Accurate To The Promised Flavors: Celestial Seasonings Watermelon Lime Zinger Tea!

The Good: Tastes exactly like what it is supposed to! Easy to prepare, Inexpensive
The Bad: Caffeine Free
The Basics: Celestial Seasonings executes perfectly its promised flavors with the Watermelon Lime Zinger, but it is still a tough sell for me!


I have it on good authority from the person who knows me best, that I am a tough person to please. Sometimes something can be done entirely right and if I don't like it, I end up panning it. She's right, of course, and there is something inherently unfair about that. If one sets out to make a gross-tasting jelly bean and one makes something that makes the consumer gag, then it is hard not to call that a rousing success. One of my issues in the past has always been, "it doesn't matter how good the terrible flavor is; I don't want to eat it." As a little sign of growth, I have been trying to evolve my reviewing to reflect both my high standards and my opinions. My reviews have evolved before - I recently started double-rating my trading card reviews so the objective quality of the set is given one rating and then another rating that factors in the collectibility of the set. And from the very beginning, I have noted media works that are exceptionally well-made, but that I would never watch a second time. Tonight, I extend that same flexibility to my food reviews. The food that made me reconsider how I rate food reviews was the Celestial Seasonings Watermelon Lime Zinger tea.

Watermelon Lime Zinger does an exceptional job of embodying both the flavor of watermelon and that of limes, making for a pretty perfect herbal tea . . . but I don't want to drink another cup of it.

Basics

Watermelon Lime Zinger is a hibiscus tea from Celestial Seasonings. It is a 100% natural herb tea that has no caffeine because all of the all natural herbs in it are naturally devoid of caffeine. Watermelon Lime Zinger 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 Watermelon Lime Zinger comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Watermelon Lime Zinger is marketed as a Watermelon Lime flavored tea and it is entirely accurate to both of those flavors.

Ease Of Preparation

Watermelon Lime Zinger is a tea, which means preparation is as easy as boiling a pot of 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." 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. My attempts found the second pot yielded a broth that was - at best 3/8 as strong as the original pot.

To prepare Watermelon Lime Zinger, simply boil some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take four to six minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with truly boiling water, the tea is ready at the four minute mark and letting it steep longer strangely does not 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.

When visiting the Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder, Colorado and taking the free tour there, I remember distinctly the tour guide warning us all that with the Zinger teas milk cannot be added. If you add milk to a Zinger tea, the tea curdles the milk.

Taste

Watermelon Lime Zinger smells strongly of the promised watermelon. The scent of watermelon is distinct and realistic, exactly like one might expect of watermelons, warm in the field. The strength of the aroma of this tea makes it very inviting for anyone who actually likes watermelon.

In the mouth, the Watermelon Lime Zinger is sweet and watery, like one expects of a watermelon. Just as the flavor reaches its peak, though, the sourness of the lime kicks in. The citrus sour of the lime cuts the initial sweetness and overwhelms any vague, watery flavor of the watermelon, finishing the experience on a sour note that is appropriately reminiscent of limes.

The Watermelon Lime Zinger leaves a slightly sour aftertaste in the mouth for about five minutes after the last of it is consumed.

Nutrition

It's surprising that the dominant flavors of Watermelon Lime Zinger are watermelon and lime, considering that the primary ingredients are: hibiscus, rosehips and orange hips before the natural watermelon and lime flavors. While there are no watermelons or limes, real fruit is represented in the tea by the orange peels and blackberry leaves! Watermelon Lime Zinger tea is 100% natural and it is caffeine-free.

Were it not for sweeteners I add sometimes when I make pots of Watermelon Lime Zinger, this tea would be devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates or protein.

Storage/Clean-up

Watermelon Lime Zinger 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. The tea is fairly light, even at full strength, but it would probably stain, if one left it on fabric for a long time. Mugs that hold the tea rinse clean. Spills ought to be cleaned up quickly to prevent this tea from staining fabrics, though that's a pretty good general rule not just limited to the Watermelon Lime Zinger tea.

Overall

Watermelon Lime Zinger is objectively amazing. Celestial Seasonings gets the promised flavors perfectly right, but the flavors are not incredible and the sourness of the lime in this hot, fruity beverage quickly overwhelms the more mild flavor of the watermelon. The result is a drink that is well-made for what it promises, but is not enjoyable to drink.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please check out my takes on:
Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom Tea
The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate
Lemon Zinger

9/10 (NOT RECOMMENDED)

For other tea reviews, please visit my index page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Properly Prepared, Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom Tea Underwhelms!

The Good: Good ingredients, Good aroma, Affordable, Does not taste bad
The Bad: Caffeine free, Very dry flavor
The Basics: Despite wonderful ingredients, Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom tea is an underwhelming tea that is weak and dry!


When I used to write for a review website, one of my staple reviews were for Celestial Seasonings teas. I became such a fan of Celestial Seasonings that every year on my annual trip to Las Vegas, I would stop at the Celestial Seasonings factory in Colorado to get the newest teas first. It has been years since I could afford to go to Vegas, but I am finally getting back to Celestial Seasonings tea reviews with some regularity. Unfortunately, some of the newer Celestial Seasonings teas - especially the Celestial Organics teas - are far less impressive than the classic teas that built the company.

Cinnamon & Cardamom Celestial Organics tea is one of those unimpressive teas that seems to trade more on the quality of the ingredients than actual flavor.

Basics

Cinnamon & Cardamom is a tea from Celestial Seasonings. It is a 100% organic "tea" (there are no actual tea leaves in it!) that is caffeine-free and made entirely of organic spices. Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom 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 Cinnamon & Cardamom comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Cinnamon & Cardamom is marketed as a flavorful herbal tea and it falls dramatically short on that account; this is a very dry tea, though it lacks much in the way of flavor beyond the dryness and a vague cinnamon flavor.

Ease Of Preparation

Cinnamon & Cardamom 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 with four tea bags, the Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom tea still comes out unfortunately weak on the flavor front - though it does not taste watery at all.

