Celestial Seasonings has produced, then retired, at least three flavored white teas, based on RateTea's listings. Is the fourth time the charm?

This apparently new offering, as of October 2021, contains white tea (unspecified type and origin), white chocolate flavor with other natural flavors, cinnamon, peppermint, and cardamom. Cinnamon is a strong spice, but I'm just not sensing it here. I only detect cardamom faintly, and just in the dry-bag smell. However, chocolate and peppermint...you bet. If you like chocolate mint teas, as I do, add this to your collection, because they did a good job balancing these two flavors in taste and in-cup aroma. The aftertaste is more chocolate than mint, but the wet bag smells more minty.

In describing flavored white tea, webmaster Alex Z writes, "White tea, because of its delicate aroma and flavor, is typically combined with delicate and subtle flavorings. The flavorings used for black teas can often overpower the natural aromas of white tea." That's the case here, but since I like chocolate and peppermint so much, this doesn't bother me. I rated the tea higher than most folks probably would who are looking to actually sense the white tea itself. The white tea here acts like the decaf green in the somewhat-similar Candy Cane Lane: ballast or delivery vehicle for otherwise tasty, sweet, easygoing, friendly blend of flavors.

I didn't rate it as lofty as CCL (or Trader Joe's surprisingly good CCL imposter, Candy Cane Green Tea), because as smooth and pleasing as the flavor blend is, it's not that strong. Maybe Celestial was afraid of overwhelming the white tea with the chocolate and mint. Well, they did anyway! So my suggestion to Celestial is: double up on the mint and chocolate. There's plenty of leftover room in the pouch, even when wet.

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