I’ve had many teas by this company before, and every so often Santa buys me a box for Christmas. I must say…I can’t remember the last time I tried one of the flavours and thought “geez. This is good!” Actually, I can vaguely remember…
Back in the good old days, you used to be able to buy a 25-pack of this tea and it came in a little balsa wood box. It was almost like a mini tea chest, and the balsa box was patterned with the tea company’s logo as well as a design motif for that specific tea. Likely very expensive packaging for a mediocre tea, but it’s not like balsa wood is THAT expensive. It’s in little kids’ airplane kits for darn sakes.
And then this company went to “new and improved cardboard packaging”. And with a decrease in the quality of the packaging came a decrease in the quality of the tea. I used to LOVE their ice wine tea. It was some of my favourite tea ever made in a bag. Perhaps some of my favourite tea ever. Their maple tea was also very good, as was their cranberry. I tried another flavour, too…maybe apricot? I don’t remember. It wasn’t as good as the rest, but certainly not bad. When Santa saw the blueberry flavour in the store again, he thought it would be a good blast from the past. Bad Santa. Very, very bad Santa!
I’m always leery of bagged teas that don’t come individually wrapped, even if it’s just in paper. I find within days of opening the metallic baggie that this tea comes in, it seems stale the next time I go to drink it. So wrapping in individual wrappers would be a good step. Going back to their “old recipes” would also be a good step. Now all I taste is artificial flavour and astringent black tea. It’s not good. I just realized this is the third blueberry tea in a row I’ve rated. I must be on a blueberry kick and didn’t realize it.
Verdict: would definitely not re-buy once the last 4 bags are finished.