To prepare Cinnamon & Cardamom, 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 actually takes six minutes to reach its full flavor potential.

Taste

Cinnamon & Cardamom tea smells strongly of cinnamon, which makes perfect sense. The scent is distinct and strong and has a slight underscent to it that implies something sweet, much like cinnamon candies.

On the tongue, Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom tea is very dry. The flavor is spicy, but subtle. Interestingly, the Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom tea is dry and tastes not at all watery, though it is not very rich or distinctive. This tea tastes very much like a pot of Bengal Spice tea (reviewed here!) that utilizes the tea bags a second time; it is like the aftertaste of a spicy tea.

The dryness of the Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom makes it very hard to enjoy or consider as a satisfying beverage. The aftertaste of the Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom tea is dry and strong enough that one is likely to need a drink after consuming it!

Nutrition

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

Cinnamon & Cardamom 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

Cinnamon & Cardamom 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!

Cinnamon & Cardamom 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 Cinnamon & Cardamom come wrapped in plastic, they will last well over a year. My box, bought last month had an expiration date of November 10, 2017.

Overall

Celestial Organics Cinnamon & Cardamom tea is mediocre at best and even when made stronger than the directions recommend, the tea tastes more dry than actually flavorful.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender tea
Sleepytime Sinus Soother
Powerfully Plum

4.5/10

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

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate Satisfies On All Fronts!

The Good: Tastes good, Nothing bad in it, Easy to prepare
The Bad: No real nutrional benefits
The Basics: Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate is a truly flavorful beverage that spices up milk in the most delightful way!


It is hard not to love well-executed beverages. Celestial Seasonings has long been a favorite brand of mine and when my wife found us the Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate, my only real question to her was "what is The Godfather?!" The Godfather is the name for the Celestial Lattes concentrate with flavors of chai tea, espresso and cocoa. The concentrate is added to milk and the impressive aspect of it is that it manages to present all three of the promised flavors. The coffee flavor is strong, the cocoa flavor is suprisingly true and the chai tea spices up the beverage in a truly delightful way.

Basics

Celestial Lattes is a new offshoot of Celestial Seasonings. The well-established company is branching out from teas into what is essentially a prepared beverage. The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate does not require refrigeration because it is not actually dairy, until it is opened! Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate comes in a 32 fl. oz. cardboard carton that is smooth and very portable. The juicebox-style carton is filled with the opaque dark brown liquid, reminiscent of cold coffee, which is The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate itself.

The 32 fl. oz. bottle is intended to give consumers a full four one-cup servings and it delivers that consistently.

Ease Of Preparation

Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate is a liquid in the 32 fl. oz. bottle and it requires an equal amount of milk to make the drinkable beverage. Preparation is still fairly easy. One measures out 1/2 cup of the Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate and 1/2 cup of milk. Simply pour together into a single glass that is more than a full cup worth of liquid measure. The Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate has a screw-top lid to the carton and it is resealable after each use.

Taste

Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate smells like chai and cinnamon; spicy and inviting for anyone who loves flavorful beverages.

When properly made up, the Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate tastes like chocolate and chai. The Godfather finishes with a chai and coffee blend that is not at all bitter. The combination of chocolate, coffee and chai is sweet and dry and very flavorful. The milk component seems to only eliminate any potential of bitterness to it.

The aftertaste from the The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate beverage is fairly dry, but it dissipates within two minutes of consuming the beverage.

Nutrition

As a healthy dairy beverage (when reconstituted with milk), Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate is flavorful, more than it is nutritious! Nutritionally, Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate is a poor option for those who are dieting or are trying to improve their health. The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate is primarily composed of filtered water, cane sugar and brewed black tea. It contains nothing bad and is Gluten-Free.

This drink is not incredibly nutritious, though it is not unhealthy. One serving of The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate has 120 calories (when made with 2% milk), 20 of which come from the fat. While there are 15 grams of carbohydrates, the beverage has no cholesterol nor protein! Surprisingly, there are only 20 mg (1% RDA) of sodium in each serving. A single serving has trace amounts of Calcium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C.

Storage/Clean-up

Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate comes in a cardboard carton and it keeps for a few months. The carton I purchased last week had an expiration date of April 12, 2017. This beverage must be refrigerated after it is opened and used within ten days of being opened, but otherwise does not require refrigeration!

This drink is a nondairy product and dark because of the chocolate and coffee in it. If this gets on clothes, it will certainly stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect light clothes would need bleach to get this out. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.

Overall

Celestial Lattes The Godfather Black Tea Concentrate tastes great, is loaded with a good number of nutrients and is well worth the money to pick up, even if the carton is poorly designed to get to the good stuff inside!

For other Celestial Seasonings beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Celestial Organics Chamomile & Lavender tea
Sugar Plum Spice Tea
Sleepytime Green Lemon Jasmine

8/10

For other food reviews, please visit my Food And Drink Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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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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Celestial Seasonings Finally Tackles Ginger With Its Palatable Jammin’ Lemon Ginger Tea!

The Good: Decent ginger flavor, Good environmental impact, Aftertaste is not unpleasant.
The Bad: Caffeine Free, Not strongly lemon at all.
The Basics: Jammin’ Lemon Ginger nails the ginger flavor at the expense of a rich lemon taste . . . which is not enough to sink their new herbal tea!


These days, it seems I only get around to reviewing Celestial Seasonings teas when they have a new or limited edition flavor on the market! Celestial Seasonings teas were one of the first brands I truly delved into to review. It helped that I had had some positive experiences with the brand and truly enjoyed visiting the Celestial Seasonings factory in Boulder, Colorado (the tour experience is reviewed here!). So, I was quite happy when my local grocery store started carrying Jammin’ Lemon Ginger tea by Celestial Seasonings. In addition to having something new to try, I had something new to review!

The new herbal tea was (mostly) worth the wait. While I enjoyed the tea for its dry ginger flavor, Jammin’ Lemon Ginger is unlikely to satisfy those who truly love fruit teas as the lemon flavor is understated relative to the ginger flavor of the tea.

