Best Tea Subscription Boxes

Best Overall: Blendbee

Why We Chose It:  The price of the tea (per cup) is reasonable, while pre-blended teas are filled with unique flavors which are ideal for individuals who like to explore new teas.

Pros
Eccentric tea blends
Organic or wild-crafted ingredients
Supports small and fair-trade farms

Cons
Personalized blends not available for club members

This woman-owned company believes a good cup of tea makes everything better. The website is easy to navigate, and our queries received prompt replies from the company's owner herself.

Each monthly shipment costs $25 and shipping is free. The tea box includes two, 2-ounce bags of loose leaf tea, which brews 40-60 cups of tea. At 50 cents per cup, it holds the middle ground for all of the monthly subscriptions we reviewed. In addition, Blendbee offers monthly subscribers a choice of caffeinated or caffeine-free teas or a combination of both. Customers can receive subscriptions monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, and skipping a shipment is easy.

If you fall in love with one of your monthly teas, you can purchase it through the company's storefront without a subscription. The store page also sells tea equipment and accessories for brewing teas.

Best for Personalized Tea: Free Your Tea

Why We Chose It:  Free Your Tea prides itself on personalizing its customers' loose leaf tea selections.

Pros
Customers get teas based on their likes
Monthly and quarterly shipments available
Personalized gift options

Cons
Non-members can't purchase individual teas

Free Your Tea's founder Knud Berthelsen wanted to create a space for people to unearth and try high-quality teas from around the world, and he accomplishes that through personalized tea subscriptions.

Personalization is based on your tea preferences and how you rate teas in the sampler and later teas, making it a truly personalized tea service. Tea subscription gift-giving is easy and allows the recipient to personalize their boxes as well.

The company's website is easy to navigate and answers most questions one would have. In addition, you're actually prompted to ask more questions; when we did that, we received a quick response.

There are options for regular, caffeine-free, and iced teas. Monthly and quarterly deliveries are available. Pricing starts at $25 for a month-to-month subscription and drops to $23, $20, and $18 if you prepay for three, six, or 12 months. Shipping to U.S. addresses is free, while international destinations carry a shipping fee of $5-$10.

Best Value: Tea Runners

Why We Chose It:  Tea Runners gives you the best high-quality tea for your money. It ships tea from companies that are Global Tea Champions, which subscribers may not have or tried otherwise.

Pros
Best bang for your buck
Four types of tea box subscriptions
Almost all teas are organic

Cons
Clunky process for customizing boxes
Preferences not stored

Tea Runners strives to provide its customers with the highest quality teas on a schedule that fits their needs.

With four different boxes—Original, Pure Tea, All Black Tea, and Herbal—customers can select and customize a monthly shipment that suits their preferences. The Pure Tea Box is just that: no blended, flavored, or herbal teas. The Herbal Tea Box includes caffeine-free herbal teas. Switching your initial box selection is easy to do on the sleek website. Customers rave about the beautiful packaging and the quality and freshness of the teas.

Gift subscriptions are also available, and though gift recipients can't customize their first box (since it's a surprise), they can customize subsequent shipments. The cost for the Original, All Black Tea, and Herbal boxes is between $22 to $ 26 per month, while the Pure Tea box is $24 to $30 per month.Discounts are applied to customers who commit to three-, six- and 12-months' worth of shipments.

Shipping is free to U.S. and Canadian addresses, while international destinations are $8.

Best for Unique Blends: Art of Tea

Why We Chose It:  You can pick from five different options of hand-blended and custom-crafted teas and botanicals ranging from Classic to the Explore Collection. In addition, the company's single-origin teas allow you to discover rare teas.

Pros
Rare, single-origin blends available
Details about each included on packaging

Cons
Rare blends come in small quantities
No customization

As the leading seller of organic and specialty teas, Art of Tea's monthly tea subscriptions bring teas of the world to you. With three-, six-, or 12-month subscriptions, you can choose how long you commit to receiving your boxes. Besides the classics, it offers caffeine-free, exotic, and purer (single-origin) boxes, which can suit many preferences.

The website is full of information in the form of tea recipes, educational articles on the history and culture of tea, and the option to host virtual tea parties. Three-month subscriptions are almost $75, six-month subscriptions are about $120, and 12-month subscriptions are over $230. Art of Tea ships to the U.S. and its territories.

The one drawback worth noting is that the rare, single-origin blends included in the Single Origin box come in 2-ounce sizes versus 4 ounces for other teas.