Celestial Seasonings—for decades a specialist in herbal teas—seems to be marketing more black teas of late. I got this from a sampler pack alongside English Breakfast (already reviewed), Peppermint Peak (already reviewed...very tasty) and Earl Grey Creme (soon!). This one confuses me a bit for two reasons:
1. Naming and labeling: The package is labeled "Energy Tea", subtitled "Black Tea", whereas the website calls it "Energy Black", but shows the slightly different labeling.
2. Both packaging and website advertise this as having, "as much caffeine as a cup of coffee". Natural tea, of course, does not, unless they somehow concentrated a high-caffeine black tea into a normal teabag's volume. Added caffeine is *not* an ingredient either -- just black tea, "natural vanilla with other natural flavors" and tea extract. I'll assume the tea extract is the source of the extra caffeine.

In accordance with the latter presumption, this tea does brew up a rich mouth feel and dark color, and the straightforward, pleasant vanilla-tea aroma shows nicely in all phases: dry bag, in-cup, wet bag. The base tea seems to be good quality, but CS is not forthcoming about where it is grown. It's a reasonably robust and well-delivered tea overall, except right at the end, in the aftertaste, when a slightly metallic bitterness creeps in—subtly, noticeably, but not enough to ruin the experience.

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