Basics

Jammin’ Lemon Ginger is a tea from Celestial Seasonings. It is a 100% natural herb tea that has no caffeine because all of the all natural herbs in it are naturally devoid of caffeine. Jammin’ Lemon Ginger 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 Jammin’ Lemon Ginger comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Jammin’ Lemon Ginger is marketed as a lemon flavored tea, but for those looking for lemon, Lemon Zinger (reviewed here!) might be a better choice; this is dominated by the ginger in it!

Ease Of Preparation

Jammin’ Lemon Ginger is a tea, which means preparation is as easy as boiling a pot of 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." 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. My attempts found the second pot yielded a fluid that was - at best - 3/8 as strong as the original pot.

To prepare Jammin’ Lemon Ginger, simply boil some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take four to six minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with truly boiling water, the tea is ready at the four minute mark and letting it steep longer strangely does not 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

Jammin’ Lemon Ginger is an aromatic tea. It smells faintly of citrus and strongly of ginger. The earthy, substantial scent is familiar and strong enough to open the airways with just the steam! That makes this a great tea for those who are just a little stuffed up and looking for relief.

On the tongue, Jammin’ Lemon Ginger has a dry, forceful flavor that is indicative of ginger. It has a slight sharpness to the flavor that insinuates cloves, especially as the tea cools. The mildly bitter tea is not at all unpleasant, but the lemon flavor to the tea deserves the credit for that. Between the dry/bitter of the distinctive ginger flavor and the slight dryness of the final flavor of the Jammin’ Lemon Ginger tea, there is a slightly tart, vaguely lemon flavor that washes over the tongue. It’s like the lemon flavor is working so hard to cut the brutal ginger taste and make it palatable that it cannot assert itself enough to be a fully realized flavor.

With a teaspoon of sugar, the lemon flavor comes to the surface faster, though it does not overwhelm the ginger flavor. Either way, the Jammin’ Lemon Ginger tea leaves the consumer with a slightly dry aftertaste in the mouth, though not one so strong that one feels the need to instantly drink something more.

Nutrition

It's unsurprising that the dominant flavor of Jammin’ Lemon Ginger is ginger, considering that the primary ingredients are: ginger, lemongrass, and lemon verbena. Jammin’ Lemon Ginger tea is 100% natural and it is caffeine-free.

Were it not for the sugar I add occasionally when I make pots of Jammin’ Lemon Ginger (I tend to enjoy this tea for its strong ginger flavor, so I don’t usually add any sugar to it!), this tea would be devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates or protein.

Storage/Clean-up

Jammin’ Lemon Ginger 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. The tea is fairly light, even at full strength, but it would probably stain, if one left it on fabric for a long time, but mugs that hold the tea rinse clean. Spills ought to be cleaned up quickly to prevent this tea from staining fabrics, though that's a pretty good general rule not just limited to the Jammin’ Lemon Ginger tea.

Overall

Jammin’ Lemon Ginger was a pleasant surprise. It was only after enjoying it that I truly realized that Celestial Seasonings had not created a memorable ginger tea before now. My hope is that, despite the issues with it not being terribly lemon flavored, Celestial Seasonings keeps Jammin’ Lemon Ginger in their new rotation; it is certainly worth it!

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Natural Antioxidant Green Tea with White Tea for Smooth Taste
Sugar Plum Spice
Sweet Harvest Pumpkin

6/10

For other tea reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Exceptionally Fruit Scented, Mildly Fruit Flavored, Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Peach Is Fair.

The Good: Nothing bad in it, Good aroma
The Bad: Doesn't taste exceptionally fruity.
The Basics: An only vaguely fruity tea, the Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Peach does not truly live up to its name.


In recent years, probably through the intervention of my wife, I have come to enjoy Celestial Seasonings' Sleepytime tea (reviewed here!) a bit more. However, I have found it disappointing how the company continues to use the Sleepytime name to sell new teas, even when they are not making a tea that tastes much like Sleepytime. Such is the case with Sleepytime Peach.

Sleepytime Peach is a fair tea, but given how amazingly fruity so many Celestial Seasonings are, it is ultimately unimpressive. There have to be at least a dozen teas that taste more like peach than Sleepytime Peach. Fortunately for Celestial Seasonings, most of them are from that company!

Basics

Sleepytime Peach is an all-natural Herbal Tea from Celestial Seasonings. This is an herbal tea and as a result is caffeine free - none of the ingredients in it had caffeine to begin with so it did not undergo any chemical process to remove them. Chamomile is a wildflower and its use as a tea is interesting, but yields a tea reminiscent of dandelion juice. Sleepytime Peach beefs up the usual chamomile flavor, but then the addition of Peach flavoring seems to undermine the spicing of the traditional Sleepytime.

Sleepytime Peach 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 Sleepytime Peach tea comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

Sleepytime Peach is a very standard tea; it is your basic herbal tea when it comes to preparation. Like many other Celestial Seasonings teas, there are no tea leaves listed in the ingredients, so this herbal tea flower-based. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second, rather weak cup of Sleepytime Peach tea. The second cup often comes out afar weaker than the first, which is a serious detraction given how weak it is to begin with. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though a second pot with the same bags will come out about 1/4 - 3/8 strength. In other words, this is a terrible tea for the teabag miser!

To prepare Sleepytime tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags, in a pot or mug. This tea takes four to six minutes to steep according to the directions and if the water is truly boiling, I've found it can use the entire six minutes. Like most chamomile-based teas, this is a tea that I can never make strong enough. After six minutes, the flavor does not seem to get any stronger so there is no benefit to letting it steep longer than that. Sleepytime Peach never gets "too strong."
Taste

Sleepytime is Celestial Seasonings flagship tea and Sleepytime Peach seems to be attempting to capitalize on the name association without people considering what the base tea was. This tea smells strongly of peach and little else.

