Customer Reviews

Celestial Seasonings Green Tea, Raspberry Gardens, 20-Count Tea Bags (Pack of 6)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This tea has been our favorite green tea for years. According to the manufacturer, Hain Celestial, the ingredients have recently changed. They removed the hibiscus. Be warned, the tea is now yellow-green and tastes awful. The box and ingredients list have not changed. We are stuck with 2 cases that we can't return to Amazon.

I am a long time lover of Celestial Seasons tea, and loved Raspberry Gardens Green Tea until this shipment. They changed the formula of this tea and their other fruit flavored green tea to taste more like green tea. Doesn't make sense to me, the reason people buy flavored teas is for the flavor. I love the benefits of green tea but not so crazy about the flavor so I tried and purchased several green tea brands and flavors. I spoke with Celestial Seasons and they decided to change the blend to make it more of a green tea flavor. If that is what we want we would just purchase their green tea with no flavor blends. Very disappointing.

I WAS on subscribe and save for this product because I loved the intense raspberry flavor, but they have changed it. Now it is just like those other green teas. How sad! Change it back!!!

Let me say, the first time I tasted Celestial Seasonings Raspberry Gardens Green Tea, I was in heaven. Had I written this review then, when the tea was a lovely shade of transparent red-purple with a light blackberry flavor, I would have given it 20 stars. But according to Celestial Seasonings Customer Support, they have changed the recipe, removing the hibiscus and blackberry and leaving that delightful "Mr's Yuk's Bathwater" flavor in it's place. I kid you not. The tea is now a sickly yellow green with less hint of raspberry now, than before. The box still looks the same, and the ingredients list still includes hibiscus and blackberry - but it's a lie! Let the drinker beware.

I have never had the previous version everyone raves about in the reviews here, so I am giving an unbiased review of this tea. I seeped for 3 minutes and didn't add any sugar or anything. It smells deliciously like raspberries and it definitely has a raspberry taste. The color is light green/yellow so I know it's not the old version. This tea is veryyyyyyy good. I am very picky when it comes to this stuff. It's so sweet tasting and soothing that I made myself another cup. Reading the other reviews, I can definitely see how a more stronger raspberry taste would make this tea even better, that's why I am knocking a star off. I can imagine this tea tasting better so I think the other reviews are correct. If you've never had this tea before, like me, you won't be disappointed. If you've had the old version and try this one, you WILL be disappointed. I hope they change it back to the old formula so I can try it and see what everyone's talking about. I also think that reddish color everyone talks about would make this tea even better, the color of this tea is ugly.

Raspberry Gardens contains healthful green tea, which is known to provide many health benefits such as providing antioxidants which help mitigate the problems of aging, and assisting with weight loss. The aroma of this tea is raspberry as advertised. The flavor is tart and flat--dominated by hibiscus. Raspberry flavor is very faint.

Celestial Seasonings gets extra points for their packaging: they utilize 100% natural recycled paperboard in their boxes and they don't package each tea bag individually. Instead they use a system of a waxed paper bag inside the box that stays shut when you fold it. It keeps the bags fresh and utilizes less packaging than individually wrapping each bag. They put a caffeine meter on the box to compare this tea with cola and coffee beverages-this tea has 15 mg of caffeine compared to 90 in a cup of drip coffee. The level of antioxidants would be a good addition. The art they use on each box is beautiful as are the quotes and information they put on every surface.

Quote from the box: "The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away." Barbara Kingsolver.

I got a case of this and the box now says "white tea for smooth taste" and the ingredients are Green Tea, White Tea and Raspberry flavor with other natural flavors. The tea leaves an almost chalky, blah taste in your mouth. I very much enjoyed the old formula with the picture of the angel on the package and am sad to see this go and HIGHLY disapointed with Amazon for not warning me I was not getting the same product. The ingredients list and picture on this webpage are wrong!!! DON'T BUY IT!

I ordered two cases for my Mom who loved (past tense) this tea. They really did not improve this product like they claim. They took out the Hibiscus and added white tea "for a smoother taste". It does not have the fantastic raspberry taste it used to have at all. Now we have two cases that nobody wants to drink. I did manage to scour my local grocery stores (7-8 of them) and find the last 5 boxes in my area. All I can say is that I/we hope that Celestial Seasonings comes to their senses and goes back to the original formula. And yes we did contact Celestial Seasonings and make complaints with them. Why do companies have to go and mess up a good thing?

I had tried this tea a while back and loved it, so I thought I would try it again. After reading the other reviews (unfortunately after I already bought it), I realized that the ingredients aren't the same. Well, either is the flavor of the tea! The Raspberry taste is definitely very weak. I wish they would change it back to the old recipe.

This tea used to have excellent raspberry flavor. They have now reformulated it with white tea and it may be more healthy, but it has become flavorless. I have asked several friends to try it and all agree it essentially has no flavor. Unfortunately, I haven't found any replacement as good as the ORIGINAL Raspberry Gardens.