New Mexico Tea Company

As a hot tea, I’m not really a fan. I left the mug on the table and let it chill to room temperature (which is pretty cold right now), and liked it much better cold. I think I’ll use the rest of my 1 oz. pack for iced tea, but doubt I’ll be reordering.

I admit, first couple sips I didn’t really like this tea. A ho hum black coconut. However, this tea quickly grows on you, especially if you let it cool some vs drinking ripping hot. I seem to have the ability to drink violently hot tea.

Really nice black tea base – as stated on the package, organic Korakundah estate black, which I don’t think I’ve had before. The base has lots of flavor, smooth, rich, complimenting the coconut finish. There is a slight nutty dryness end of sip, tasting like I nibbed on a bit of coconut skin! Yum! With sweetener, Coconut Dream tastes full on coconut tropical adventure.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/coconut-dream-new-mexico-tea-company-oolong-owl-tea-review/
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I liked this tea but it wasn’t what I was expecting. All I could taste was the lapsang souchoung. I may have to try again with some cooler water.

Thank you for this one in that awesome package I’m gradually, slowly trying teas from, Dexter3657! I had actually always wanted to try some teas from New Mexico TC. Always willing to try more coconut teas as well! The dry blend just has a few strands of coconut in a teaspoon, so I’m not sure if there is added flavor to the leaves. But this is nice! The black base has a medium body with perfect astringency and a grassy/hay flavor. The coconut is subtle but definitely present and lingering. This is a tad less tasty than 52Teas Coconut Cream Pie though. It tasted especially nice with some pecan pie I made the other day. The second steep kind of lost anything coconut about it… it must have all went to the first cup.
One teaspoon, just boiled, 3-4 min.

Not really sure what to think about this one. I asked for it as a free sample and holy cow, is the sample ever huge! I’m impressed.

It seems at first taste like there is too much going on. But I also think I used water that was a bit too hot. So I’m going to go again before I really review it. So far I’ll say that it looks very neat and interesting after steeping. It smells a bit smoky but somehow everything has been smelling a little smoky to me so maybe I’m just going through a smoke-sensitive/imagining phase. :)

One thing for sure – I have plenty to try again!

T&C Box 6/18

Usually a mint tea is the last thing I’d go for, but NM Tea Company has been on my list to try and my stomach is a little off this morning.

This smells great in the bag and while it brews. The mint is there but so are the scents of the tea and bergamot, so it’s not just mint everywhere. I admit I wasn’t quite sure what to expect with this one, because I’ve never had a green/black blend before. It’s very nice! It has some substance thanks to the black tea, a sweetness thanks to the green tea and mint, and a little citrusy spice thanks to the bergamot. I don’t think I’d keep it in my cabinet forever, but if I do a NM Tea Co. order sometime I may pick a bag of it up!

I received this in the box of samples I purchased from LiberTEAS. Thank you!

When I went to look at the description of this tea I found Nicole’s tasting note and it described this tea perfectly. I don’t feel I need to say much more. I will enjoy what I have left of this tea, but will not need to re-purchase.

Additional notes: I’m sipping this lovely chai again mainly because I wanted to drink a chai while finishing the lovely book I’m reading: Mira Jacob’s ‘The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing’. A new writer with no-expectations-so-it’s-really-well-written and also really funny. But I’m giggling because the name of the tea company is ‘New Mexico’ and the book mostly takes place in New Mexico! What a coincidence! Things like that amuse me. I just wish I had some chutney that the book loves to mention.

This chai insists on still being one of my favorite chais. I could easily stock up on this one, since my favorite chais are mostly discontinued. It’s got such a nice balance of spices with dark & rich black tea but never astringent. So good. Raising the rating a couple points.

So I organized my tea collection the other day, mainly to put any similar tea samples in thin sandwich bags into those bigger Teavivre pouches. They are so handy! So I have a Teavivre pouch filled with fruity/Bluebird teas, one for plain black teas, one for dessert teas, etc. Hopefully they will let those teas last longer, but not contaminate each other! Really I should just stop hoarding last teaspoons of teas.

ETA: I’m on NMTeaCo’s site right now and I also didn’t realize they were located in Albuquerque… the book is, as well!

Thank you so much Dexter3657 for the package of lovely teas! Another chai to try… always on the look for the perfect chai. This one is a nice balance of black tea and spices. Plenty of black tea and plenty of spice. The black tea isn’t a CTC, so it is tough to get a nice balance. The spices aren’t listed but I definitely see cardamom and cloves… there’s probably more spices here. A decent chai to represent chai, but still not the best chai I’ve tried (maybe the fifth best chai I’ve tried, or somewhere around there, so in no way terrible!) but maybe I should be brewing these like ACTUAL chai instead of tea.