Unfortunately, the scent is not particularly indicative of the flavor of the Sleepytime Peach. This tea tastes like rice water, like most chamomile-based teas. At least the Sleepytime Peach does not have a dry flavor to break the ricewater primary flavor. Instead, it is cut with a vaguely fruity flavor. The aftertaste is strongly peach, but the primary fruit flavor is much more vague than that. The flavor is not bad, but it has no recognizable or strong peach flavor.

Honey or sugar bring out the fruit flavor, though it does not make it taste more like peach. Regardless, this tea does not have any hint of citrus sourness to it. Cold, the tea is just bland, though it is not bad or sour at all. Neither, unfortunately, is it peach flavored.

Nutrition

Like what one might expect from a tea that smells and tastes like rice water, this tea is pretty low on the scale of nutritional value. That's not to say it is bad for the drinker, it just does not have much to recommend it. This tea is primarily made of: Chamomile, lemongrass, and spearmint. It surprised me to read there was mint in this tea, as it does not have even a hint of that in the taste. It was also unsurprising how little the tea carries a peach flavor given that there is no actual peach in the tea, just peach flavoring as the fifth ingredient. There is nothing unpronouncable in this tea and it is noted as being gluten free (for whom that matters). It is also kosher.

In terms of nutrition, Sleepytime Peach is another tea in a long line of teas that contribute nothing but hydration to the body. There is no nutritional benefit or detriment to this tea. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar or milk), no fat, sodium, or protein and no caffeine. This is more a flavored water than a tea!

Storage/Clean-up

Sleepytime Peach tea is very 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. The tea itself is still very light like a Chamomile, but it washes out of most fabrics easily. As well, it does not leave any residual flavor in one's teapot or mug.

Overall

Sleepytime Peach might be new from Celestial Seasonings, but it is hard to bet on Celestial Seasonings keeping it around on their permanent roster given how little it actually tastes like peach.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please check out:
Natural Antioxidant Green Tea with White Tea
Sugar Plum Spice tea
Celestial Seasonings Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea

5/10

For other food or drink reviews, please visit my Food Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Great Healthy, Staple, Green Tea, Celestial Seasonings Natural Antioxidant Green Tea Is All Right.

The Good: Caffeinated, Good ingredients, Very healthy, No aftertaste
The Bad: Very bland and basic taste
The Basics: Celestial Seasonings has a good, but in no way superlative, tea with its Natural Antioxidant Green Tea!


Green tea drinkers, it seems, do not care all that much about flavors. At least, that seems to be the logical conclusion one might draw from the marketing and development strategy from Celestial Seasonings. Celestial Seasonings has a decent green tea line, but most of their green teas are not new or interesting flavors, they are simply even healthier variations on their original green tea. Enter Natural Antioxidant Green Tea, a green tea that is marketed on the power of antioxidants and the infusion of white tea to give it a “smooth taste” (which, as near as I can tell is no dry aftertaste!).

Basics

Natural Antioxidant Green Tea is a tea from Celestial Seasonings. It is a green tea that is caffeinated and made of green and white tea leaves and flavored with additional flavors. This means that instead of letting the leaves dry or harvesting them after their prime, the leaves are plucked at the peak of growth. Natural Antioxidant Green Tea 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 Natural Antioxidant Green Tea comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Natural Antioxidant Green Tea is marketed as a tea-flavored tea and it is adequate in that regard. If one wants something that is flavored like tea leaves this will fit the bill. It does not do much more than that, though the lack of a green tea dry aftertaste is a nice change for the line.

Ease Of Preparation

Natural Antioxidant Green Tea 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 Natural Antioxidant Green Tea, 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 two minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with almost boiling water, the tea is ready at the two minute mark and letting it steep longer does not truly change the results. Letting the tea steep more than three minutes does not net any additional flavor, nor does it denature the flavor of the tea.

Taste

Natural Antioxidant Green Tea smells like a very basic, standard tea with a hint of lemon in its aroma. The minimal hint of lemon is an inviting change from the standard tea scent that many green teas possess.

As for the flavor, Natural Antioxidant Green Tea is a light tea-flavored tea. There is nothing distinctive about the flavor, save a bare hint of sourness and citrus in the “middle” taste. The initial flavor is tea, followed by a very faint lemon tartness, then a watery finish that is surprisingly thirst quenching. This might be the only green tea I can recall having no dry or sour aftertaste once the tea flavor dissipated!

With sugar, Natural Antioxidant Green Tea becomes sweet without enhancing any sense of its flavor. Sugar makes it blandly sweet and sugary, drowning out the tea flavor. Milk, even, overwhelms the tea flavor of the Natural Antioxidant Green Tea. It's sadly bland when a tea will be overwhelmed by the flavor of milk, rather than having any other flavor within the tea brought out by the addition of that.

Nutrition

It is utterly unsurprising that the green tea flavor dominates Natural Antioxidant Green Tea as the main ingredients are Green Tea, white tea, and natural lemon and orange flavors. Natural Antioxidant Green Tea is gluten free, kosher, and does contain caffeine (though there is no caffeine meter on the box to indicate how much caffeine there is in this!).

Were it not for the sugar I add whenever I make pots of Natural Antioxidant Green Tea, this tea would be devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates or protein. The front of the box claims the beverage is an excellent source of vitamins A and C and it is; this drink has 20% of the RDA of Vitamin A and 100% of one’s Vitamin C.

Storage/Clean-up

Natural Antioxidant Green Tea 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!

Natural Antioxidant Green Tea 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. The box we bought last month had an October 8, 2014 expiration date, so properly stored, this can be a good, healthy tea now and in the future!

Overall

For those who like green tea, it's hard to go wrong with the Natural Antioxidant Green Tea. It might not be the most flavorful, but it is good and it tastes better than most green teas I have tried. The health benefits help make this a tea worth drinking, even if it is not one that will truly excite the taste buds.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Sugar Plum Spice
Sweet Harvest Pumpkin
Tummy Mint

6.5/10

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

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Celestial Seasonings Seasonal Tea Worth Hunting During (Or After) The Season: Sugar Plum Spice!

