Trader Joe's

My friend brought me back decaf Candy Cane Lane (green tea and mint) from the USA, and I’m thrilled! I’ve been wanting to try their teas for a long time, and the box is super cute too.

Strong flavours of sweet peppermint and mild green tea. Doesn’t get bitter/astringent if you leave the teabag in a bit long, but I find both green teas and mint will burn/taste funny if brewed in water that is too hot. This blend resteeps several times without any issue. I like that it is great hot, but I think it would do well cold brewed or with soy milk added. In fact, I’m going to make this as a latte right now.

What a lovely surprise! My expectations were low, as I haven’t had great experiences with Trader Joe’s tea in the past. But this one is delicious…one of the best bagged teas I’ve ever had! You really can’t taste the white tea base, but there is a very distinctive natural-tasting pear flavor and just the right amount of ginger to be warming but not overpowering. I received this as a gift, but I will probably buy myself another box when I run out!

I cold steeped 6 bags of this over night in the fridge. My cup this morning was dull. The mint is weak and the chocolate barely shows up at the end after the mint has done most of it’s thing. If I focus really hard I can imagine Andes mints, but just barely. Looking back at my last log of this tea and it was two years ago! Has this tea been sitting in my cupboard for two years? It’s totally possible, but I have only the vaguest recollection of it. Makes sense that the flavor would be dull now. Not sure if I can make it through a whole pitcher of this, but it may be the only chocolate mint I have right now. Tea dilemmas!

I thought this was a herbal blend when I grabbed it at the store today. I’m a little disappointed, but it’s my own fault. I took a few sips when this mug was hot and noticed that the tea tasted cheap, but the flavors were alright. It had a sweetness to it, likely from the licorice, but it didn’t really have a licorice taste. I’m now getting back to this cup which has gone cold and the tea flavor is lost in the bright mint and cocoa. The mint is really the star and the chocolate flavor lays low. I can imagine this being very refreshing on a hot day served cold! Funny how mint is often a winter flavor, but is so appropriate for hot weather too! Overall I’m impressed with this tea for being bagged and a grocery purchase.

I think 3 minutes was understeeped. The flavor is underwhelming, will try again.

My favorite tea to drink on a daily basis (which means stockpiling during the seasonal months that you can actually buy it).

Who would have thought that one of my favorite Holiday teas this season would come from Trader Joe’s? It’s a bold black tea with rich flavors of chocolate and mint that far surpasses my taste for peppermint hot chocolate. Perfect for those Winter days when the weather outside is frightful, but when the fire is so delightful!

This one is a bit, um, grassy? for me. Not bad, and my sister loves it, but it’s just not my thing. It could be yours, if you like coconut!

I like this tea, because I can drink it without sugar. Also it can stay in the cup indefinitely, it’s impossible to over brew it.

After much deliberation between three of us (me, myself, and I), I decided to review each of the ten teas separately to make the individual tasting notes easier to find. With that in mind, the tea of the day is:

Vanilla & Rooibos Tea

I really like these cool glass “test tubes” that package the ten teas. When I unscrewed the lid of this one and stuck my nose inside, I could immediately smell the vanilla. I steeped the orange/brown leaves for five minutes at 212 degrees.

The brewed color was orange/gold. A faint presence of vanilla was detected in the aroma.

The flavor of this tea was pretty much all vanilla. I could taste the tang of the rooibos when I concentrated, but vanilla best described this selection. The flavor was smooth and there was no astringency. However, the vanilla aftertaste stayed on my tongue longer than I preferred.

This is the second of the teas in Trader Joe’s ten-pack that I’ve tried so far. It’s not an unpleasant tea. I would probably like it better in the afternoon than I did in the morning.

I got this set of 10 loose leaf teas at Trader Joe’s a while back. I’ve been wrestling with how to do the tasting note(s) for it. Do I review them all in one note or do I create individual notes for each one? While I am making up my mind, I will start with…

Bergamot Black Tea

Putting loose leaf teas in glass test tubes is a novel idea. I felt like a mad scientist when I poured the tea from the tube into my infuser.

The unbrewed short black leaves had a strong bergamot aroma. There also were little blue cornflower petals mixed in with the leaves. Since the packaging had minimal individual information about the teas, I chose my stand-by black tea steeping method: 212 degrees for five minutes.

The brewed aroma contained bergamot and sweet attributes. The color was amber.

The flavor could be best described as a flowery Earl Grey. The flower and bergamot tastes seemed to be constantly fighting it out on my palate, making it difficult to zero in on either. Maybe that is just called “balanced,” but I prefer flavors that are harmonious rather than locked in mortal combat. There was no astringency and very little aftertaste.

This isn’t a bad tea but the flavors need to be fleshed out more clearly. I would definitely NOT try to use it for iced tea.

A classic fall-tasting herbal tea. Very cinnamon-y with strong apple undertones. I’m not a fan of strong cinnamon teas, so it’s not something that I would choose to drink again, but if you are more of a cinnamon lover, you’d likely enjoy it.

smells a bit more earthy than most jasmine green teas I’ve tried. the jasmine flavor is very, Very slight – more of an aftertaste than anything. good for someone who loves a very gentle and delicate green tea.