Tea and Me Blog

I am 100% down for affordable quality tea. I also have a fascination for subscription boxes, whoever came up with the idea is an absolute genius. So, when scrolling through Facebook, I saw an advertisement for Dollar Tea Club. (I get all sorts of tea ads now that I blog about it…Facebook did me a solid on this one, but that’s still slightly off-putting to me) I choose not to click on it right away, but kept it in the back of my mind. But here I am, ready to buy it and see what it contains. All so I can share my findings with you!

I decided to go with the basic $1 a month plan; just in case something went wrong (minimal risk and financial cost). I had looked up a few reviews on Dollar Tea Club to make sure it was legitimate and found a 15% off code on my first purchase coupon! Score! After signing up, I saw that I could get my own code to help out others, double score! But hey, if you want $1 off, use this code: REFYR89J3QRAC when checking out. That basically would be like your first month free for the Explorer Pack, albeit paying for shipping. Which actually was around $4.50 for Canada and USA. Access the website here! I digress, seems like a good deal. Promo over. Back to your regularly scheduled tea review.

My total ended up being $5.35 for the sampling Explorer pack. Normally it would be $5.50. So, I signed up for the subscription and patiently waited. I was quite excited when they showed up about 4-5 days later. The tea came in a tiny little package and I really wondered how they managed to get all of the tea in there and make it lay somewhat flatly. They also gave me a free honey stick (I wonder because this was my first time subscribing) which was AMAZING. Side note/ramble: I love honey sticks. In the summer, I will go to random farm stands and look for honey sticks to try out. So including the honey stick was extremely great marketing in my instance.

The Tea box also came with 3 disposable infusers, which both my mom and I were wowed by the innovative thinking on their part. We have many, many reusable infusers (you can check out my post, Tea Infusers | What I have Learned, to see my collection), so it would have never crossed my mind to order these in addition. So, I am glad that anyone could order this sampler pack and be able to steep their tea without making a mess. According to Dollar Tea Club, they will send three different teas each month. I recieved Irish Breakfast, Licorice Roll, and Earl Grey.

Irish Breakfast: Warning, I did not drink this at breakfast time. More like mid-afternoon time. But, this tea was quite intriguing to me. The green tea taste was quite subtle and there was another dominant taste in the tea that I could not identify. I know I have had a similar taste before but I could not figure out what I was thinking of. Maybe I went crazy, honestly, it is a likely strategy because I was going crazy by not knowing!! It was a good tea, either way, I steeped it in a giant teapot for three minutes with 175-degree water. I poured the entire contents into the pot, it looked about enough for a pot of tea or two cups of individual tea. (Update: My mom pointed out that it tasted like a green tea version of Earl Grey tea. Which I should have known because of the cornflower petals).

Licorice Roll: Full disclaimer here: I usually do not like licorice tea. There is something about the aftertaste that makes me uncomfortable drinking it, so I was slightly disappointed with getting this tea. However, I told myself I was going to try it anyways and I am glad that I did. The taste was not as harsh as other licorice teas before, with it actually being much more subtle than what I was used to. I think it was the addition of Rooibos that really made the entire tea blend together. I really am wondering what the blanket statement “natural flavors” entails. Natural sweeteners? Some random natural spices? The tea does not taste sweetened, so I do not believe it is my first guess. I do understand that the natural flavors are organic compliant, meaning that they themselves are not organic but they follow organic regulations. (Side note: My brother says this tea smells like pure honey. I do not smell that at all but each nose is different).

I have very high standards for Earl Grey. Very early on in my life, I found an organic Creamy Earl Grey that literally is the best tea ever. I was hoping this one would also be as delicious as the one I cherish so dearly. However, it just tasted like normal Earl Grey. Since the ingredients are just black tea, cornflower petals, and natural flavors (still do not understand that), I desperately was wishing that there was vanilla or something in this tea that made it more flavorful and not taste like stock Earl Grey. So, a little disappointing but it definitely solidified my love of the organic Creamy Earl Grey.

I am very interested in what teas will come in my next Explorer Pack. I think I definitely would want to try any teas out first before buying a larger quantity of the teas. I will probably abstain from doing another subscription box this coming month, but I plan on doing another in May. You can join me if you want! Use the code REFYR89J3QRAC for $1 off of your subscription!

Well, that is all I have for today. I hope you enjoyed it and learned more about this company with me! Happy Brewing!

-Danielle