The Good: Amazing taste and scent! Easy to prepare, Good ingredients
The Bad: Caffeine free!
The Basics: An impressive seasonal tea, Celestial Seasonings’ Sugar Plum Spice is flavorful and delicious on its own!


In my extensive reviews of Celestial Seasonings teas, I was surprised when I discovered there were some classic flavors I had never gotten around to reviewing. After all, most of the seasonally-available teas are still available at the Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder, Colorado. So, that I had somehow missed the Sugar Plum Spice tea in my yearly sojourns out West, left me surprised. I rectify that oversight now.

Fortunately, Sugar Plum Spice is well worth the effort I went through to find it this holiday season! This is a delightful dessert tea that makes one wish it was available year round!

Basics

Sugar Plum Spice is a Holiday Tea from Celestial Seasonings. Sugar Plum Spice is an herbal tea, so it is a tea in name only (it does not contain any actual tea leaves). Celestial Seasonings releases this delightful flavor every year in winter, though it appears to be available year round in Boulder and on-line (HINT: Check out your supermarket's "clearance" aisle right after the holidays!). As an herbal tea, it contains no ingredients in it that are actually caffeinated. Naturally caffeine free, the Sugar Plum Spice tea is enough to awaken consumers by its taste alone, as opposed to through caffeine!

Sugar Plum Spice 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 Sugar Plum Spice comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

As an herbal tea, Sugar Plum Spice is about as easy as boiling a pot of water. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second cup of Sugar Plum Spice with little loss of flavor. Indeed, this is one of the best teas for those who like to reuse tea bags. The second cup often comes out almost as strong as the first, provided the first steeping was not over the recommended time. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though in this method, the second brewing is - at best - about 3/4 strength.

To prepare Sugar Plum Spice tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags. This tea takes only four to six minutes to steep according to the directions. In my experience, it gets mildly stronger after five minutes but there is no significant benefit to letting it steep longer than six minutes (in fact, this ends any chance of being able to reuse the bag for our miserly readers).

Taste

Sugar Plum Spice has an appropriately spicy aroma that is inviting to anyone who likes hot, flavorful beverages. The dominant scents are cinnamon and clove, with almost nothing fruity to the scent that precedes the actual drink.

Sugar Plum Spice is surprisingly fruity on the tongue. Containing little of the dry spiciness that the scent presages. Fruity and sweet, the Sugar Plum Spice has a true, plum flavor to it. As a result, it finishes slightly sour.

The tea is sweet enough on its own to not require any sugar! Also, as a pleasant surprise, the Sugar Plum Spice does not have an aftertaste to it. This is a very satisfying beverage.

Nutrition

The ingredients to this tea, are fairly simple, dominated by hibiscus, roasted chicory, and chamomile. This makes it a very healthy tea for those who worry about how their foods are processed. Sugar Plum Spice is gluten free and has no artificial colorings, flavorings or preservatives.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar, which I do not recommend), no fat, sodium, or protein.

Storage/Clean-up

Sugar Plum Spice tea is very 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. The tea itself might stain a mug a faint purple if it is left there for days on end, but otherwise may be cleaned up easily by rinsing out the vessel.

Overall

Sugar Plum Spice is a great tasting fruit and spice tea that is well worth stocking up on so one might enjoy it all year!

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Sweet Harvest Pumpkin
Tummy Mint
Sleepytime Sinus Soother

8/10

For other tea reviews, along with listings of other beverage reviews, please visit my Drink Review Index Page for an organized and complete listing!

© 2013 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A New Seasonal Tea Worth Picking Up: Celestial Seasonings Sweet Harvest Pumpkin

The Good: Caffeinated, Great flavor, No aftertaste
The Bad: Only limited availability!
The Basics: Sweet Harvest Pumpkin should be available all year round, it is so good!


Given how seasonal teas usually have limited appeal and end up overstocked at local grocery stores, I cannot recall the last time I actually picked up a Celestial Seasonings seasonal tea before it was on clearance. That tradition was broken when I spotted only a few boxes of the new Sweet Harvest Pumpkin at the grocery store. Having never had it and having never even seen it, I decided I had to try it.

It was SO worth it!

In fact, this is a tea that makes me wish Celestial Seasonings would add it to their permanent line-up!

Basics

Sweet Harvest Pumpkin is a Holiday Tea from Celestial Seasonings. Sweet Harvest Pumpkin is a black tea, so it uses pretty standard tea leaves and has a flavor most consumers will recognize as tea. Celestial Seasonings just released the flavor for this winter . As a caffeinated tea, this is not ideal for some consumers late at night, but it does make for a good morning tea. In winter it will wake one right up!

Sweet Harvest Pumpkin 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 three bags and leave them connected. A box of Sweet Harvest Pumpkin comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

As a black tea, Sweet Harvest Pumpkin is about as easy as boiling a pot of water. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second cup of Sweet Harvest Pumpkin with little loss of flavor. Indeed, this is one of the best teas for those who like to reuse tea bags. The second cup often comes out almost as strong as the first, provided the first steeping was not over the recommended time. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though in this method, the second brewing is - at best - about 3/4 strength.

To prepare Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags. This tea takes only three to five minutes to steep according to the directions. In my experience, it gets no stronger after five minutes.

Taste

Sweet Harvest Pumpkin is a delightfully sweet tea that has a strong aroma immediately evocative of autumn! With cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg dominating the scent, anyone who loves pumpkin pie will want a sip of the Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea the moment they smell it.

On the taste front, this tea is a flavor blend of black tea, ginger and pumpkin. The Sweet Harvest Pumpkin requires no sugar because it is sweet. I’m not sure how Celestial Seasonings did it, considering spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves all usually leave a terribly dry aftertaste and black tea is inherently bitter, but the Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tastes like it already has sugar in it, it is that sweet. Amazingly, Sweet Harvest Pumpkin does not taste like a Pumpkin Spice tea; it actually has a slightly creamy, very rooty flavor of actual pumpkin! I’ve not tasted anything quite like it in a tea before and it is quite extraordinary.

