Overwhelmed By The Green Tea, "Raspberry Gardens" Disappoints.

The Good: Caffeinated, Good ingredients
The Bad: Does not taste like raspberries.
The Basics: Utterly disappointing for its completely bland taste, which is almost completely devoid of raspberry flavor, Raspberry Gardens green tea fails.


As I discover new-to-me Celestial Seasonings as part of Celestial Seasonings new repackaging overhaul, I find myself encountering new teas that have some apparent resemblance to old teas I have enjoyed. Before I tasted it, I had a concern that Celestial Seasonings' "Raspberry Gardens" Green Tea was essentially going to be a redux of Raspberry Zinger (reviewed here!). Fortunately, and unfortunately, Raspberry Gardens is not.

Indeed, Raspberry Gardens is a far cry from Raspberry Zinger and out of all of the new flavors of Celestial Seasonings teas I have recently tried, this one is the most disappointing. Overwhelmed by the green tea flavor - quite a feat considering green teas often have a more subtle flavor - Raspberry Gardens is barely raspberry flavored. It is easy to leave this one behind.


Basics

Raspberry Gardens is a tea from Celestial Seasonings. It is a 100% natural green tea that is caffeinated and made to embody the flavor of raspberries. Raspberry Gardens comes in Celestial Seasoning's standard stringless tea bags, which are paired together with easy to separate perforations that allow one to separate the tea bags. When I make pots of tea, I tend to use two bags and leave them connected. A box of Raspberry Gardens comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Raspberry Gardens is marketed as a raspberry-flavored tea and it falls well short of that. The flavor of raspberries, which is easily recognizable to me as I have a raspberry patch on the side of my property, is very faint in this tea. The flavor is of raspberries is sublimated to the flavor of the green tea leaves.


Ease Of Preparation

Raspberry Gardens is a green tea, which means preparation is as easy as almost boiling a pot of water! Green teas, as the directions clearly state, require water that is not quite boiling. Boiling water cooks the tea leaves and ruins the flavor, so water used for green teas like this one must be kept below a full boil. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea, though reusing the tea bags yields little more than hot water. These tea bags cannot be reused and even credibly call the result "tea." Indeed, the second pots I've tried were incredibly weak, tasting only like the remnants of green tea. These bags are one-use only. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though it is impossible to get a decent second pot out of the bags.

To prepare Raspberry Gardens, simply heat up some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take three to five minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with almost boiling water, the tea is ready at the five minute mark and letting it steep longer does not truly change the results. Letting the tea steep more than six minutes does not net any additional flavor, nor does it denature the flavor of the tea.


Taste

Raspberry Gardens, on its own, does not taste even vaguely like raspberries. The green tea flavor easily overwhelms it. Sadly, it is not even vaguely fruity. It is not sour like real raspberries, it is not fruity or delicious, it is dry and bland. Many people complain that Celestial Seasonings teas are more like hot fruit drinks than teas; Raspberry Gardens is very much the opposite of that. There is almost no fruit flavor to this very tea-flavored tea.

Raspberry Gardens does have a minimal aftertaste to it that is a tiny bit sour and quite dry. The dry mouth aftertaste is emblematic of most green teas in my experience and Raspberry Gardens is no better or worse in that regard.

With sugar, Raspberry Gardens becomes sweet without enhancing any sense of its fruit flavor. It is, however, remarkably easy to overwhelm the tea with sugar and I recommend no more than a teaspoon (not a heaping one) be added to cut any lingering sourness from the taste and aftertaste. With sugar, it is sweet green tea, but it lacks more flavor than that and anyone looking for a fruity flavored drink will be disappointed by this on the taste front.

Iced, Raspberry Gardens is an equally unremarkable tea. The green tea flavor dominates and when sugar is added to the tea cold, it only accents the green tea nature more. It is good, but cold, it still does not evoke the flavor of raspberries.


Nutrition

It is utterly unsurprising that the green tea flavor crushes the raspberry flavor of Raspberry Gardens, considering that the primary ingredients are: green tea, hibiscus and blackberry leaves. Actual raspberries are the final ingredient, below chickory even! Raspberry Gardens tea is all natural, gluten free, and does contain caffeine. The brand new packaging does not include a caffeine meter to define clearly how much caffeine is in this, but it does not seem like it is sufficient to keep one awake, especially when driving at night.

Were it not for the sugar I add whenever I make pots of Raspberry Gardens, this tea would be devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates or protein.


Storage/Clean-up

Raspberry Gardens is a green tea, so it comes out much lighter than other teas. As a result, cleanup is rather simple. The mugs and steeping pot easily rinse out. One supposes this tea will stain if it is left on fabrics, so simply do not let the tea cups or mugs linger on light colored materials that might stain!

Raspberry Gardens is easy to clean up after - the tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. One of the nice things about this tea - like most - is that so long as it is kept cool and dry, it can last for a long time and it is easy to clean up.

Overall

Bland and flavored anything but raspberry flavored, Raspberry Gardens is a disappointing tea that leaves the drinker unsatisfied. It is hard to see why - with Celestial Seasonings rebooting - this one is still on the shelves.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Fruit Sampler
Victorian Earl Grey
Blueberry Breeze

3/10

For other food or drink reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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