After a lazy spell of about two months, I saw that I actually have a decent number of visitors to the site and that gave me the little burst of inspiration I needed to write again. It feels wrong to do a post that includes hot teas in the middle of summer, but you’ll have to bear with me…or skip ahead to the iced tea notes at the end.
While I haven’t been too adventurous with the tea K-Cups, I thought it might be handy to review the ones I’ve tried all in one place. I hope this is helpful to my tea-drinking Keurig friends out there. You’ll see that each brand has its good and bad K-Cups.
Twinings English Breakfast: Not bad. Better quality than Celestial Seasonings English Breakfast.
Twinings African Rooibos (click to read full review)
Bigelow Earl Grey: Not as good as bagged (or certainly not loose leaf) but still enjoyable and much better than Twinings Earl Grey.
Bigelow Green Tea: Not bad. I like the ease of using a kcup since it’s easy to overbrew loose leaf or bagged green tea. I’ve also tried this iced with fairly good results.
Tazo Zen: Nice blend. Great spearmint smell (yep, it’s not your typical green tea). Too bitter at 6oz, but 8oz is good. Be patient: you can taste more flavors as temperature goes down.
Tazo Awake: Just okay. Very similar to Celestial Seasonings English Breakfast. Twinings English Breakfast is better.
Celestial Seasonings Green Tea: Pretty good. Similar to Bigelow Green Tea.
While none of these particularly wow me, some are definitely better than others.
Then there is this gem that exceeds them all:
Celestial Seasonings Mandarin Orange Spice: Delicious! I can see why it was sold out at Keurig. It has wonderful smells and the taste lives up to them. This is one I would like to have on hand on a regular basis. You can taste the orange and the cinnamon and other spices really well. Good with a smidge of honey. *Thanks to Mari for the photo.
And, last but not least, Celestial Seasonings Brew Over Ice teas:
Southern Sweet Black Tea: Quite tasty. I never tire of it.
Sweet Raspberry Black Tea: Satisfying and good if you like raspberry flavor, although not completely natural-tasting.
Half & Half Black Tea Lemonade: Something a little off with the flavor but still refreshing.
Unsweetened Black Tea: Really strong. You could probably get more than one glass out of this one. It was too strong for me to enjoy without sugar.
Sweet Lemon Black Tea: This one failed to wow me. The other flavored iced teas seem more natural and are yummier.
Sweet Peach Black Tea: Delightful. Right up there with Southern Sweet for iced tea goodness.
A note of caution: Don’t try to brew your iced tea in a glass. It will crack. These thick plastic cups work great.
Mary Beth, why do you buy Kcup teas? I have not made price nor taste comparisons, but assumed the bags would be better, so I just use the Keurig to put hot water in my cup over a tea bag. Am I missing something? I have done the half and half tea/lemonades because I knew I wouldn’t make that on my own.
I don’t make a habit out of purchasing tea K-Cups (except iced) for that reason. Mainly I wanted to try some out because I was curious. I agree that brewing hot water over a tea bag is more cost effective and usually yields a better result. The exception to this for me is the green tea K-Cups. I have a hard time getting green tea to taste good from a bag.
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Mary Beth. I just came across this. Thanks for posting your reviews, as I just purchased my first Keurig (mainly for my boys). I am primarily a tea drinker, and usually drink Irish (Barry’s or Lyons), or English (Yorkshire) tea, so I wanted to see about the K cups. Perhaps I’ll just stick with my bags and use the hot water from the Keurig. I usually make a pot every morning, which is more cost effective.
I think I’m talking myself out of drinking tea from the Keurig! 🙂
Thanks again.
Frances
I enjoy Barry’s and Yorkshire too! Never tried Lyons. Maybe I should. 🙂 I think that’s a good call your part to stick with bagged, especially for black tea. K-cups just don’t compare.
Mary Beth, that’s a nice thing to hear…I don’t know many people (outside of Ireland/UK) who know of them! My parents are from Ireland, and we lived there for 5 years when I was a teenager, so I became accustomed to drinking tea. Lucky for me, my parents still go home twice a year and bring me back teabags! 🙂