I missed out on the Pretty Tea Mystery Boxes last time they were offered. They looked amazing with people getting numerous teas to try plus samples. So when they came up this time, I jumped on it. None of the teas I received are currently sold by Pretty Tea but their teas are generally $43 for 250g. So you are saving over 50% on the box – if you will drink the teas you receive. They seem to only sell in 250g bags now. Not something I would buy without trying the teas first.
If you are not familiar with Pretty Tea, they are Montreal based and have been around for about two years. They do sell a sample pack of six teas with roughly 30 cups total for $25 if you want to try before buying the bulk bags. You get a small sample of all of the current teas sold.
Pretty Tea offers 250g of tea for $20 including shipping. It does say that you could get 25g, 50g or 100g bags plus they send some samples. Obviously, as a mystery box, you have no clue what you are receiving but the previous boxes included a good range of teas so you got something you loved. It is a good thing I like Rooibos as two teas were heavy on the rooibos and a third was black tea and cinnamon based.
The teas I received in my Pretty Tea Mystery Box are 100g Siberian Hot Candy, 50g Energitea and 100g Rooibos Vanilla. All three include flavouring but no artificial sweeteners. It is clear that they are selling off the old stock of teas from when they sold smaller bags than 250g but I would have liked to see a little more variety in my Mystery Box. Or at least the samples promised. Compared to the previous Mystery Boxes, this one was a bit of a let down or me.
Pretty Tea Mystery Box Tea – Siberian Hot Candy
Siberian Hot Candy by Pretty Tea is a fairly simple tea. It contains black tea, cinnamon, apple pieces with cinnamon and apple flavouring. The cinnamon is definitely stronger than the apple when steeped for three minutes as recommended. I am not the biggest fan of cinnamon anyway so not loving this one. Maybe once winter hits and I want something a bit warmer tasting. As much as I complain about the small apple pieces DAVIDsTEA uses to bulk up and sweeten their teas, this one maybe would have benefited from those smaller softer pieces for more apple flavour. I received 100g of this and honestly can’t see finishing it.
Pretty Tea Mystery Box Tea – Energitea
Pretty Tea Energitea is the smaller of the bags I received with 50g and the one I preferred from the Mystery Box. It contains green tea, rooibos, ginseng roots, linden blossom, rose petals, lemon and orange granules with lemon-orange flavour. I don’t drink many energy type teas, there are enough caffeinated teas out there that do the trick for me. But for an energy tea, it tasted ok. Some are just gross with too much ginseng etc. The rooibos works and it is surprising not to see a maté base in an energy tea so good for those who hate the taste of matés.
Pretty Tea Mystery Box Tea – Rooibos Bourbon
Finally, 100g of Pretty Tea Rooibos Bourbon. Another simple tea with just rooibos and vanilla flavouring. Nothing wrong with this and definitely drinkable but not very special. It recommends a 9 minute steep which it doesn’t need unless you want maximum flavour for a latte or something. It was good after 6 minutes with little difference in taste to the 9 minute steep. I usually buy Vanilla Rooibos at bulk barn for under $4 or 100g and this doesn’t taste that much different so while decent, not sure I would buy a large bag at $43 if they still sold it.
Overall, I would have liked to see more variety. Previous boxes had more 25g and 50g bags which gave more choice just because there was more tea. It is the nature of mystery boxes but not having the samples promised also removed some of the variety too. I would probably go for the sampler box rather than mystery box (which came in a bag, not a box) if buying again.