Tea-sty Tuesday is back with

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea

And also it’s  the longest blog post title ever.  Woot.

So, this morning when I woke up and there was snow on the ground, it occurred to me. This is cold and flu season (which in case you’re wondering is what’s up with the dude over there.  He’s sick.)  My least favorite season next to allergy season!

There are few people in the world that hate cold and flu season more than me.  Not only do I not like being cold, I don’t like getting colds.  Fortunately, for me, there’s a tea for that.

I don’t know if I really believe in the healing power of echinacea, especially after it has been steeped in hot liquid for fifteen minutes, but there’s something about this tea.  I think it’s the fact it tastes like medicine, but drinking it makes me feel healthier.  Anyway, to the review.

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea

I wish I could take a formal stance on whether or not this stuff actually makes me feel better.  Sadly, as far as aroma and taste goes, Celestial Seasonings teas tend to rate a bit low for me in general and the Wellness tea is no exception.  Still, the minute I get the sniffles, I reach for a bag.  So, what am I to do but complain?

(Oh, and by the way, Celestial Seasonings, could you consider individually packaging your bags or at least separate the packages so the two aren’t stuck together?  I feel gross offering a tea bag to friends after my hands have been all over it!)

Anyway, how does Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea stack up?

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea: Ingredients

Echinacea is obviously the big ingredient and the tea packs a whopping 650 mg of the stuff.  (Can someone tell me if that’s good?)  Other than that, the tea is all natural and includes peppermint, licorice, star anise, and other flavoring ingredients.

I’m pretty sure this tea is an herbal tea, not a true tea itself, and mostly consists of the natural flavorings listed above and chicory.  Still, the tea gets high marks for caring about its ingredients.

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea: Aroma

It smells like a eucalyptus plant with menthol extract (which in many ways it is.)  So, in this humble blogger’s opinion, not very good.

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea: Taste

It tastes like a eucalyptus plant with menthol extract, which sadly is not a flavor even honey can  cover up.  So…um…next!

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea: Effects

Okay, so I’ve never done a study where all I drank was Celestial Seasonings’ tea when I don’t feel well.  I tend to slam orange juice, take vitamin C tablets, and eat raw garlic along with drinking the tea.  So I can’t be sure that it actually does anything.

On the other hand, when I have a cold, I don’t want to be without it.  And the literature is pretty good in favor of echinacea.

Celestial Seasonings Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea: Overall

I don’t know…I recommend Celestial Seasonings’ Echinacea Complete Care Wellness Tea during cold and flu season for the perceived effects and because I seem to have a little more superstitious medicine man in me than I’d care to admit.  It does not taste or smell good, but at least the taste  can be improved (not perfected) with sweetener.  Perhaps Marry Poppins was right: a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down?

So, with that said, I give this tea 2 cups out of 5.

Enjoy!

Thanks to bark for the picture.