Would you believe it if someone told you that there is a cinnamin flavored tea that has the full body of a caffeinated tea or cup of coffee if its brewed long enough and also is sweet enough so that it tastes as if it is sweetened — yet it is caffeine and sugar and artificial sweetener free? It does exist: Good Earth Caffeine Free Original.
I’m a huge tea lover. It really started when I visited India as a student and later went back to New Delhi to write for newspapers. Even in journalism school I carried a thermos of REAL chai that I made myself in my tiny student apartment. Other students tried it and wanted some.
But I was told about caffeine and did have trouble sleeping and a doctor urged me to cut down. So for many years I tinkered with herbal teas. Many were quite good but I didn’t stay with any of them since in the end most were weak and required lots of sugar.
Fast forward to today where I have batches of superb Twinings English Breakfast tea, CostCo’s great Green Tea and Constant Comment’s classic orange peel spice. But I have had NO herbal teas since they just have not been able to “replace” the “real thing.” And decaffeinated teas? Don’t make me laugh. They never taste the same as the original.
Until now.
Two weeks ago I was offered a cup of Good Earth tea. It was like drinking a cup of a tea heavily flavored with cinnamon. I loved the flavor and asked the person how much sugar she had put in. “None it is naturally sweet.” I couldn’t believe it but bought a box
And then I took it home: YES it is NATURALLY SWEET. It doesn’t taste like artificial sweetner and none is in there at all.
The tea blender apparently managed to pull off an AUTHENTICALLY NATURALLY SWEET tea due by mixing some of the key ingredients. A few: Chickory Root, Cinnamon, Peppermint, Anise Seed, Ginger Root, Orange Peel — and more.
Together, these ingredients trick your tongue totally so you would swear it was REAL, sugar-sweetened tea.
And there’s another huge boost: the tea also has a heavy shot of Red Rooibos, which is consider to have many qualities including anti-oxidant, anti-aging and relaxation.
One trick if you ever order it: if you let it seep a short time it will come out slightly sweet with a more subtle flavor. Let it seep longer and the flavor is stronger and the sweetness is greater. I prefer it to seep a while.
In many many years of tea drinking, this tea fanatic hasn’t found anything quite like it. So now I have three boxes — and will constantly keep it in my kitchen.
My tongue hasn’t been tricked so easily since eating a fast food hamburger and thinking it was actually meat..
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.