Benner Tea Co. Tea Advent Calendar

The Aldi gods have smiled upon me.

For years, I’ve been begging for Aldi to sell a tea Advent calendar for the holiday season. I pointed out that Aldi sells Advent calendars for almost everything else under the sun, including a coffee calendar. So, why not a tea calendar as well?

Well, Advent calendars hit Aldi stores shelves just the other day. I showed up at store opening to pick up some of the advertised calendars — a basic milk chocolate calendar, some chocolate truffle calendars, and the Squishmallows calendar.

Lo and behold, a tea calendar sat on the shelves among all the other Advent calendars. Aldi did not advertise this tea calendar. We never personally saw it advertised online or in any print ads from Aldi. When Aldi sells limited-time specials that it doesn’t advertise, our Aldi Reviewer writers refer to the practice as “stealth releasing.”

This tea calendar is an Aldi Find, which means it’s only in stores for a short time. Each store gets just one shipment, and it’s gone after it sells out. Aldi does not offer online ordering for this if it’s out of stock at your local store.

The Benner Tea Co. Tea Advent Calendar cost $7.99 at my local store at the time of writing. This contains 48 tea bags. The box states “2 for Each Day.” That comes out to about 17 cents per tea bag. There’s a total of 3.38 ounces of tea in this calendar, which is about $2.36 per ounce.

This was packed in Sri Lanka and contains a “blend of Ceylon and other origin green, black and herbal tea.” It’s made with natural and artificial flavors.

This contains an impressive array of 24 different flavors, with two of each flavor so you can share with a friend or relative, enjoy two cups a day, or stretch the calendar out beyond the Advent season.

The instructions are typical for tea. They recommend using one tea bag per cup. Pour in boiling water and stir. Allow to infuse for 3-5 minutes.

Most of the tea (22 out of 24 flavors, to be precise) is either black tea or green tea, which both contain caffeine, with the black teas containing more caffeine than the green teas. The only two caffeine-free teas in this calendar are an Orange Cream Rooibos and a Honey Chamomile Herbal Tea.

Spoiler: the tea flavors on the back of the calendar are listed in the same order as the numbered doors inside the calendar. Many of the green teas are heavily front loaded in the calendar. Among the first five days, there are four green teas and only one black tea. It would be nice if similar teas weren’t grouped together so much, so we’d get more variety from day to day.

All of the flavors (with ingredients) are as follows. I’m gradually adding thoughts on how the tea tastes as my husband and I slowly drink our way through the calendar.

1. Apple Cinnamon Green Tea, with green tea, apple flavor, and cinnamon flavor. Contains caffeine. This has a mild apple flavor, but I don’t think it has much cinnamon flavor, and the green tea flavor itself is on the weak side as well.
2. Cozy Cocoa Black Tea, with black tea and chocolate flavor. Contains caffeine. This has a noticeable chocolate flavor, but I couldn’t taste much black tea.
3. Merry Mint Green Tea, with green tea and spearmint flavor. Contains caffeine. I like this flavor. It has mild minty notes.
4. Mandarin Ginger Green Tea, with green tea, mandarin flavor, and ginger flavor. Contains caffeine. This flavor is okay, with good mandarin orange flavor.
5. Holiday Pear Green Tea, with green tea, pear flavor, and ginger flavor. Contains caffeine. I don’t think this has much pear flavor.
6. Vanilla Chai Black Tea, with black tea, vanilla flavor, and masala chai flavor. Contains caffeine. This one is pretty good, with chai notes and a nice scent. It goes well with just a bit of honey or sweetener.
7. Chocolate Caramel Black Tea, with black tea, chocolate flavor, and caramel flavor. Contains caffeine. This is fine. It tastes best with just a bit of honey or other sweetener to help draw out the chocolate and caramel flavors.
8. Zesty Orange Black Tea, with black tea, orange flavor, and vanilla flavor. Contains caffeine. This is decent, but the orange flavor tastes a bit off or artificial.
9. Earl Grey Lavender Black Tea, with black tea, bergamot flavor, and lavender flavor. Contains caffeine. This is a good Earl Grey tea with floral notes.
10. Cinnamon Spice Black Tea, with black tea, and cinnamon flavor. Contains caffeine. This black tea is okay, but it doesn’t have the strongest cinnamon flavor.
11. Peppermint Bark Tea, with black tea, chocolate flavor, and spearmint flavor. Contains caffeine.
12. Mulled Apple Green Tea, with green tea, rosemary herb, and apple flavor. Contains caffeine.
13. Cinnamon Pear Green Tea, with green tea, cinnamon flavor, and pear flavor. Contains caffeine.
14. Orange Cream Rooibos Tea, with rooibos herb and orange flavor. Caffeine free.
15. Earl Grey Lemon Ginger Black Tea, with black tea, lemon flavor, ginger flavor, and bergamot flavor. Contains caffeine.
16. Eggnog Black Tea, with black tea, cinnamon flavor, and vanilla flavor. Contains caffeine.
17. Chocolate Chai Black Tea, with black tea, chocolate flavor, and chai flavor. Contains caffeine.
18. Honey Chamomile Herbal Tea, with chamomile herb and honey flavor. Caffeine free.
19. Candied Almonds Black Tea, with black tea, strawberry flavor, and almond flavor. Contains caffeine.
20. Sugared Pear Black Tea, with black tea, pear flavor, and caramel flavor. Contains caffeine.
21. Vanilla Caramel Black Tea, with black tea, vanilla flavor, and caramel flavor. Contains caffeine.
22. Earl Grey Honey Black Tea, with black tea, bergamot flavor, and honey flavor. Contains caffeine.
23. Apple Chai Black Tea, with black tea, apple flavor, and masala chai flavor. Contains caffeine.
24. Espresso Black Tea, with black tea and coffee flavor. Contains caffeine.

It was nice to see that this calendar has actual tea bags and not the plastic cups. Aldi released a K-Cup-style tea cup collection earlier this fall that was underwhelming to both me and my husband, as we don’t really like the weaker flavor of many K-Cup teas.

The tea in this calendar is fine, but it’s not gourmet or high-end. I noticed how the various teas contain “flavor” among the ingredients, such as ginger flavor, pear flavor, cinnamon flavor, honey flavor, chocolate flavor, etc. I’m assuming that means they don’t contain actual ginger, dried pear, cinnamon, honey, chocolate, and so on. I feel like this gives some of the teas a less robust or complex flavor overall. They’re not bad, but they’re not the best teas I’ve ever had either.

The Verdict:

The Benner Tea Co. Tea Advent Calendar features 24 different flavors of tea, with two tea bags of each flavor, for a total of 48 tea bags. Most of these are flavored black teas or flavored green teas and contain caffeine. Only two teas in the calendar are caffeine free. That aside, the calendar contains an interesting mix of flavors and is an intriguing buy for tea lovers this Christmas season.

The flavors are okay so far, although not necessarily as strong or as good as some other teas we’ve had. We’ll update our review as we keep drinking our way through the calendar.