I drink a lot of tea. A lot of tea. And I’m pretty snobby about what I drink — loose leaf only, preferably Assam or Sencha or Rooibos. I’m kind of a tea brat. I’m always looking for new teas, though, so the True Tea Club subscription service really intrigued me.

This service is UK based and ships worldwide, and they kindly provided me with a sample month to review. There are three subscription levels: standard, premium and deluxe. You get the same tea every month, but how much of it is based on which level you choose:

• The standard level is £10.00 a month and ships 4 bags of loose leaf for 40 cups of tea.
• Premium is the same four teas but enough for 60 cups per month and costs £15.00.
• Deluxe will get you 80 cups of tea for £20.00 a month. If you really like one particular blend, you can also order it individually off their website.
• All of the levels ship monthly for free within the UK and worldwide for £3.50.

Now, on to the teas!

I got four re-sealable pouches of tea: Earl Grey Rebel, Rainbow Chaser, Vanilla Cupcake Rooibos, and Mighty Mango. The pouches are foil lined and opaque so they won’t let air or light in to mess up your tea.

I used the measurements, temperature and steeping time as indicated on the bag for all the teas.. I steeped the tea in a biodegradable teabag specifically designed for use with loose leaf teas.

As I drink primarily black tea, I started with the Earl Grey Rebel.

I loved this tea. I’m an Earl Grey drinker, but a lot of Earl Grey blends are really hit and miss. If the bergamot is too strong or the blend is off, you get this bitter taste in the back of your mouth or the tea is too astringent. This blend was spot on. The tea was strong and malty (which I like) and I got the hit of bergamot and citrus without it being bitter or leaving that odd dry feeling in my mouth. This is the exact Earl Grey blend I’ve been looking for — the bergamot and citrus is definitely there but is still mellow enough that you can really taste the Assam behind it. It’s aromatic, smooth and wonderful.

The bag of Earl Grey Rebel was gone in like two days. It was the ideal breakfast tea for me.

The next tea, Rainbow Chaser, wasn’t as much of a success. It is really, really pretty though:

Rainbow Chaser is a herbal tea that contains apple pieces, orange peel, blackberry leaves and peppermint. I’m pretty sure I see some cornflower in that blend too.

When I had my first cup the only flavor I got was lemon. I couldn’t taste the peppermint at all. I made several cups of each tea to ensure I was getting the right flavors and my steeping wasn’t off, but each time I got lemon and nothing else. It was a bummer.

I don’t drink a ton of herbal tea because I’m not at all caffeine sensitive and I can down black tea all day and still want to fall asleep at 8 pm, but I do really enjoy peppermint tea. I was really hoping to catch some of that flavor in Rainbow Chaser, but I never tasted peppermint at all.

Then it was on to Rooibos tea. I love rooibos and Vanilla Cupcake sounded heavenly. The blend advertises vanilla flavors, “velvet mouth-feel,” which is now the name of my band, and some banana chips.

My first cup tasted pretty weak, so I upped the amount of tea in the second cup. I find with rooibos that I have to add a lot more tea per cup than with black or green teas, and that may just be my personal taste.

I got a stronger hit of vanilla on the second cup. It’s still subtle though — it’s not like overwhelming vanilla flavoring and it didn’t have a perfumey flavor that sometimes happens with vanilla. I didn’t taste any banana. I enjoyed this blend, but it is subtle. If you’re looking for something that looks and smells like an actual cupcake, this isn’t it. I think had I added sugar it would have enhanced the “sweetness” of the vanilla flavor, but I take my tea black. Also my mouth feel was strictly normal.

Overall I enjoyed the Vanilla Cupcake blend, but it wasn’t something that blew me away. I’ve got other rooibos blends that I would turn to before going back to this one. Still the bag was gone in a week so…

The final tea was Mighty Mango, a sencha green tea with mango flavorings. When I looked at the blend there were no mango pieces, just green tea leaves.

This was another tea I really, really enjoyed. It’s a very smooth sencha, not at all grassy or bitter, and the mango flavor is pretty powerful. I was surprised at how fruity the first sips were. Also the flavor is definitely mango, not “anonymous fruit flavoring.” Once again I went through the entire bag in two days because I enjoyed this tea so much.

So what was my verdict? I give this subscription service a solid B. Only one of the teas was a total miss for me, two were outstanding, and one was enjoyable if not my favorite thing ever. I also really like subscription services and trying new teas.

Time to look at the economics. If you’re in the US, you’re looking at about $16.74 a month for the standard service. Now, I drank all this tea in a week so you might be thinking “holy shit that’s $17 for a week’s worth of tea!”

Yeah, but I drink like 6 – 8 cups of tea a day so…  (yes, yes I pee a lot). Also, I can drop that on one cup of coffee, every morning, for a week at Starbucks.  If you follow their measurements, you’re looking at 40 cups of tea, so 41 cents per cup.

If you live in the UK and you don’t have to pay shipping or convert to dollars, it’s even more economical.

I think the appeal of this service is really trying new things (and getting fun stuff in the mail) and I’m here for that. I’m also going order more of the Earl Grey Rebel from their site because I enjoyed it so much.

I’d recommend this service to my tea-drinking friends (especially across the pond). If nothing else, my sample introduced me to my new favorite Earl Grey blend and that basically made my whole week.

And! We have a coupon for anyone who would like to try this service! Use promo code LOVE which will entitle you to 50% off all subscription boxes. WOO – thank you to True Teas for the promo code!