Simple Loose Leaf is a monthly loose leaf tea subscription box. Choose from the Classic Tea Box (which contains some caffeinated teas and some herbal teas) or the Decaf Tea Box.
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This is a review of the Classic Tea, $9 a month, box.
About Simple Loose Leaf
The Subscription Box: Simple Loose Leaf
The Cost: $9/month + shipping. Save with longer subscriptions.
The Products: four different hand-packaged loose leaf teas; this is a review of the standard (caffeinated) box and includes a black tea, a green tea, an oolong, and an herbal tea (the types received per month may vary a little – you won’t always get an oolong, for example)
Ships to: The United States for $2.99 and Canada for $9.49
Simple Loose Leaf July 2018 Review
There isn’t a monthly theme, and there is already brewing information on each pouch of tea (as you will see below), but there was a simple brochure this month. (As an aside, I am a fan of the new, smaller box – less cardboard waste.):
Here is the booklet that came with this shipment.
4 Reusable Linen Tea Filters
If you are new to drinking loose leaf tea, not to worry. Simple Loose Leaf has you covered with these reusable tea filter bags. I used these to brew this month’s teas and they worked quite well. You’ll get a new set of 4 bags every month, too. I seem to remember past months’ bags being bleached so these unbleached ones are a nice change of pace.
Tropical Black (10g)
This is a fun one, and great for summer. The base is an Assam black tea so it is pretty familiar to a Western palate. There are a lot of fun flowers and other inclusions but what stood out most to me was the coconut (which totally worked). I predict this one will disappear from my office within the week. (Just to be clear, I mean I will drink it all myself. I don’t hand out loose tea to my coworkers…)
Green Berry Delight (10g)
This is the herbal tea for the month and it would be really good as a non-caffeinated iced tea. The base is green rooibos and there are various flowers for color as well as currants and rhubarb pieces and some added berry flavors. In this instance, the rhubarb does not make it too tart but really just serves to highlight the berry.
Lily Yin Hao (10g)
This is a green tea with lily pieces. I don’t think the lily pieces add much to the flavor, but they do make it look nice. This is a strongly Asian-styled green tea and it may be a bit of an adjustment to people more familiar with Lipton or Bigelow (not knocking that, we all started drinking tea somewhere and I started with supermarket brands like those). This one did a good job of suppressing my appetite, too! (Dragonwell green doesn’t do that for me any longer so it’s nice to find a new one that works.)
White Tipped Oolong (10g)
This is a milder oolong than some we’ve received in the past and it doesn’t take on an odd flavor if steeped too long, so it would actually be a really good oolong to get started with, if you’re easing yourself into this style of tea. Although I do like fun, flavored blends, sometimes it is nice to get some plain tea as well, and I suspect I will finish this one before the week is out, as well.
Verdict: This subscription is only $11.99 (including shipping to the US), so you can think of this as getting four teas for $3 each. There’s enough in each bag to brew about 5 cups (if you measure, which I admittedly usually don’t), which works out to about 60 cents per cup, with the bags thrown in as a nice extra. The teas this month were not yet available in the Simple Loose Leaf shop (but they may show up there eventually) so I haven’t linked or provided pricing; these are often exclusive blends and/or hard-to-find cultivars, often not available in retail packaging at these small sample sizes, and it’s a great way to try some new blends before committing to a full-size purchase.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No, boxes ship on the first of the month so your first box would be August's.
Coupon - Use code SUBADDICT to get $2 off any Simple Loose Leaf quarterly order!
Value Breakdown: At $11.99 per month (including shipping), you are paying about $3 per tea.
Check out all of our Simple Loose Leaf Team Box reviews and the Drinks Subscription Box List for more tea subscription boxes!
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What did you think of Simple Loose Leaf? Do you get any tea subscriptions?
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