What Has Celestial Seasonings Been Up To?! Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender Tea Underwhelms!

The Good: Good ingredients, Good aroma, Affordable
The Bad: Decaffeinated, Lack of flavor
The Basics: Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender tea has more scent than it does flavor, which is a big disappointment for fans of Celestial Seasonings teas.


It has been quite a while since I last reviewed a Celestial Seasonings tea. At one point, I have reviewed virtually the entire line of Celestial Seasonings teas and it is a brand I have long enjoyed. In my absence from reviewing Celestial Seasonings teas, Celestial Seasonings came out with an entirely new imprint, Celestial Organics. The first Celestial Organics tea I have tried is Chamomile & Lavender organic herbal tea.

Unfortunately, the Chamomile & Lavender Celestial Organics tea is a disappointment for those who love the very flavorful teas that Celestial Seasonings usually produces.

Basics

Chamomile & Lavender is a tea from Celestial Seasonings. It is a 100% organic herbal tea that is naturally decaffeinated and made entirely of organic herbs. Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender 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 four bags and leave them connected. A box of Chamomile & Lavender comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Chamomile & Lavender is marketed as a flavorful herbal tea and it falls short on that account; it is a comparatively weak tea that poorly represents the promised lavender flavor.

Ease Of Preparation

Chamomile & Lavender is an herbal tea, which means preparation is as easy as boiling a pot of water! This organic herbal tea requires boiling water. 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 tea. These bags are one-use only. I tend to make my tea using four tea bags in 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 Chamomile & Lavender, simply boil up some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take four minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with boiling water, the tea is ready at the five minute mark and letting it steep longer does not truly change the results.

Taste

Chamomile & Lavender is very aromatic. The scent is strongly of chamomile, which was surprising to me because lavender is usually such a powerful scent. The scent is more recognizable the aroma of chamomile with a bare hint of lavender to the aromatic palate.

Unfortunately, Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender tea is entirely underwhelming on the flavor front. The lavender flavor asserts itself as a dry, spiced flavor, but it competes against the weak, ricewater flavor of chamomile . . . an loses! The chamomile flavor ends up being the dominant one and the lavender is executed more as a secondary flavor that is sublimated far into the back of the flavor palate. The spicy hints from the lavender fade as the tea cools and the chamomile flavor asserts itself even stronger.

This tea is not much of a thirst quencher, though it does not have a noticeable aftertaste to it.

Nutrition

As the name suggests, the Chamomile & Lavender tea is comprised entirely of organic chamomile and organic lavender. Chamomile & Lavender tea is all natural, gluten free, and does contain not caffeine, but is (oddly) not marked as Kosher.

Chamomile & Lavender contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates or protein. Unless one adds sugar, there is nothing of nutritional value or detraction in it.

Storage/Clean-up

Chamomile & Lavender is an organic herbal 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!

Chamomile & Lavender 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. Because the boxes of Chamomile & Lavender come wrapped in plastic, they will last well over a year. My box, bought last month had an expiration date of November 11, 2017.

Overall

Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender tea is far too mild to be enticing to those who love anything other than a basic chamomile tea.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Jammin' Lemon Ginger
Sweet Harvest Pumpkin
Tension Tamer

3/10

For other drink reviews, be sure to visit my Food & Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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