Maker: Mighty Leaf
Type: Herbal
Brew: 1 heaping tablespoon to 12 oz boiling water, 5-7+ minutes
Notes: Comes only in loose leaf

One thing that’s disappointing about Celestial Seasonings’ Sleepytime is that I can never get through it in time, the stuff goes stale so quickly once you’ve opened the box. I could fix that by dumping my Sleepytime teabags into a tin—or I could try a higher quality loose leaf blend that was similar, and dump that into a tin.

The wonderful thing about full-leaf teas, even herbals, is that they’ll last longer than bagged tea, tinned or not. And the wonderful thing about Mighty Leaf teas is that they often add a little more to the mix than more widely available teas like Bigelow or Celestial Seasonings; in the case of Calming Moon, the licorice and fennel add the right notes to an already successful Sleepytime-like blend.

Is this tea as effective as normal Sleepytime? It’s not as effective as Sleepytime is for getting me to sleep, but at the same time it does have a calming effect on me before I even take the Ambien (and my jitters pre-Ambien are noticeable when I don’t drink it). It’s probably the mint that does it. Something like Sleepytime Extra is going to be far more effective than either; valerian root is a badass herb, and in Traditional Medicinals’ Nighty Night, the combination with passionflower is very nearly an insomnia killer for me.

Calming Moon is more of a better-tasting but less effective replacement of Sleepytime for me, and I drink it on a limited basis (when I need extra calming at night).

3/5—a sometimes pleasure.

Updated rating: 4/5—my nightly night-cap now. I really need extra calming, and having it arrive in a better-tasting package is worth more to me.