I’ve never been a coffee drinker, finding that coffee doesn’t actually help me wake up or stay up late doing homework. Instead, I would call myself a tea person, and will always pick tea over coffee. Whenever I get hot tea from the lib cafe, I stick to a few flavors, never really exploring all my options. The next time you’re looking for a hot drink, and are up for trying something new, here are my takes on some of the tea flavors.
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1. English breakfast
This is a classic black tea flavoring. Like all the others, I tried this one plain, with no milk, sweeteners, or lemon. Usually, when I have other black teas plain, they leave a strong bitter aftertaste, but this one didn’t. Overall, I thought it was actually very soothing.
2. Refresh Mint
This is a blend of peppermint, spearmint and taragon. For a hot tea, it has a very chilling flavor and feels like an earthy, herbal version of peppermint candy. It is a caffeine free option for those of you who are trying to cut down on caffeine.
3. Calm Chamomile
Interestingly, this flavor includes chamomile, hibiscus flowers, rose petals, spearmint, peppermint, lemongrass and lemon balm leaf. The first flavor that hit me was mint, even though it was not one of the primary ingredients. There is also a distinct herbal aftertaste, with the aroma of crushed flowers. I liked this one, but there are too many flavors mixed in.
4. Wild Sweet Orange
This tea is orange peel, lemongrass, citrus herbs, licorice root, hibiscus and rose petals. The best way to describe it is like a hot marmalade beverage. Although it is not super sweet like orange marmalade, or as thick, it has a prevailing marmalade scent, and flavor.
5. Passion Tea
Passion tea is probably one of my least favorites. The ingredients included hibiscus, tropical flavors, licorice root, orange peel, cinnamon, rose hips, lemongrass and fruit juice extract for coloring. If you’re looking for a blood red colored tea, this definitely fits the standard. It reminds me of cherry and grape flavored lollipops, which I haven’t had since childhood, and is the bitterest of all the teas I tried out.
6. Chai
Coming from and Indian background, chai is just another word for tea to me, and so I have my misgivings about the obsession with chai and chai lattes that has come about in recent years. My parents drink a lot of tea, but they don’t use the traditional spices in their tea, so I’ve always looked at chai as just tea with spices in it, not the exotic drink that most people see it as. The spices used in chai however, are very commonly used in Indian cooking, so for me, this had a very homey feel.
7. Earl Grey
Probably my favorite of all the teas in this review. Before I had earl grey tea, and I never realized that it had lavender in it. I love lavender scents, and so when I first sipped this blend of black tea, lavender and bergamot, the first whiff of the lavender aroma was a pleasant surprise. This was very soothing, and made me feel like I was sitting in a flower garden, hidden from the rest of the world, and surrounded by the scents of flowers and honey.
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