Of all the teas I have sampled from Hari Tea, all are beautiful and delicious teas, but I chose this tea to review first because it was the most surprising tea I had the honor of sampling from Hari Tea.

The title of the tea is ‘New Sensation’ and is part of Hari Teas’  Inspirational Line of Teas.   The first thing that truly impresses me about this tea is its packaging.  It comes packaged in a beautiful embossed cardboard box, and inside is a cellophane containing the tea bags, which is tied with the most adorable little twine bow.

Once you until the twine bow from the cellophane, the tea bags are what are truly incredible, and indeed unique to the tea industry!   This tea is packaged in individual teabags which are made from pure cotton teabags.  Each cotton teabag has fairly nice sized holes for brewing, and has a pure cotton string, which is carefully sewed onto the small paper tag which includes complete brewing instructions and information on the tea and Hari Tea’s information as well.   In short these are wonderfully eco-friendly teabags which are impressive to look at and makes your tea experience much more exceptional!

Hari Tea describes this tea as:

What adult doesn’t look back and wistfully remember a time when he or she had more plentiful energy? We spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to satisfy the longing for the feeling of newness – eagerness to take on life with no thought of limitation. we love the old feeling of a new sensation. And we certainly lover the refreshing taste of hibiscus and mint.

At the bottom of the front of the package it says Hibiscus and Mint.  This was the reason the tea was so uniquely surprising to me, because I didn’t even open it for two weeks.   Tea Companies of the World, please take note:  Hibiscus is yucky.  We know it’s a cheap filler, we know it’s in almost every fruit blend in the world, but seriously, it’s bitter, it’s tart, and it has no place in tea.  In my own humble opinion, the use of hibiscus in tea should be discontinued, period.

So when I initially decided to give it a try, I was hesitant because of my dislike for hibiscus.   And of course the hibiscus was present, when you put hibiscus into a blend it’s extremely difficult not to be able to pick it out among the flavors.  However it was when I read the other ingredients listed on the side of the package that I decided this was worth a try, and I’m very glad I did!

The ingredients are:

Hibiscus (21%), fennel, rosehips, spearmint (7%), peppermint (7%), cinnamon, green rooibos, apple, roasted chicory, blackberry leaf, black pepper, ginseng extract, coconut, turmeric root and rose petals.

WOW.  That is quite the mélange of ingredients and flavors.  After looking at the ingredients and tasting the tea, I honestly think the combination of hibiscus and rosehips (flavors which are very similar, tart and bitter) was too much of a tartness, and could be removed completely from the ingredients and you would have an exceptional and unique tea.  If it were me, I would replace hibiscus and rosehips with either lemon or lemon zest and lemongrass, or to a lime flavor.  Lime and Mint or Lemon Mint would be better than Hibiscus and Mint.

However with that being said, and the long list of ingredients and flavors, the flavor of this tea completely surprises me.  Yes it has a tartness that is easily identified as hibiscus and rosehips, but this tea goes much deeper than that and is remarkably smooth without any hint of bitterness, which is very surprising.  You can taste a slight licorice flavor from the fennel, and the mints are definitely present and delicious.  I would like to taste more of the chicory and the coconut in this as I felt they were good flavor inclusions in the ingredients list but they didn’t really stand out in the overall flavor profile.

This tea is indeed very refreshing whether you take it hot or iced.  This does make an exceptional iced tea, and I prefer to add sweetener to this one although it can be taken with or without sugar.  Don’t add milk or creamers to this one, it would clash horribly with the tartness of the hibiscus and the mint flavors.  The aim of this tea is to inspire and to refresh with a ‘new sensation’ and I think they have definitely achieved that goal.   In fact this is possibly one of the very few teas which include hibiscus and rosehips as ingredients that I would not only enjoy drinking but would drink on a regular basis.

Refreshing, invigorating, and great for any time of day or night!