With so many different brands of chamomile tea out there, it's hard to decide which one is the best, especially if, like me, you only buy one box at a time and drink it until it's gone.
I admit I never thought there was much difference between one brand or the other. After all chamomile tea is chamomile tea. While the differences between the teas are not very big, they are there.
The packaging alone can make a difference in how fresh the tea leaves will be by the time they make it into your cup. Even though they are all dried leaves, the older the leaf the worse the taste.
1. The Brands
I live in a small town and most of the grocery stores around here carry only popular brands. My choice of chamomile tea was limited but to make it easy on myself I picked the four that I thought were the best known around here: Tazo, Twinings, Celestial Seasonins, and Carrington.
One thing I didn't realize until I began this test was that Tazo tea was not a pure chamomile tea. It's a mix of chamomile, rose petals and other herbs, but since I've already set it all up at that point, I decided to include it in my results.
2. Tea Bags
Tazo and Twinings pack each tea bag separately, which should help keep the tea leaves fresh and both have a string with which to pull the bag out of the tea cup.
Celestial Seasonings has a small somewhat seal-able pouch inside the box to keep the leaves fresh, but I found the seal to be unreliable. Unless you're very careful, the pouch folds in an awkward way making closing it neatly nearly impossible.
Carrington tea bags on the other hand, are all inside a plastic bag that does not seal, nor does the box come in a plastic wrapper to at least keep it fresh until it makes it to your home.
As for the amount of tea leaves, Twinings seemed to have more in this case. Tazo has also a decent amount of tea leaves, but as I mentioned above, it also contains rose petals and herbs. How much of the volume is actual chamomile is hard to tell. Carrington tea bags had the least amount of leaves, which I suspect had an impact on the final results.
3. Color and Taste
I kept the tea bags in the water for five minutes to make sure the leaves had a chance to steep and release their full flavor.
I've been drinking Celestial Seasonings teas for a long time, so I thought I would have a clear winner here, but, in an attempt to be fair, I approached this test with an open mind. The end results between Celestial Seasonings and Twinings were very close. The color was the same and the flavor was similar though I found Twinings to have a more grassy or chamomile flavor, which I liked.
I refrain from giving an opinion on Tazo chamomile tea. It was obvious that all those additions gave it a darker color and a slight variation to the taste. I could definitely taste the rose petals more than the chamomile.
The Carrington tea was the lightest in color. It also made a difference in the taste. It was much lighter than the other teas. In fact, I could barely taste the chamomile. It wasn't until I added honey that the flavor became more distinct.
4. My Personal Favorite
Based on the results, I've decided that Twinings is the clear winner, but as tastes change over time it might change as well. Plus, there are plenty of other brands out there that I haven't tried yet. I might redo this test once I manage to find other chamomile teas.
What is your preferred brand of chamomile or any other tea?
