Tea Sparrow February 2016 Subscription Box Review

Tea Sparrow is an awesome monthly subscription that delivers four packs of high quality tea to your doorstep! They’re the first tea subscription in North America and ship to both Canada and the States. They host tea parties right here in Vancouver to decide which teas to include in the box. In the interests of full disclosure I’m just saying if you guys ever need a pinch-drinker… I’m happy to help!

Please excuse the butchered packaging; I could not figure out that there actually was a seam under the tape because I couldn’t find it with my knife! But they include a chart of temperatures and steeping times for each type of tea. A general rule of thumb is that black, rooibos, and herbal are relatively safe to let steep for five minutes or longer — the flavour won’t change too much but will get stronger. With green and oolong you want to avoid over-steeping as they become bitter. Temperature is also very important; I have a tea kettle that has pre-programmed settings depending on the type of tea, which saves my sanity with how much tea I drink.

The information sheet is simple and the bags of tea are a generous size! I feel like I’ve overdosed on chocolate, strawberry, rose, and love in general this month (bring on March!) but as I do love all of these things, I’m not complaining.

February’s box included one herbal, one green, one black, and one rooibos. The Tea Sparrow website includes more details about each of the teas including a section where you can rate and review the selections! I really like when subscription boxes allow their customers to leave reviews — it’s more interactive and also helps them gauge their audience’s preference and taste. Tea Sparrow repackages the teas into their own branded pouches but includes information on where to purchase more of the tea.

Tisano Cacao Mint Organic Tea ($3.95 for 12g) The lighting in my kitchen is terrible, I’m sorry! This herbal blend is made of organic cacao and Egyptian peppermint. I really hate peppermint tea but when you add chocolate to it, I become a fan. This package is a generous 18g which will make about 6 cups of tea depending on how heavy-handed you are! Tisano is from California and they have multiple cacao tea blends (as well as chocolate products… dangerous!) The mint in this wasn’t overpowering which I appreciated.

Aromatica Fine Teas Snowflake ($6.25 for 50g) This smells heavenly in the bag and is even more delicious in a cup! Aromatica has worked with Tea Sparrow since 2011 and Snowflake is one of their blends created for Tea Sparrow. It’s won awards, and I can taste why. This is a great dessert tea — you can see the slivers of almond in the leaves, and the familiar cherry tones come out as the leaves unfurl in your cup. This was probably my favourite tea in the box.

Elmwood Inn Cherry Rose Green ($9.75 for 3.5oz) Green tea and I have a difficult relationship. I only enjoy it when it’s accompanied by sushi, really. But I know the health benefits are numerous so I’ve been trying to branch out. Honestly, this tea is nearly identical to another green tea I already have (Cherry Blossom by David’s Tea) and sorely neglect due to my love/hate relationship with it, so I didn’t taste this and will be gifting it to a friend.

Tea Desire Market Spice Sweet Cinnamon ($5.50 for 50g) This is a rooibos blend so it’s decaffeinated. It’s very strongly scented of cinnamon — which I hate, personally. I will be gifting this to a friend, too! I poked around Tea Desire’s website and learned they’re a Canadian company as well!

Tea Sparrow is a convenient and fun way to expose yourself to different kinds of tea. There was a great variety and I enjoyed two of the four teas, so not a bad success rate for my first month! I also was introduced to four more tea companies I hadn’t heard of before and would absolutely order from based on my experience with their product. The only thing missing with a subscription box like this would be the inclusion of paper filters, making it a ready to gift subscription to someone who might not have tried looseleaf tea, and a handy convenience for someone who already loves them. But overall I think this subscription is a great value and featured some great teas for February.

Visit Tea Sparrow to subscribe or find out more!