With a splash of milk, the Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea is like drinking a liquefied slice of pumpkin pie . . . without the crust and no dry or bitter aftertaste. This is a thoroughly satisfying, entirely thirst-quenching tea.

Nutrition

The ingredients to this tea, are all-natural and include: black tea, cinnamon, and ginger. This makes it a very healthy tea for those who worry about how their foods are processed. Sweet Harvest Pumpkin is gluten free and has no artificial colorings, flavorings or preservatives. It is also Kosher and has caffeine.

In terms of nutrition, this tea is devoid of it. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar, which I do not recommend), no fat, sodium, or protein. This tea does, however, have caffeine, but how much is a bit of a mystery (whatwith Celestial Seasonings having gotten rid of the meter they used to have on their boxes!).

Storage/Clean-up

Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea is very 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. The tea itself might stain a mug a faint brown if it is left there for days on end, but otherwise may be cleaned up easily by rinsing out the vessel. This is a very dark black tea and it will stain light fabrics if it gets on them as well.

Overall

Sweet Harvest Pumpkin tea tastes so good, that it should be a permanent addition to the Celestial Seasonings line-up. Whether or not it is, this year one has the opportunity to make some great culinary memories using it!

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Tummy Mint
Sleepytime Sinus Soother
Mandarin Orange Spice

8.5/10

For other tea reviews, along with listings of other food and beverage reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Effectively Keeping Me From Ulcers, Tummy Mint Wellness Tea Works!

The Good: Nothing bad in it, Good aroma , Keeps the stomach settled, Great taste!
The Bad: I could always use more mint flavor!
The Basics: Tummy Mint tea has helped my stomach settle and it tastes good to boot!


I’m not a huge fan of medicinal teas (in general). So, it was mostly the fact that the Tummy Mint tea from Celestial Seasonings was on clearance that I picked it up. I love mint, so I was not against the idea of a stomach-helping tea that could taste good. Given that work has sucked lately, I could use a tea (or anything else!) that will settle my stomach. Fortunately, Tummy Mint actually lived up to its promise!

Basics

Tummy Mint is an all-natural Herbal Supplement Wellness Tea from Celestial Seasonings. This wellness tea is all natural and as a result is caffeine free - none of the ingredients in it had caffeine to begin with so it did not undergo any chemical process to remove them. Peppermint and Chamomile, the primary ingredients in Tummy Mint, are herbs and wildflowers and the flavor is very minty.

Tummy Mint 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 Tummy Mint tea comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

Tummy Mint is a very standard tea; it is your basic herbal tea when it comes to preparation. Like many other Celestial Seasonings teas, there are no tea leaves listed in the ingredients, so this herbal tea flower-based. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second, rather weak cup of Tummy Mint tea. The second cup often comes out far weaker than the first. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot with four tea bags and that works well, though a second pot with the same bags will come out about 1/4 - 3/8 strength. In other words, this is a poor tea for the teabag miser!

To prepare Tummy Mint tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags, in a pot or mug. This tea takes six minutes to steep according to the directions and even if the water is truly boiling, I've found it can use the entire six minutes. Like most chamomile-based teas, this is a tea that I can never make too strong. After six minutes, the flavor does not seem to get any stronger so there is no benefit to letting it steep longer than that.

Taste

Tummy Mint smells like peppermint and ricewater. The mint scent is a little less powerful than the chamomile scent.

In the mouth, Tummy Mint is the perfect embodiment of peppermint. While there is some chamomile flavor in the tea, the menthol in the peppermint is very strong. My tongue gets a little numb from this tea when the tea is still hot!

As the tea cools, it gets even more minty, which was a pleasant surprise to me!

Nutrition

For an all-natural remedy for stomach problems, Tummy Mint has a lot to recommend it. The primary ingredients in the tea are Peppermint, Chamomile, and Fennel and that these ingredients could settle the stomach and aid in digestion is a pleasant surprise. That surprise is amplified by the fact that this tea works for what it claims to! There is nothing unpronouncable in this tea and it is noted as being gluten free (for whom that matters). It is also kosher.

In terms of nutrition, Chamomile is another tea in a long line of teas that contribute nothing but hydration to the body while helping to break up mucus and numb sinus pain. There is no nutritional benefit or detriment to this tea. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar or milk), no fat, sodium, or protein and no caffeine. It does, however, have the very real benefit of helping to aid in digestion, so that is a big plus.

Storage/Clean-up

Tummy Mint tea is very 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. The tea itself is still very light like a Chamomile, but it washes out of most fabrics easily. As well, it does not leave any residual flavor in one's teapot or mug.

Overall

Tummy Mint is actually a very decent mint tea and during one of my most stressful weeks at work, it kept my stomach settled, which was a nice change for me. This is a worthwhile mint tea, as well as a great herbal supplement!

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Sleepytime Sinus Soother
Mandarin Orange Spice
Sleepytime Green Lemon Jasmine

6.5/10

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

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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My First Medicinal Tea From Celestial Seasonings Is One That (Fortunately!) Works: Sleepytime Sinus Soother.

The Good: Nothing bad in it, Good aroma , Actually helps clear the sinuses.
The Bad: Not the most distinctive taste
The Basics: A mildly flavored tea, Sleepytime Sinus Soother actually helps relieve congestion and aid in head health!


For a long time in my reviewing of Celestial Seasonings teas, I pledged not to review the medicinal blends. The reason was simple; I felt that unless I actually needed the benefits of the medicinal teas, I could not fairly evaluate them. But, given that my wife and I have been suffering from sinus congestion the last few weeks, it seemed like the appropriate time to try Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Sinus Soother.

I'm have not reviewed much of the Sleepytime tea line, either, so the Sleepytime tag was not a huge selling point for me on the Sleepytime Sinus Soother. Even so, I have tried Sleepytime (reviewed here!) and Sleepytime Vanilla (reviewed here!) and I will say that Sleepytime Sinus Soother might well be the best of the bunch. It earns that status by being an adjective tea that does what it promises to do. In other words, Sleepytime Sinus Soother actually relieves some sinus pressure and congestion to actually help us feel better. Who knew?!

