Choosing a favorite brewed beverage can be difficult work, even for tea’s most discerning cognoscenti. To help you narrow the field, we steeped, sipped, and savored to see which bagged tea we liked best for every occasion.
Category
Best brews
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Taste test
Added benefits
Caffeine
Black
Bija Ceylon Black Tea
Made from aromatic black tea, Bija’s Ceylon is strong and complex without tasting bitter or thin. A clean flavor that is both pure and fragrant.
This organic tea has plenty of antioxidants and may increase metabolism. Bija’s tea bags are made from naturally whitened hemp and tree fibers.
50 mg per 8-ounce mug. (By comparison, a cup of coffee has 75 to 150 mg of caffeine.)
After-Dinner Tea
Celestial Seasonings Almond Sunset
Carob, barley, and roasted chicory add warm notes to this almond herbal tea. With the addition of a little milk or natural sweetener, one cup of Almond Sunset can be just as satisfying as a piece of nut cake.
This all-natural tea provides a guiltless alternative to heavy desserts offered after hearty autumn suppers.
None.
Maté
Guayakí Traditional Yerba Maté
Straight maté can be strong and woody (like a horse barn, said one taster). But, like coffee, the drink quickly becomes a daily pleasure. Guayakí’s maté is cedar-aged and has a soothing smoky flavor. If Traditional is too strong for you, try the sweeter Maté Chocolatté.
Used in South America for centuries as a tea-like stimulant, maté has a higher amount of antioxidant compounds than either green or black tea and boasts trace amounts of 24 vitamins and minerals.
About 50 mg per 8-ounce cup.
Green
Numi Monkey King Jasmine Tea
White jasmine blossoms bring an exotic, floral taste to this fragrant tea. Because Numi doesn’t add any artificial flavorings to its tea, a mug of Monkey King is pure green heaven.
Fortified with grapeseed extract and other antioxidants, this organic tea provides the touted benefits of green tea that include weight loss as well as cancer and heart disease prevention.
A 10-ounce mug (they brew ’em bigger over at Numi) has about 75 mg of caffeine.
Chai
Yogi Tea Black Chai
While bagged chai can taste watery and weak next to concentrates, Yogi’s black chai is rich and full-bodied, spiced by a blend of cardamom seed, cinnamon bark, ginger, clove, and black pepper. Even better with a splash of milk and a dollop of honey.
Like all black tea, this organic chai is a good source of antioxidants linked to the prevention of many ailments, including cancer, heart disease, and stroke.
