tea time

I’ve been drinking tea (instead of coffee) for the past few months. I wish I could drink coffee all day, but I’m prone to anxiety and I do like to be able to fall asleep each night, so tea it is!

I really like minty teas. Peppermint is good, but I’m always looking for something with a little extra flavor to it. Over the holidays I found Candy Cane Green Tea at Trader Joe’s.

It was so so so delicious, TPS and I blew through the first box in less than a week. It was a warm cup of vanilla, peppermint, and cinnamon. It was heavenly and we each drank several cups a day. When I went back to get more, it was gone for the season. I wept at the prospect of having to drink Sleepytime tea for the next 10 or so months. (You bet I’ll be stocking up next year.)

I had the brilliant idea to ask a few friends to check their local Trader Joe’s stores for me and now there are 4 boxes coming to me from California (where people apparently drink less tea than in Maryland, or maybe their stores are better stocked).

While I’ve been waiting for the Pony Express to deliver them, I looked into other sources. Rumor has it that the Candy Cane tea is just a repackaged Candy Cane Lane tea from Celestial Seasonings. I checked amazon, but the prices were fairly outrageous. (At the time of this post, it’s come down a lot, to $9.99 per box and just 8 boxes left; I might have to snap some of those up.) I ended up falling down the deep, deep rabbithole that is “Frequently Bought Together” and based on customer reviews I bought a box of the only slightly lesser-priced Celestial Seasonings’ Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride tea.

Apparently it smells just like a sugar cookie.

I paid $9 for this box of tea. It is no Candy Cane Green Tea.

That aside, it does have a real cookie scent, but not like a sugar cookie — maybe more coconutty, like a macaroon. However, I’m not a coconut fan (except coconut oil, but not for eating anyway) so it’s not all that appealing. The taste is kind of flat, but it’s still drinkable and it’ll definitely tide me over until my stash of Candy Cane Green Tea arrives.

Now, I’ve just got to figure out how to make 4 boxes of tea last 10 months…