I found this super-old-looking teabag at the hostel associated with Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage and thought I’d try it just so I could rate it.
It just tasted like really old paper. I knew that, if I drank the whole cup, I’d either vomit or get heartburn. There really wasn’t even a reddish color to the bag contents. It looked like some kind of yellowish leaf, though, so I don’t know what exactly it consisted of. It just was like paper. Yes, I have eaten my fair share of paper — I also enjoy eating toothpicks. However, I couldn’t stomach this.
It really looked old, though. Like, from the 70’s old. I blame my youth for such a bad experience (but at least I’m not looking at it anymore and wondering).
Like hot cranberry juice, huh?
Love cranberries… but hibiscus is just gross after a while. WHY is it so ubiquitous? It’s like, in everything tart that Lipton/Celestial Seasonings does, and it’s in a ton of loose leaf blends. I’m so sick of it that I’ve gotten wary of even drinking something with “hibiscus” in the title. Not that I hate it. It’s just so mediocre.
@Cofftea: I don’t mind cranberry juice, I wouldn’t be bitching as much if it had tasted that way. There were some other (nameless) herbs and fruits added to the tea according to the packet. Altogther it was not a good mix. DX
@Teaplz: I think hibiscus is so common because it’s a cheap, quick way of approximating the taste of various tart fruits. It’s used to simulate the taste of raspberry, pomegranate, gojiberry, blackberry, etc.
Jillian, yet it doesn’t taste like any of those things. :(