At the 2007 World Tea Expo, I stopped at the booth of Tea District. As I’m strolling along the showroom floor, the booth caught my eye. I read over some of their product information and grabbed a couple of samples that I blogged about last year. During my blogging of their teas, I discovered that Tea District is a locally owned manufacturer and importer of tea in St. Paul, MN. The one thing that stuck in my mind about this company was the fact that it was started by one woman’s passion to bring quality teas and tea related products to consumers. In an industry with a ton of competition, it requires a lot of guts to take the “bull by the horns” and start a new tea company. The Tea District offers a wide variety of tea products. They carry 12 blends of black, green, red, and herbal teas. Tea District’s teas are contained in bio-degradable round tea pods and packaged in a 100% recyclable tea canister. Note: with every purchase of Children’s Tribute Citrus Green Tea, five percent of the sales is donated to the Children’s Cancer Research Fund – www.ChildrensCancer.org.

At this year’s WTE, I stopped by and wanted to let them know that I admire their hard work. marTEA.com would like to wish Lindsey Valentini, President of Tea District, much success with her business. For a company that was started in 2005, you’re certainly off to an excellent start.

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This tisane was slightly out of my comfort zone. So, I’ll try not to be harsh. I took an open-minded approach when I tried this tea. The good news for a lot of you, it’s caffeine free because it does not contain tea. The package states it contains hibiscus, licorice root and natural herbs and raspberry flavoring. The bad news for me is that I could not take the raspberry flavoring. The herbal tea had an excellent raspberry scent. However, the overall taste of the herbal infusion did not agree with my taste buds. It reminded me of instant tea. It was hard not to pucker after a sip of this beverage. I enlisted my wife’s help to try this one. She’s not a big tea fan, but she drinks a lot of instant beverages. However, she didn’t really like this one. Keep in mind, this product comes in a round tea bag (no strings attached). It simply did not taste natural to my wife and me.

That said, I’ve had other Tea District products that I thoroughly enjoyed. This one just wasn’t for me. If you would like to try a caffeine free, raspberry flavored, herbal beverage that will make your mouth pucker, this is for you.

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Every now and then I get a pleasant surprise when trying new teas. I’ve been holding on to my Tea District tea for quite some time because I thought I always had something better to try. But this morning, I grabbed one of the round tea bags (no strings attached), and decided to give it a go. I boiled a pot of water. I placed the tea bag in my cup, and I poured the hot water right over the tea bag – nothing special. I let the tea infuse for about 4 minutes. When I tasted the tea, I was pleasantly surprised.

As a tea drinker, I enjoy all kinds of tea. From expensive top-grade loose leaf teas to inexpensive tea bags from Bigelow to Lipton, I like to give them all a go. And now that I’ve tried Tea District’s breakfast tea, I can say I enjoyed it more than their competitors.

The Tea District describes their breakfast tea as a mixture of China, Ceylon, Indian, and African leaves with hints of earl grey. I would rank this breakfast tea above Tazo, Lipton, and Bigelow. I could barely taste the earl grey, but the blend of teas made for an enjoyable cup. If you enjoy bagged breakfast teas, this is worth trying. The Tea District is a fairly new company, but they certainly exceeded my expectations.

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