Basics

Sleepytime Sinus Soother is an all-natural Herbal Supplement Wellness Tea from Celestial Seasonings. This wellness tea is all natural and as a result is caffeine free - none of the ingredients in it had caffeine to begin with so it did not undergo any chemical process to remove them. Chamomile, the primary ingredient in Sleepytime Sinus Soother, is a wildflower and its use as a tea is interesting, but yields a tea reminiscent of dandelion juice. Sleepytime Sinus Soother beefs up the usual chamomile flavor, but overwhelms even the spicy Sleepytime herbs with a tongue-numbing sinus medicine (presumably the menthol).

Sleepytime Sinus Soother 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 Sleepytime Sinus Soother tea comes with ten pairs (20 individual) of tea bags.

Ease Of Preparation

Sleepytime Sinus Soother is a very standard tea; it is your basic herbal tea when it comes to preparation. Like many other Celestial Seasonings teas, there are no tea leaves listed in the ingredients, so this herbal tea flower-based. A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea and could be reused and make a second, rather weak cup of Sleepytime Sinus Soother tea. The second cup often comes out far weaker than the first, which is a serious detraction given how difficult the initial flavor is to describe. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot with four tea bags and that works well, though a second pot with the same bags will come out about 1/4 - 3/8 strength. In other words, this is a poor tea for the teabag miser!

To prepare Sleepytime Sinus Soother tea, bring a pot of water to a boil and pour it over the tea bags, in a pot or mug. This tea takes six minutes to steep according to the directions and even if the water is truly boiling, I've found it can use the entire six minutes. Like most chamomile-based teas, this is a tea that I can never make strong enough. After six minutes, the flavor does not seem to get any stronger so there is no benefit to letting it steep longer than that. Sleepytime Sinus Soother never gets "too strong."
Taste

Sleepytime Sinus Soother smells like a saltier version of the traditional Sleepytime chamomile tea. The scent is not overly inviting, but it does smell more spiced and intriguing than the standard ricewater smell of chamomile tea. Inhaling the fumes did nothing for my sinuses.

On the tongue, Sleepytime Sinus Soother starts with the chamomile and mint flavor of a traditional Sleepytime tea. That taste changes pretty rapidly, though, the more that one consumes. Sleepytime Sinus Soother has a way of numbing the tongue to dull the sense of taste and this makes the tea taste a little more bland. It never simply becomes a ricewater flavor like a standard chamomile tea.

Cool, this tea tastes more initially forceful, then more bland. The tongue does not get numb, though I have found that even cool, it does help clear the sinuses, so this is not just a tea that one gets the benefits only from the steam.

Nutrition

For an all-natural remedy for sinus problems, Sleepytime Sinus Soother has a lot to recommend it. In fact, it is surprising that a tea made primarily of Chamomile, West Indian lemongrass and natural menthol flavor could do such good things for one’s sinuses! There is nothing unpronouncable in this tea and it is noted as being gluten free (for whom that matters). It is also kosher.

In terms of nutrition, Chamomile is another tea in a long line of teas that contribute nothing but hydration to the body while helping to break up mucus and numb sinus pain. There is no nutritional benefit or detriment to this tea. One 8 oz. mug of this tea provides nothing of nutritional value to the drinker. There are no calories (save what one adds from sugar or milk), no fat, sodium, or protein and no caffeine. It does, however, have the very real benefit of helping to relieve sinus pain, so that is a big plus.

Storage/Clean-up

Sleepytime tea is very 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. The tea itself is still very light like a Chamomile, but it washes out of most fabrics easily. As well, it does not leave any residual flavor in one's teapot or mug.

Overall

Sleepytime Sinus Soother might be an occasional use tea, but whenever my wife or I have clogged sinuses now, we both brew up a pot, so when winter comes again, we are sure to keep this on hand as a staple tea. Given how little I like using medicine, that makes Sinus Soother a good alternative and a surprisingly high endorsement from me!

It might not taste like much, but brewed properly, Sleepytime Sinus Soother lives up to its promise to relieve sinus pain and congestion.

For other Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, please visit my reviews of:
Mandarin Orange Spice
Sleepytime Green Lemon Jasmine
Tension Tamer

6.5/10

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

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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At Long Last: I Review The Celestial Seasonings Factory/Plant Tour, A Mecca For Tea Drinkers!

The Good: Informative, Fun, Clears the sinuses, Great shopping opportunity, Educational, Freebie
The Bad: ? I haven't found any!
The Basics: Seriously one of the most wonderful places on Earth, at least for tea fans, the Celestial Seasonings Factory Tour illustrates how a good company works!


I've reviewed virtually every other place I've been in the last few years, like the Spam Museum (reviewed here!), so I think it’s time to review one of my favorite places for an annual visit. Given my legion of Celestial Seasonings tea reviews, it's about time I review the Celestial Seasonings plant in Boulder, Colorado, one of the few free things for a progressive to do in the heart of Mountain Country!

Location

The Celestial Seasonings Factory is located at 4600 Sleepytime Drive in Boulder, Colorado. If you need the address again, check out any box of Celestial Seasonings tea! For those not familiar with Boulder, Colorado (and I am one of them), Sleepytime Drive is a little street off of a few other little streets away from virtually every major route. However, with that address, it is remarkably easy to find the Factory using MapQuest or any other major mapping website.

The Celestial Seasonings Factory is a series of interconnected buildings that is essentially a giant factory, gift shop, lobby and storage facility. It is set on several acres of otherwise empty land at the foot of one of the mountains in the area. Seriously, for those of us from the Eastern parts of the United States, there is something impressive and fun just being around huge mountains and the Celestial Seasonings Plant lays in the shadow of a pretty impressive mountain with a field filled with prairie dog holes (also a novelty for us Easterners!).

