Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box review: Join the community

If you're only interested in the Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box, that's great. But if you want more, Plum Deluxe has a blog you can follow with tea tips, recipes, and more. There is also an active online community for Plum Deluxe customers to connect with like-minded tea aficionados.

More than tea

Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box: Features

Each Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box is curated and hand-blended by Plum Deluxe staff specifically for the subscription boxes. The loose-leaf teas are organic and naturally flavored.

A Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box comes with more than just tea. When you join the tea club, you get access to a private and supportive online community. The community even includes sub-groups for knitting, recipes, books, and more. Of course, not everyone is into the whole idea of making online friends around their tea-drinking habits, but this will certainly appeal to a lot of people. Plum Deluxe's website and blog are full of recipes, tea brewing and serving tips, meditation, downloadable coloring pages, music playlists, and more. There are frequent discounts offered on the tea subscription boxes as well as other products on Plum Deluxe's site.

The standard tea subscription box contains a one-ounce pouch of tea, which is enough to make 15-20 cups. Brewing instructions call for one teaspoon of tea to 8 ounces of water. Also included in each shipment are detailed brewing instructions, a little background about each tea, and a second pouch with a tiny sample of another tea: just enough to brew one cup. There is no infuser included, so you'll need to use your own. I received a tiny sample of the Hammock Blend and a one-ounce pouch of the Cran-Razz Refresher.

• Hammock Blend Black Tea: Black Tea, Orange Peels, Natural Crème Flavor, Love, Gratitude. This is a nice tea with the barest hint of orange.
• Cran-Razz Refresher Black Tea: Black Tea, Rooibos Tea, Cranberries, Raspberries, Hibiscus, Orange Peel, Raspberry Leaves, Raspberry Essence, Love, Gratitude. Good tea; raspberry is really the only flavor I can sense, and it's fairly subtle.

Since Plum Deluxe marketing indicates such flavorful teas, I was surprised that the teas I tried tasted like, well, tea. If I tried really hard, I could sense a hint of orange in the Hammock Blend and a hint of raspberry in the Cran-Razz Refresher, but I'm not sure I could have teased out those flavors if I were tasting them blind. I don't mean the teas were bad at all; to the contrary, they were both very nice black teas. I just expected a bit more flavor based on what I'd read.

When you sign up for the Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box, you can choose if caffeine is okay for you or if you want only caffeine-free teas. If you have allergies, you can let Plum Deluxe know, and you will not receive any teas with those ingredients. Other than that, the Plum Deluxe team will be making your selections. You do not fill out a flavor profile or make your preferences known.

The subscription automatically renews; you can cancel anytime. Note that there is not a money-back guarantee, so if you're fairly choosy, this might not be the tea subscription box for you.

Tea community

Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box: What I like

We're spending more time at home than ever, and so I find myself doing more socializing online than usual. Plum Deluxe's tea community is a nice option for tea subscribers. I like that the tea is naturally flavored, organic, and hand-blended.

Very subtle flavor

Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box: What I don't like

The Plum Deluxe teas sounded a lot more flavor-intense than they tasted. The tea itself was good, it's just that the fun list of flavorful-sounding ingredients didn't translate to my tongue all that well. Another person might actually find that preferable, so it's just my opinion. I don't mind the "surprise" aspect of the tea subscription box, as being pushed out of your comfort zone is part of the reason to get a subscription box. But I'd still like to fill out a flavor profile if I have my druthers, so I can get more teas I'm more likely to enjoy

Get a grip

Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box: Bottom line

The Plum Deluxe Tea Subscription Box includes a one-ounce pouch (15-20 cups) of the tea of the month, plus a single-cup sample of another tea. You can choose whether you want a caffeine-free or regular subscription, and if you have allergies, you let Plum Deluxe know so those ingredients can be avoided. You cannot otherwise choose your flavor profile; the Plum Deluxe team curates and hand-blends your teas. In addition to the tea, your tea subscription gets you access to Plum Deluxe's active online community of tea aficionados. I found the teas I tried to be tasty, but the flavors quite subtle.