Sips By is a new tea discovery subscription box based in Austin, Texas. You fill out a survey of the types of tea you like and they send you four different varieties from different tea brands to try out, enough for 15 cups, or 45 if you like to re-steep your leaves. This subscription is $15 a month.
The survey asks what types of tea you like, how you like to prepare your tea, do you prefer tea bags or loose leaf, and so on. You can also choose “all” as your answer if you’re really adventurous. For flavors, I chose fruit flavored, floral scented, and smoke scented.
For the types of tea, I chose herbal, black, chai, and oolong. Black is my favorite type of tea, matcha is my least favorite. I think I picked chai on accident, or maybe I picked it for my daughter, who likes chai tea lattes. You can also pick your caffeine level. I picked 4; 5 was the highest. Now I just had to sit back and wait for my tea to show up.
I found a product information card inside my box. The owner, Staci, shared with me her reason for starting this subscription:
Our goal is to take the leg-work out of all the time and wasted money that goes into a tea-curious person or tea lover discovering teas they’ll love!
I’ve held back from ordering or buying teas that I am unfamiliar with due to the minimum orders required and being unsure of the quality of new-to-me brands. I tend to stick to my usual suspects but sometimes I like to try something new and this subscription is a great way to find new likes.
I loved the info on my card! It gave the tea name, amount of tea and water to use, water temperature, steeping time, and serving suggestions. They also had coupon codes so I can stock up on my favorites. Nice!
I received a reusable muslin tea bag (I found a similar one here, 98¢) filled with…
…10 disposable tea bags (90¢)! I have two different tea steepers, a French press and a Teavana PerfectTea, so I don’t have a need for these items but I love that Sips By thought of everything! These are the coolest tea bags I have ever seen; they have a drawstring to close them securely! You can find them here.
Catspring Pedernales Green Yaupon ($1.50) doesn’t contain any true tea leaves from the camellia sinensis plant but it does come from the only shrub native to North America that contains caffeine! I wasn’t a fan of this bitter brew, but I might give it another try by cold brewing to see if it’s more palatable that way.
I enjoyed Harney & Sons Earl Grey Imperial ($4), which is a classic choice and has a stronger touch of bergamot than Harney’s usual Earl Grey. Lovely!
I brewed Pinky Up Tiramisu Dessert Black Tea ($1) as directed and must have used too little since it was weak in body, however, the taste was fabulous! I will use 1 1/2 teaspoons next time and that should do it. This one would be best steeped in the disposable bags since the white chocolate melted and left a coating in my usual tea maker.
I couldn’t find the ingredients list for this tea but I can see that it has black tea, coffee beans, and white chocolate at a minimum. I’m not sure what the other things are in this picture!
See, too weak for my taste but I loved the sweet flavor and notes of almond, coffee, and caramel. This looks murky due to the melted white chocolate bits. Also, despite its name, I drank this in the morning rather than as a dessert since I prefer to drink herbal tea in the evening.
Oohh, an herbal tea! Raspberry Pecan Rooibos by Zhi Tea ($1.10) organic tea features red rooibos, pecans, and natural raspberry flavor and turned a beautiful color when steeped.
See those pretty pieces of pecan? This tea had both nutty and berry flavors and they were surprisingly great together!
I rated my teas online to see if that will help with future shipments. I made a mistake in rating my teas (I meant to give the Tiramisu a 4) and was unable to change it but there was a spot to leave a comment and so I am sure that will be taken care of by the very helpful team at Sips By.
Overall, I really enjoyed my Sips By experience and look forward to seeing what I might discover in future boxes! I would like to see a way to further customize my box or make changes to my preferences if possible. I liked trying my new teas and was happy to have a new herbal to drink in the evening, while the caffeinated ones will help get my day started in a delightful way. The presentation of this box is nice and the product information card is very detailed. While the value isn’t very high, most tea boxes are lucky if they break even with the price plus shipping, and shipping is included PLUS I don’t have a graveyard of teas moldering away in my tea drawer.
What do you think of Sips By? Let me know in the comments along with your favorite type of tea!
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