I had mentioned in my What I Bought in December post that I was on a tea-drinking kick after my almost-ulcer episode and that I bought tea from Bon Temps, a newish direct-to-consumer brand that uses a corn-based tea bag for their organic teas. I’m no tea expert so take this review with a grain of salt, but since I bought it I thought I might as well review it for those who are interested.
First of all I found them through Instagram and was immediately drawn in by their 70’s Great Gatsby-esque packaging. Love the florals and the eyes. I also love that they use non-paper and non-plastic tea bags. Instead they use a biodegradable organic corn to hold their tea. I don’t drink a ton of tea so I don’t think the effects of the chemicals and plastic in the tea bags would technically affect me, but I could see this being a great benefit for heavy tea drinkers. And it would be nice to see this become standard for all tea bags some day.
I also love that the social arm of their brand gives $1000 grants to female creators. Starting in 2020 I’m making an effort to purchase from women-made/led brands. Like they say, you vote with your dollar so I plan to use my dollars to support females first. And it’s great to see Bon Temps support other women too.
I purchased the Gloria Steinem set because I was reading one of her books at the time. Also it came with the teas I wanted most: the green tea, the pu’erh (the most caffeinated one to replace my morning coffee), and the ginger-goji non-caffeinated tea.
So how did the teas taste? Great. Like I said, I’m no expert but all the teas tasted as you would expect. All three were straight-forward pleasant tasting teas. But I’m probably not going to reorder from them again because all tea bags were individually wrapped in plastic metal-foiled pouch. It’s frustrating that they went through all the trouble to make biodegradable tea bags but their whole packaging system is not biodegradable. I hope that they see the light and change it soon. Anyway for those looking for a lower waste lifestyle, I would probably recommend getting loose leaf teas (and locally in bulk too if possible). I’ll probably start looking into that once I finish these teas. Though I have to say, if you’re looking for a great gift for a tea-lover, Bon Temps teas are a great option. Even if they’re not perfect (and who is?), I think they’re on the path to get there and they’re doing good things already. If you’d like to try out their tea, this referral link will get you $10 off your first purchase.