will absolutely look like that bear on the box (cap and nightgown are optional).

They seem to have rebranded this one a number of times, with a new ‘Immune Boost’ variety that we haven’t yet tried. In our experience, adding vitamins to a tea just comes out tasting like…vitamins. The ‘Complete Care’ variety, however, is a definite must-have for any tea lover, especially if you struggle with insomnia.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time

Best time of day to drink this: Bedtime

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Flavour: Sleepytime

Ingredients: Chamomile, spearmint, lemongrass, tilia flowers (lime flowers), blackberry leaves, orange blossoms, hawthorn and rosebuds

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: This is one of Celestial Seasonings’ staples going way, way back – a childhood memory for Tulsi. It has endured for so many years because it is such a lovely experience to drink it – and it lives up to its name: it makes you feel very sleepy.

The aroma is minty fresh, but also lightly fruity with a hint of sweetness. It’s a nice one to sit with in bed at night, just letting the smell envelop you.

On tasting, you can’t identify any one ingredient (apart from spearmint), and that’s a good thing. We’re not big fans of lemongrass (which has a strangely artificial flavour) or anything floral (it can taste like perfume), but this one blends these ingredients together in just the right way. There’s a subtle hint of lemon, and a touch of floral that adds a bit of depth, but nothing overpowering.

Although a great one for unwinding, this one is also strangely wakeful: it clears the head, allowing you to forget the concerns of the day and drift off. It would also be excellent if you’re feeling a bit run down, and the inclusion of spearmint helps sooth the tummy, aiding digestion.

We both love it, and Tulsi drinks it a lot. It’s her essential bedtime drink when she wants to de-stress, detox and shut off for the night. It is a definite must-have tea.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time

Best time of day to drink this: Bedtime

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Flavour: Peppermint

Ingredients: Peppermint

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: You might think peppermint is peppermint…but it’s not! There are very different varieties of peppermint grown in different regions around the world. American peppermint is known for being stronger than any you’d normally find in Europe, for example. And being American, this brew is extra-strong. Even just the scent is strong – a little like marijuana but with a minty after-smell.

The flavour is also intense and substantial. It’s ‘plantier’ than some of the other mint blends we’ve tried – like a pyramid bag / loose leaf tea, but in a standard bag and low-cost. It’s one of the most refreshing mint teas we’ve tried, at a great price. We definitely recommend this one, especially after meals when you want to refresh your palate. It would also be great to clear your sinuses and perk up when feeling a bit run down.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time

Best time of day to drink this: Afternoon

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Flavour: Chamomile

Ingredients: Chamomile

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: It smells like chamomile…and it tastes like chamomile.

If you haven’t tried chamomile tea before, it’s a delicate white flower known to help you relax and prepare for a good night’s sleep, if the infusion is drunk at night. It’s initially floral, but not like perfume (like some floral brews). Some chamomile blends can be quite strong, but this one is mild, soothing and ‘planty’.

Best time of year to drink this: Any time

Best time of day to drink this: Evening / bedtime

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Flavour: Honey Vanilla Chamomile

Ingredients: Chamomile, orange peel, natural honey flavour with other natural flavourings, liquorice, roasted chicory and lemongrass

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: As you might guess from the title of this review…we don’t like this one. Honey flavouring and ‘vanilla’ never really go down well with us. No matter how ‘natural’ it might be, it still comes out tasting sickly and somehow artificial.

And that’s exactly what we found with this blend. Even just the smell is like fake sweeteners. It is thoroughly unappetising. There’s hardly more than a hint of chamomile under all that flavouring, and the vanilla is non-existent.

The flavour is similar. It has an overly sickly sweet taste (no doubt a mix of flavouring an liquorice) that is utterly disgusting. You can’t taste the chamomile much, although you do get a citrusy undercurrent from the lemongrass (which always tastes artificial even though it’s a real plant)…it’s just that fake, nasty sweetness gumming up your throat.

Why would you ruin chamomile like this?? We couldn’t finish one cup between us and we will definitely not be buying more.

