Energy Red is a weird tea, truly an odd bird among herbals I've tried, that comes across flavor-wise as both sweet and mellow, and also reminiscent of the underside of a lawn mower. Yet corporately, it claims to be an energy booster despite no caffeine or sugar, and caters to the hurried and impatient drinker as something that can be brewed and chugged with electrifying speed. I've had a few bags, and still don't know if I like it. That's quite peculiar in my experience.

Two of the added ingredients are natural sweeteners stevia and monk fruit, so adding the usual dose of my own artificial sweeteners made a nearly candy-like quality that personally appeals to me. Folks on low-carb diets who want a sweet herbal drink could appreciate this stuff. It also should make an intriguingly different iced beverage. The rooibos and eleuthero root that they use impart a decidedly grassy, earthy element to aroma and flavor, to a level that I suspect would be offputting for those not desiring a tea sensation resembling freshly grazed cud. Maybe the sweeteners are there to cover that a bit. Other than the sweetness and mowed-hay character, flavors and aromas are nice but not very strong, varying slightly from sip to sip, as if presenting a dimly illuminated kaleidoscope to the taste buds.

The blend certainly could benefit from having more in each bag. The bags are standard-sized, disc-shaped pouches, 30 of them packed tightly inside a non-resealable, number-4 plastic bag, in turn crammed into the bottom 50% of a paperboard canister. Both dry and wet bags also only are 20% full with the ingredients (lots of wasted space!), so there's certainly room for much more of whatever this is.

As I've noticed with other hibiscus-dominant herbal teas (including the Zinger series by Celestial Seasonings and several from Teekanne) the color changed rapidly in steeping—in this case, from bright red/pink (as one would expect with hibiscus and rooibos as top ingredients) to a grungy gray-brown. I let the tea steep several minutes, so I don't know if the flavor likewise changes fast. The tea's packaging and web presence is aimed at quick brewing for "your busy, active lifestyle", "if you’re on the go and just can’t wait!", and heavily promotes its energizing qualities with eleuthero root (an ingredient also found in Celestial's "Tension Tamer"). On their website, Teatulia specifically states their blend can, "brew much more quickly because they are fine cut (as opposed to whole leaf). The greater surface area enables the flavors to develop faster."

The last ingredient turned out to be the most perplexing, in a way. I'm not complaining about added Vitamin C at all, given its water-solubility (thus ease of urinary disposal of excess), and many health benefits. But how much is there? The packaging says a 6-oz. cup has 100% daily value, yet the government-standard "Nutrition Facts" label on the website says 8%. Which is it? That's a 92% difference—quite the self-contradiction. Then again, maybe that's befitting such an enigmatic tea.

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