Tammy's Recipes

My friend Lin sent me some Snapple tea to enjoy! I'm excited to be reviewing five of Snapple's hot tea bag flavors -- Strawberry, Le-MMM-on, Mangoooooo, Orange-Inality, and Wild 'Bout Berries.

If you frequent your local grocery store's tea section, you may have noticed these brightly colored boxes of tea bags. Perhaps created to perform as a "bridge" between cold, sweetened, flavored juice beverages and regular hot teas, these Snapple tea bags boast "real fruit juice" and have the reminder message "unsweetened" printed on the front of each box and individually wrapped teabag.

As someone who has been drinking tea for years, I will admit to rolling my eyes a little at the "unsweetened" part. Of course! What kind of tea would come pre-sweetened? After all, there are people like me who always drink their tea plain, with no added sweetener.

On the other hand, as a teabag (empty envelope) collector, a part of me did wish I could add some of those bright gingham tea bag wrappers to my collection... And thanks to my friend Lin, I got to try five of the Snapple teas and add them to my collection! Here are my brief reviews.

Wild 'Bout Berries (Herbal)

This box of tea smells like a box of candy! Seriously. These teabags are very aromatic, and the brewed tea is a bright pink color.

The taste actually did represent the advertizing, in my opinion: Herbal tea with fruit juice. Juicy and fruity, Wild 'Bout Berries is like a great herbal fruit infusion. Each sip leaves some tang in your mouth, but if you like herbal fruit teas, this is a good one. I recommend it! :)

Le-MMM-on (Black Tea)

This Le-MMM-on tea is supposed to be a black tea with lemon flavor. The off-beat spelling of "lemon" is probably the first clue that this isn't your usual lemon flavored black tea.

For one thing, I really couldn't taste the "black tea" part. This is great... for people who don't care much for black tea. Instead, the flavor is like an instant lemon tea drink mix -- very fakey, in my opinion. Joshua tried this one, as well, and said it tasted like lemonade powder.

If you like the flavor of "instant tea", you might like this one. If you're accustomed to real lemon-flavored black teas, this Le-MMM-on tea doesn't even come close. Don't bother.

Maybe it would be better iced.

Mangoooooo (Green Tea)

I like green tea. I like high-quality green tea. After all, if I wanted a cup of bitter, grassy, cloudy green liquid, I could get some for free from the neighbor's pond.

This Mangoooooo flavored green tea is awful. I can't enjoy it in the least, and for me to not enjoy a tea, even a lower-quality tea, AT ALL is very unusual. I've made several cups, on several ocasions, and the warm, bitter, green mangoooooo flavor is practically unbrearable.

Joshua, who doesn't really like tea very well, tasted this and said it wasn't that bad. My sister Bonnie says she likes this flavor. (I gave most of the rest of the box to her!)

So maybe it's just me, but I would NOT recommend this tea. If you want the benefits of drinking green tea, drink a different kind. Not Snapple Mangoooooo.

Strawberry (White Tea)

Snapple's Strawberry white tea is a perfectly beautiful light pink color when brewed, and smells amazingly great!

Unfortunately, when I tasted the tea, it had a weak flavor, and a slightly bitter after-taste, even though I brewed it properly. The tea tasted okay; again, weak in the "tea" aspect and strong on the "fruit".

I've had better, and I've had worse. The lovely color and scent almost make up for the lack of substance in body. :)

Orange-Inality (Herbal)

If you like herbal tea, this Orange-Inality tea might suit you. It's a mild infustion with a slightly sweet tease. It actually tastes like it has orange oil or something in it. This is, in my opinion, one of the better-tasting orange herbal infusions I've tried!

My conclusion:

What's not too surprising, I suppose, is that I liked the Snapple herbal teas much, MUCH better than the Snapple (real) teas. In general, I like true teas better than herbal infusions. Snapple should stick to making fruit juice products rather than ruining tea.