Trader Joe's

If you aren’t careful this pleasantly tasting tea can turn bitter and undrinkable.

I was able to make 2 cups of tea for each tea bag. If you don’t steep it too much, I stuck closer to 3 minutes with boiling water, you’ll avoid the bitter aftertaste, but just a little over and you’ll end up with an almost undrinkable tea.

It’s an okay budget tea less the occasions I over steeped it, but I have to agree with a previous reviewer who said they’re just going to avoid Trader Joe’s teas. It’s not one of their better offerings regardless of flavor.

Water: 8oz

Leaves: tea bag

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: 5m

Aroma: apple, citrus

Color: Ruby Red

Clarity: Great

Taste: I spotted this tea for the first time a few days ago to at trader Joe’s. Seeing it again for the 2nd time I decided to give it a try. The packaging of this tea was different as the individual envelopes that contained the tea bags were clear. The aroma from the dry bag wasn’t that fragrant. As for steeping when the water was poured over it gradually released a ruby red hue, accompanied by a apple/citrus aroma. The clarity was great as i could see the bottom of my cup. As for the taste it’s more so tart than anything, no real flavor really stood out, simply hot tart water with a rich color. I most likely won’t will be reaching for a second cup.

Initially this was not a favorite tea for me. It came through with very weak tasting notes and, accidentally, out of boredom I began to dunk the tea bag which infused a lot more of the flavor into the tea.

I pick up on the cinnamon and black tea as it steeps. Flavor wise the cinnamon rules the show. The ginger is barely noticeable, a good thing for me, as I’m not a fan of ginger.

Trader Joe’s tends to be hit/miss tea for me with their tea offerings. Yes, I prefer loose leaf tea, but some nights (or mornings) I’m lazy and don’t want to put forth more effort than warming my kettle and using a tea bag.

I brought my water to a rolling boil and did not bother to remove the tea bag as the flavor never got bitter or strong enough to call for it. In fact, I was up to 3 tea bags (from prior steeps) before I emptied my cup and started over (on my 4th steep now).

I haven’t found it necessary to add any sugar or milk, but I did add some milk on this most recent brew just to see what I thought and I found it to be decent but unnecessary.

If I didn’t accidentally dunk the tea bag this tea would have gotten a much lower rating. Mixing the tea around saved it and it will, likely, make its way into my tea rotations this holiday season.

Hot Tea Review:

The aroma I pick up is a nice divide between the tea and mango. I allowed the tea to steep for 5 minutes at 200 degrees. The tea smells lovely and I hope the flavor carries through as I await the steep to complete.

The fruit flavor is lost under the black tea. The black tea tastes strong enough that it’s got a bit of a bitter aftertaste after a 5 minute steep. I’d probably do a 4 minute steep in the future. In order to draw out the mango flavor, I needed to added some sweeteners, which I prefer to not have to do.

Not an undrinkable tea, but not one I’m not finding a desire to drink again.

I have a cold brew steeping currently and will update my review tomorrow.

Update: Cold brew was uninspiring thus not giving any boost to this rating. If anything I’d consider lowering the rating a bit.

Vanilla, yummy, healthier and much better than the starbucks alternatives!

This combo is the best of both worlds for me when I really want some tea but I also need the caffeine from coffee to get me through the day. I figured the spiciness of the Chai would become more subtle with the creaminess of the coffee added. But it’s quite the opposite. The Chai seems to stand out even more.

There isn’t anything to report for this. It tastes like honeybush + rooibos. Makes a nice iced tea, hot tea, and latte. Can’t go wrong, really. It takes cinnamon honey and agave syrup fine, but I prefer the natural sweetness of the honeybush. Natural notes of minerals and woody herbs.

I consider this to be a slightly better than average tea. I am unlikely to buy this one again as it reminds me of Celestial Seasonings Tension Tamer, which I prefer more.

As with Celestial Seasonings, I tend to have a love/hate relationship with the tea offerings from Trader Joe’s.

This tea has a nice herbal flavor and did not require me to add any additional sweeteners which is a preference of mine.

I’d recommend it to folks even though it wasn’t a big hit for me.

This is a surprisingly good cup of tea! I remember being at a Thanksgiving celebration and the host handed me a cup of tea after dinner. I drank a sip and said wow, that is a nice cup of tea! He said: Trader Joe’s English breakfast tea. I said really??!! Wow!!! Just goes to show that really tasty tea can come from the most unexpected of places…

Another of the Trader Joe’s teas I purchased this week. This is basically Celestial Seasoning’s Sleepy Time. It is a delicious blend of chamomile, peppermint, lemongrass, spearmint, passionflower leaf, orange flowers, and blackberry leaf. I found it tasted mostly like spearmint/peppermint/chamomile and I didn’t taste the other ingredients as much. This brews really well hot or cold; I enjoy one tea bag in 500mL boiling water brewed 4-5 minutes and then I add vanilla almond or soy milk.

The best part about vacationing in the US is that I can go to Trader Joe’s. I picked up a number of bagged teas (all decaf/herbal tisanes) because most hotels only have lame English breakfast/green teabags. I didn’t realize there were 40 teabags in the box, so I guess I’m going ot be drinking this for a while to come.

This was not as brisk or acidic as I expected. If anything, it was more pleasant than English breakfast often are. Malty, thick mouthfeel, very flavourful. I really enjoyed mine with soy milk, but I imagine it would take well to being enjoyed straight. No sweetener needed, the leaf doesn’t need it. Nothing really stands out about this blend, other than not being unpleasant in any way (doesn’t over steep quickly, is smooth and palatable). This would make a really nice daily drinker in the evening.

Finally, there’s real tea to be found in grocery stores! I almost never reach for bottled teas because I find the majority of them too sweet and weird tasting. The one exception however are the unsweetened bottled teas sold at Asian grocery stores. I am partial to Ito-En’s Golden Oolong so I was excited to spot this at Trader Joe’s which looks suspiciously similar to Ito-En.

This tea is very clean tasting and refreshing. It has a full yet delicate peach flavor balanced with a slight bitterness in the finish. The mouthfeel is velvety smooth and silky. There’s definitely some flavor differences between this and the Ito-En Golden Oolong. I remember the latter being stronger with sandalwood tones and spice. The Ito-En bottle notes that it’s made from Tieguanyin and Huan jin guei . However this one doesn’t say what variety of oolong is used leaving one to speculate. My guess is it’s a dan cong due to the peachiness and light body. Those who enjoy darker teas may prefer the Ito-En. But as a green oolong aficionado, I liked the Trader Joe’s variety better.

This bottled tea really exceeded my expectations. At $1.19 a pop, it’s a good value and about a $1 cheaper than Asian grocery stores. I hope Trader Joe’s keeps this around as it’s a great on the go option and hopefully will help introduce the masses to quality tea.