The buildings are essentially a lobby where the tour begins (with a little movie theater), an adjacent factory and storage warehouse and a gift shop filled with Celestial Seasonings teas and merchandise.

Ease Of Local Transport/Parking

Sleepytime Drive and the Celestial Seasonings Factory are impossible to find if you are not looking for it. Seriously. This is a little street off another little street off a slightly larger street type scenario. It is very easy to get around, though because it is so far out of the mainstream. I've gone to the factory three times now and never once has there been traffic for anywhere within ten miles of the plant.

Parking is free (people work here, so duh!) and there are enough parking spots for at least a hundred cars. The last two years, I have made it to the factory for the earliest tour of the day and had no problem finding parking. Interestingly enough, the facility has never seemed terribly crowded to me during my yearly summer visits, but whenever I have left the Celestial Seasonings Factory, I have found that the parking lot is rather full.

Activity/Purpose

Well, the point of visiting the Celestial Seasonings Factory is the tour. No, it's not for me anymore, but let's pretend it is (see shopping below!). The Celestial Seasonings Factory Tour is a free tour that is conducted daily every hour on the hour, starting at ten A.M. and going until four p.m. (until 3 on Saturday and Sunday, from eleven on Sunday). In all seriousness, the Celestial Seasonings Factory Tour is fun, but it is not the defining reason to return to the Celestial Seasonings plant year after year. The tour has fairly low repeatability, though it is fun once or twice in a lifetime.

The tour is exactly what one might expect, plus a little bit more, when visiting a food production facility. For those utterly ignorant to food and tea, Celestial Seasonings is one of the world's leading manufacturers of tea. They produce all-natural teas with an environmentally responsible worldview and (up until recently) incredible artwork on the boxes that easily distinguished them from other tea producers in the United States.

The tour begins in the lobby where there are free samples of (usually) six to eight flavors of tea. While waiting in the lobby, visitors are given the chance to try the brewed teas of the day for free while looking at one of the most ornate collections of tea pots ever assembled. The walls here are adorned with several panels of original artwork from the tea boxes, as well as cabinets of products from the Hain Food Group.

Visitors are then ushered into a theater to watch a little propaganda film about Celestial Seasonings and the Hain Food Group, which purchased Celestial Seasonings some years back. Through the film, one gets a brief history of the plant, the Celestial Seasonings company and the Hain Group. One learns about organic food and the environmentally responsible and health-conscious philosophies of the Hain Celestial and Celestial Seasonings companies.

Following the film, tourists walk through the actual plant. There, the visitor sees where the employees eat (not the high point of the tour) and then they are let into the actual plant. Here, one sees the stockpiles of tea leaves, vats where ingredients are mixed. Visitors walk through the vast machines which make tea bags and the conveyer belts that package the tea bags and box them up for shipping. There are several rooms filled with ingredients where tourists may see the impressive quantities of all-natural ingredients used in Celestial Seasonings teas.

The high point for me of this tour was the mint room. It's exactly what it sounds like. Peppermint has to be isolated from the other herbs because it will overpower them with its happy menthol oils. As a result, there is a room with palates and crates filled only with mint. It's like a trip to Willy Wonka's factory for tea drinkers! Anyone with respiratory problems needs only visit the mint room and it'll clear you right up. It's amazing. I could have lived there if only my tour guide the first year had looked away for but a moment! It's a pretty incredible room.

Then there is the boxing robot which moves boxes of teas around and assembles and wraps palates full of teas . . . gosh, you have to be a complete tea geek to want to go on this tour! But hey, I am and it's pretty cool!

Throughout the tour, the guide tells visitors about different types of tea leaves, how they are harvested and even some hints at what is currently in development. Those who love tea will be intrigued and when the tour is over, it ends in front of the gift shop where visitors are given a package of four free tea bags. At the time I visited, they were giving away Tangerine Orange Zinger (reviewed here!) samples. For a free tour to get something free, that's pretty wonderful.

Of course, they end the tour at the gift shop, so they must be pretty certain people will not leave without buying something more. They are (at least in my case) right.

Dining

On premises, there is the cafeteria and a little cafe that serves lunch. Honestly, I've never eaten at either because I've been hoarding my money for the yearly tea stock up. Besides, why buy tea to drink when there are so many free samples on the tour?!

Shopping

Yes, shopping is THE other reason to go to the Celestial Seasonings Factory in Boulder, Colorado! First, they sell Celestial Seasonings teas on average for $1.00 less than in the retail outlets around the country. Yeah, transport drastically alters the price of tea. This might not seem like a great amount of savings, but when one goes with a $75.00 tea budget, the number of boxes that can be purchased for $2.69 as opposed to $3.89 adds up quickly.

Second, there are a plethora of flavors of tea that the average supermarket will not carry, available right there at the gift shop. For example, when I went this year, I snagged one of the first boxes of the Breast Cancer Charity Tea Tropical Grapefruit (reviewed here!) and actually had to bug the webmasters at Celestial Seasonings to get it onto the website! As well, this year I discovered brand new lines of Saphara and dessert teas that are not available anywhere near me. In addition to different types of Celestial Seasonings, the gift shop also offers more significant quantities of Celestial Seasonings teas at impressive by-the-case savings.

In addition to walls of boxes of teas, there are thousands of related merchandise products at the Celestial Seasonings gift shop. These include all types of tea pots, teddy bears ("Sleepytime" themed merchandise is irritatingly prevalent in the gift shop), magnets and other souvenirs. Tea fans will definitely need to go to the shop with a budget!

Overall

There are very few places on Earth I go back to year after year. For the last three years, I have gone to Las Vegas, Nevada for an annual Star Trek convention and all three of those years, I have stopped at the Celestial Seasonings factory. And at this point in my life, I'm fairly sure I don't want to have to choose which one I'd give up if I could only go one of the two places. But if I had to choose today . . . well, Celestial Seasonings would be happy.

For other fun places to visit, check out my reviews of:
Times Square
Aquarium Of Niagara
The Mall Of America

10/10

For other travel reviews, please be sure to check out my Travel Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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