Best time of year to drink this: Never

Best time of day to drink this: Never

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Flavour: Roastaroma

Ingredients: Roasted barley, roasted chicory, roasted carob, cinnamon, allspice and Chinese star anise

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: This blend boasts of being a caffeine-free substitute for your morning coffee. As with many coffee alternatives, it’s based on chicory – and barley, which you can really smell. It’s a bit like Ovaltine. Interestingly, once it cools down enough to drink, it suddenly smells like instant coffee.

This is a substantial drink, round, full and savoury. The taste is quite bitter, like coffee (that’s likely the chicory root). It’s also heavy and hits you in the face like coffee. But unlike coffee, it’s a bit fruity, with a hint of sweetness from the star anise and cinnamon, and even the suggestion of chocolate (probably due to the carob). The flavour passes through several different phases with each sip, making you pause and think, working out what you’re tasting.

This was a bit of a surprising one that we really enjoyed. It’s a good one to help you slow down and experience the moment, making it an ideal accompaniment to breakfast, or even a nice one to soothe and ease you off to bed at night.

Best time of year to drink this: All year round

Best time of day to drink this: Breakfast, or in that last hour before bed

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Flavour: Lemon Zinger

Ingredients: Hibiscus, rosehips, roasted chicory, orange peel, lemongrass, lemon peel and whole dried lemons, natural lemon flavour with other natural flavours and citric acid

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: As with so many lemon-flavoured blends, this one smells a bit medicinal, or like cleaning products. It’s a bit off-putting.

With such a strong scent, you’d expect strong flavour, but actually…it tastes like nothing. There’s a hit of citric acid and…that’s it, despite such a long ingredients list. It’s definitely zingy, but it’s lemonless (totally a word).

We think this is an utterly pointless flavour. We only carried on drinking it to try to figure out what to say about it, but there was nothing but that acid, and after a while, we really didn’t like the physical feeling of drinking that.

We can’t imagine this being very nice iced, either. There are far better lemon options on the market.

Best time of year to drink this: Summer, in theory – but we wouldn’t bother

Best time of day to drink this: Daytime

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Flavour: Moroccan Pomegranate

Ingredients: Rooibos, hibiscus, natural pomegranate flavour with other natural flavours and pomegranates

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: This is a bit of a ‘meh’ one for us. It smells strangely medicinal, on top of rooibos and a kind of smoky hibiscus aroma.

The taste is…rooibos with a hint of hibiscus, just as you would expect from that ingredients list. It’s quite pleasant – not as tart as your standard hibiscus blent, but not as strong on the rooibos either, so if you’re looking for a black tea alternative with a hint of flavour, this is a decent one, and it doesn’t taste artificial at all.

Ultimately, though, we found it a bit generic. We were happy to drink it, but we wouldn’t go out of our way to buy this one. We can definitely see some people liking it, though. Just don’t expect pomegranate. We couldn’t taste any in there, which was disappointing.

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn

Best time of day to drink this: Evening, when you need soothing and relaxing

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Flavour: Mint Magic

Ingredients: Spearmint, peppermint, roasted chicory, cinnamon and orange peel

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Review: This is a really exciting one. We’ve tried so many standard mint teas, but this one brings something new to the mix.

It smells like Extra mint gum. It’s quite a pleasant aroma that instantly opens up your nose, with a spicy hint from the cinnamon. it’s fresh and warm at the same time.

The taste is surprisingly more cinnamon than mint, although the spearmint is there in the background (likely enhanced by the peppermint). It wakes you up while being soothing at the same time. It’s also slightly sweet, but not in the too-sweet way that liquorice can be. You can’t really taste the orange peel or chicory independently, but they definitely add depth to the blend.

There is a plethora of mint teas on the market and this makes a fantastic variant on the staple. It’s a great one to have in the morning (to give you a little wake-up kick) or in the evening (to help you wind down after a long day), any time of year. It should also be good if you feel a bit unwell or have a cold, and it’s a good digestive after a meal – highly recommended!

Best time of year to drink this: All year round

Best time of day to drink this: Any time of day

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