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Flavour: Herbal Chai

Ingredients: Apple pieces, chamomile flowers, cinnamon, nettle leaves, ginger, star anise, cardamom, cloves, flavouring

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £8 for 100g

Review: It smells as expected – mainly of cloves. The taste is natural, despite the addition of flavouring. It’s your typical chai, but without the bitterness because there’s no black tea. It’s actually impressive that they manage to recreate that flavour without the tea. It’s very clove-y, but it doesn’t overpower and numb your mouth. The star anise makes it slightly sweet, so we would have this as a dessert tea. Very pleasant.

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn / winter

Best time of day to drink this: Afternoon / evening / after a meal

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Flavour: Cocoa Brownie

Ingredients: Lemongrass, lemonbalm, nettle, cacao peels, cacao nips, basil, valerian, St John’s wort, lavender, star anise, passionflower herb, natural flavouring, hop petals

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: All organic except the natural flavouring

Price Range: £9.99 for 50g

Review: Such an unusual idea – chocolate infused with lemon to make a sleepytime time! With a name like Cocoa Brownie, we expected it to smell strongly of chocolate; but it’s largely lemon. That said, it’s not as strong as some of the other lemon blends we’ve tried, which usually bring to mind cleaning products. The flavour is complex, even confusing. It’s lemony but mild, with a belated cocoa taste. It doesn’t really taste of brownie, but it’s soothing and unusual – and we like unusual. It’s even a little malty at the end, which reminded us both of drinking Ovaltine as children. All in all, it’s a lovely blend to sooth you off to sleep at the end of a long day. Just don’t expect it to be very chocolatey.

Best time of year to drink this: Anytime

Best time of day to drink this: Evening / bedtime

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Flavour: Frosted Fruitcake

Ingredients: Rooibos, cinnamon, apple, ginger, natural and artificial flavouring, dates, fig, orange peel, sultanas, chicory root, liquorice root, star anise, red currants, cloves, white pepper, marigold blossoms, vanilla, rose petals, rhubarb pieces

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: Unknown

Price Range: £7.50

Cups Per Box: 40 (approx.)

Review: Yeeech! All those ingredients, and all we can smell is ‘artificial’. There’s no fruit aroma, no spice…nothing, really, but ‘flavouring’. The flavour is no better. There’s a hint of fruit (sultanas, mainly), drowned in artificial vileness. Tulsi couldn’t even think of a way to put it into words, other than ‘undrinkable’. Ginger wasn’t quite as put off by it but still didn’t see the point, when there was almost nothing there to taste. We both agreed it was dehydrating. We’re marking this one an AVOID.

Best time of year to drink this: It’s intended for Christmas-time…but no

Best time of day to drink this: Just don’t!

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Flavour: Christmas Tea

Ingredients: Rooibos, cinnamon (13%), liquorice, coriander, honeybush (6%), orange peel, cloves, black pepper, anise, dried lemon juice, star anise (3%), cardamom, roasted chicory, lime, orange oil, cinnamon oil

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £3

Bags Per Box: 17

Review: This is gorgeous. We wish we could find it all year round! It smells like herbal chai, but milder, and with a slight fruity sweetness from the orange. The flavour is soothing and warming. It’s lightly sweet but with a warm spicy after-kicky-thing…and some refreshing orange. It’s a perfect, well-balanced blend that we would have every day, if we could. We hope it comes back next winter!

Best time of year to drink this: All year round (but obviously it’s marketed for the winter)

Best time of day to drink this: Evenings – perfect for unwinding after a long day

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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: Spi Chai

Ingredients: Star anise, cardamon seeds / pods, liquorice root, cinnamon, ginger, jasmine, cloves, rose petals

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £7.50

Cups Per Box: 40 (approx.)

Review: The ingredients list leads you to believe this has all the makings of a good seasonal winter warmer.  The smell is strong and sharp, with a hint of sweetness (licorice and cinnamon) and a floral element (rose petals).  You can also really smell the cardamon.

The trouble with this blend is that, although it tastes okay, and the star anise leaves your mouth feeling pleasantly cool, the licorice and anise flavours really stand out, making this infusion a bit too sweet.

