I was talking to someone here on steepster about celestial seasonings made as iced teas. I just purchased a TON of tea, including some off amazon, so I decided to pick up a sample pack of celestial seasonings zinger teas (4 teabags each, 5 kinds of tea. the perfect amount for iced teas).
I just recently tried my first cold brew iced tea yesterday, so I decided to try this one cold brewed as well: Filled up my new 2L iced tea pitcher with cold water, placed the 4 tea bags in the water, then set it in the fridge.
All I can say is wow, I’m am VERY pleasantly surprised. I think I have tried a celestial seasonings tea before at my Mother In Laws place, but I didn’t have a good first impression because I think the box said “best before [5 years previous]”. I remember the tea tasting very cheap and, I think, stale.
After 1 hour of cold brewing, I took a sample of this tea. It was weak, but WOW you can definitely taste blueberry. I was shocked at how accurate the flavour was. I decided to let it brew for 1.5 hours more (2.5 hours total) and it was just perfect. SLIGHTLY tart and tangy from the hibiscus, with blueberry flavour afterwards. The slight tartness/tangyness doesn’t bother me at all because that IS the taste of wild blueberries. Awesome, and refreshing.
I must say, this is better than some loose leaf blends I have tried, yet this is approximately 1/4 of the price per pitcher (I have done the math: most DAVIDs tea iced teas cost about $3-4 per pitcher, this is $1-1.5). Plus, no cleaning filters since this is bagged tea! Lastly, did I mention that this tea apparently has no artificial flavoring? That’s better than what I can say for DAVIDs….
I absolutely recommend this tea, and I would totally repurchase.
EDIT: I have this fruit wine (Blueberry Shiraz) I made at the local brewery (it’s actually VERY sweet and closer to a cooler than wine by far) and mixed half tea, half fruit wine together to bring the sweetness down and to bring out more of the blueberry flavour. It’s awesome. Plus, the wine is about 12% and it brings down the alcohol level as well, which is good because it’s frickin hot in my apartment and I get dehydrated too easily.
Flavors: Blueberry, Tangy, Tart
awesome!