Finding new bottled teas at Whole Foods

While in Whole Foods last week, I had to check out the latest bottled teas to see if there were any new offerings. Indeed there were, and I came home with two: from Cascara Tea and Charleston Tea Plantation. The cool-looking design on the Cascara Tea bottle immediately caught my eye, and then I was even more curious when I saw the words "from dried coffee cherries."

"This is Cascara, a clean and fruity tea brewed from dried coffee cherries, sourced directly from the award-winning coffee farms of Aida Batlle in El Salvador." This tea is said to be an herbal tea made from the dried cherries of the coffee plant, and it has only 10 calories per bottle and no sugars, so that's a plus. Now I know that true tea comes from the camellia sinensis plant, but I was intrigued by the idea of a tea coming from coffee. So what did it taste like? Sadly, it tasted like black tea that is oversteeped and unsweetened with a tart, bitter finish. Not a fan.

Happily, the next day I opened this absolutely delicious 16-ounce bottle of Charleston Tea Plantation's Green Tea with Mango. Mmm, mmm, mmm. It's just 70 calories per 8-ounce serving, and I felt like I was sipping pure mango. A lot of mango-flavored drinks taste like peaches, which I also love, but this one was definitely the real deal with the mango flavor. Ah. I’ll definitely be buying more of this tea when I see it in the store again!