Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Herbal/Functional Tisane

Where to Buy:  Algonquin Tea Co.

Tea Description:

Blends nutritious and supportive herbs with stimulating herbs, producing a balanced, uplifting tea that energizes without the side-effects of caffeine.

Learn more about this tea here.

Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.

Taster’s Review:

This is tasty … for an herbal tea.  And that last part is the problem.  I’m not big on herbal teas.  I never have been.  I’d rather drink Camellia Sinensis.  And unfortunately with the Postal Teas 9th edition box – all three selections were herbal teas.  Herbal teas from Algonquin.

Now, granted, all of these Algonquin herbal teas were unique and quite different from anything that I’ve ever tried.  And that’s both a blessing and a curse because while there may be an ingredient or two that I recognize in this blend, for the most part, I’m drinking herbs that I’m not really familiar with so it makes it difficult to recognize and reconcile what I’m tasting.

But I still tried it because that’s what I do.  I taste teas and then I write about what I’m tasting.

In this blend, the most easily identifiable ingredient and flavor is the mint.  It’s crisp and adds a nice, refreshing element to the cup.  There’s ginseng – not a favorite herb of mine.  I can taste the earthiness of the ginseng.  Nettle is in this too and I’m glad to report that while I get hints of the bitterness that goes with Nettle, it’s not a strong or dominant flavor.

Then there are some other ingredients that I’m less familiar with, like alfalfa (oh, sure, I know what it is, I just don’t recall having it in a tea any time recently), astragalus, angelica, joe-pye and calamus.  It also has labrador, which I’m pretty sure I’ve had before, but again, it’s not something I’m familiar enough with to taste it and say, ‘yep, that’s labrador’ with complete confidence.

The combination of these ingredients is supposed to be a stimulating and energizing tea without caffeine.  OK, but, I kind of like my caffeine.  The only time that I’m not up for some caffeine (tea caffeine, that is, not coffee!) is when I’m getting close to bedtime.  So, I can’t say that I really want an herbal, caffeine-free stimulant.  I like my stimulants caffeinated, thank you.

Overall, it doesn’t taste bad.  It tastes minty with an herbaceous and earthy background.  Mint is the top note.  It’s tasty.  If you’re looking for a caffeine-free stimulant, you should try it.  If I were looking for a caffeine-free stimulant, I might first consider that I’m trapped in a bad dream.  But if after determining that I’m not in a bad dream and I’m not having some kind of mental breakdown and I still – for some unfathomable reason – want a caffeine-free stimulant, this is something I’d consider.

I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed to learn that the 9th edition box from Postal Teas was all herbal selections.  While I did enjoy these herbal teas for the most part, herbal selections just don’t excite this tea drinker all that much.

That said, these teas from Algonquin were alright and I drank them and didn’t hate them.  There were definite “pros” to them.  For example of the three herbals that I tried, there were no hibiscus in any of them!  Nope, not even a little bit of hibiscus.  Big bonus points to Algonquin for crafting herbal blends without that horrible hibiscus stuff.  And I also appreciate that they’re unique.  There are ingredients that I’ve not been exposed to, and like I said, that’s both a blessing and a curse.  I would like to be able to taste something and say “oh yeah, that’s the __.”  But, I can’t really reconcile some of the flavor notes because there are ingredients that I’m not so familiar with.

But the benefit is that it’s something different.  This doesn’t taste like the average herbal blend from ABC company, you know?  So like I said, blessing and a curse.

Overall, I’d say that while my experience with this 10th edition of the Postal Teas subscription was not the most exciting and thrilling of boxes that I’ve received over the past 30 days or so, I didn’t dislike the teas that I drank from the box.  And that’s a “pro” too.