That said, it’s much softer than normal chai, so if you’re looking for something similar but without the caffeine factor of black tea, this might be a good option for you.  It all depends on your sweet tooth.  And we didn’t try this, but we wondered if maybe it would taste better with a touch of milk.  Maybe you can try it out and let us know in the comments box below.

The main factor here is the price – £7.50 a box.  It’s more cost-effective than it seems, as you can re-brew and make one teaspoon last about 3 cups, giving you up to 120 cups per box.  That said, unless you’re really keen on sweet drinks, you’ll want to take this blend in small doses, so you’ll probably have that box in your cupboard for a loooooong time.

Best time of year to drink this: Winter

Best time of day to drink this: Mornings (in place of black tea), afternoons (if you get chocolate cravings) and evenings (to warm up and relax)

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Flavour: Soothe

Ingredients: Peppermint leaf, star anise, fennel, lemongrass, sage and marigold flowers

Caffeine Factor: Caffeine-free

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £7.50

Cups Per Box: 40 (approx.)

Review: The smell of this infusion is very planty.  We know, we know – it’s herbal tea.  You’d hope it smells of plants.  But the scent is strong in this one, probably because of the inclusion of sage.  Yet strangely, this is mixed with the artificial smell you always get from lemongrass, despite it being a real plant.  After a while, the combination is a bit odd and unappetising.

And it tastes just like it smells – strongly herbal, with a synthetic lemon undercurrent, and a hint of minty coolness.  We can see this being good for the stomach, after a heavy  meal, or a nice one to have if you feel a bit unwell in the colder months of the year.  And true to its name, this infusion is quite soothing – but only in small doses.  Anything more and it all gets a bit much.

All in all, this blend does what it says, and it’s not unpleasant, but it’s not what we would call moreish.  For that reason, we wouldn’t recommend buying a whole box of it.  You’d be drinking it for months, and we expect that by the time you got to the end of your supply, you’d never want to drink it again.

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn / Winter when you feel a bit run down

Best time of day to drink this: Morning or evening, if you feel poorly – afternoon, if you need a digestive aid

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Flavour: Star Anise & Cinnamon

Description: ‘A velvety swirl of organic star anise, cinnamon and ginger.’

Ingredients: Cinnamon bark (40%), ginger root (20%), licorice root, Sencha green tea, star anise (8%), cardamom pod

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: 100%

Price Range: £2-3

Bags Per Box: 20

Our Review: As you wait for this tea to brew, a strong cinnamon aroma floats up and hits you hard.  But that’s okay; we like cinnamon.  The taste is quite nice, too – not nearly as strong as we expected it.  Gentle, even.

We worried about the licorice, but it isn’t overpowering.  Overall, it’s a good balance of flavours with no overriding taste.  The mild sweetness of the licorice and cinnamon balance out the natural bitterness of the green tea; but equally, the green tea cuts and tempers the sweetness.  There’s also a mild kick from the cinnamon, right at the back of the throat, but it’s nothing too intense.

We quite like this one, and recommend it for adding a hint of spice to your day.  It could be a good substitute for sweets, too, when you get those afternoon cravings.

Best time of year to drink this: Autumn / winter (the spices make it quite warm and Christmasy)

Best time of day to drink this: Mornings (the caffeine will perk you up for the day) and in those stretches before lunch and dinner, when you’re trying to avoid the biscuits

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Flavour: Spicy Anise

Ingredients: Black tea, ginger pieces, cloves, star anise, with ginger, mint and anise flavours

Caffeine Factor: Caffeinated

Organic Ingredients: None

Price Range: £4

Bags Per Box: 50

Review: As we have grown to expect from the English Tea Shop, this smells simply AWFUL.  It is one of the most artificial blends we have ever come across – even in taste.  It’s like having black tea, but with heaps of chemically produced flavours thrown into the mix.

We can’t even figure out why; you can’t taste any other ingredients aside from faint fake mint flavouring.  You are far, far better off just drinking normal black tea.  It has to be better for your health, too.  We don’t know what they were attempting, with this one: chai, maybe?  Whatever it was, they failed.

You have to wonder what goes on in that factory.  They must hire people to taste-test these things.  Do they honestly say, ‘Yeah, this is great!’?  And how do they stay in business?  WHO IS BUYING THIS STUFF?

Best time of year to drink this: NEVER

Best time of day to drink this: Never

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