The temperature on this Sencha should hover around 140 degrees. I use a bit more tea per cup (2 tsp/cup) than most recommendations so I find that 2 minutes is about the perfect steep time. The tea is very sweet although a few friends of mine have told me they prefer it with sugar. The flavor is very full but not too strong. Overall, a very good tea!

Tasty, gave me a nice bit of energy without a crash. The mango flavor could have been stronger, but a solid tea overall.

A very good tea that combines a solid mix of green and black. The mint taste is light and gives the tea a unique and refreshing taste . A solid and permanent fixture for my collection

Ah, my first kukicha tea. Thanks to Dexter3657’s awesome tea package! This one looks like little twigs… the same color as hojicha that I love. This one has such a low steep temp – 160 degrees for 2-3 minutes. I like this one, though it is very mild. It has the flavor of a very light roasty hojicha. But it also has a creamy taste. I don’t know why this can’t be steeped hotter though… as I usually steep my hojichas hotter than fresh green teas. I was curious how another hojicha blend had a cream flavor… maybe there was kukicha mixed in the blend.

Backlog:

A very unusual looking tea. The appearance of the tea is what lead me to order it. The liquid brews up quite light – I expected a darker brew but this is very light. Not a bad thing, just different than I was expecting.

Sweet with notes of fruit. Each subsequent infusion proved to be sweeter than the prior infusion. Sweet, mellow, and nectar-like. A really nice pu-erh!

This was a weird tea. The jasmine was almost overpowering, and I barely got any cream at all in the flavor. I’m not sure I like this one. I finished the cup, but I have a feeling this will be pushed to the back of the tea cupboard.

Tea #12 from the Here’s Hoping TTB

I’m not really a fan of this. While the strawberry doesn’t taste completely candy-like and artificial like most strawberry teas, I think the black base has a rather odd flavor to it. In general I haven’t been a big fan of the black base NMTeaCo uses.

Tea #3 from the Here’s Hoping TTB

I wasn’t really sure how to feel about this tea when I saw it in the box. I’ve had icewine before, but I’ve never had a tea that mimics wine, despite the fact they’ve become rather popular. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by this tea, the grape flavor came across clearly. I did find it to be a bit more dry than I prefer, but then again I don’t like dry wines either. Overall it was pretty interesting to try, but not something I would order myself.

This tea won’t be continuing on, I finished off the last little bit.

Hmm… Very mixed feelings about this. I’m getting more marzipan than amaretto, but I wish it was sweeter. I’ll have to try again with some sugar…

I can’t help comparing this to the Teavana’s Earl Grey Creme, and this one comes out much better, both price wise and in taste. The earl grey flavor is quite strong and present, and tempered by the cream. It’s quite lovely. If you love earl grey, you’ll love this one.

Moving back into my comfort zone, but continuing with ifjuly’s wonderful swap package.
I’ve bought tea from NMTC a few times now, and somehow always forget to include this with my order. I really like NMTC, I really like good coconut tea. I should love this – everyone else does.
I think my taster is broken tonight… I’m just getting weirdness from everything I’m drinking – I think this is thin and acidic – which makes no sense at all. I’m just giving up for the night – will edit this with something more appropriate another night.
Ugggg what is wrong with me tonight?

This was a super thoughtful surprise bonus Dexter3657 threw into my swap box! Awesome pick given I’ve been pleased with many of New Mexico Tea Company’s offerings and cardamom is one of my all-time favorite flavors. Thank you! You really put a lot of thought into the teas you sent me. :D

A while back I tried American Tea Room’s version and while not bad, I didn’t really find it compelling on any level (so much so that IIRC I forgot to log it here). I’m hoping that was a fluke though—I was distracted at the time by a lot of things—and plan to revisit. But anyway, I worried maybe it was a case where oddly sometimes I love flavors in general but find I hate them in combination with certain tea base types (this happens a lot with black tea for some reason). Given this opportunity to try NMTC’s I don’t think so though—I quite enjoyed this. The smell is not clobber-you-over-the-head cardamom, that unique both-cooling-and-warming quality, but there is a nice hard-to-describe generally soft aroma with a peppery bite at the tail end once it steeps. As for taste, the black tea presence is quite upfront while the cardamom gradually trails in on its coattails. This is a nice comforting cup that doesn’t demand a lot of your attention; it isn’t crazy complex, quite straightforwardly “black tea + cardamom and that’s it” but thanks to cardamom being nuanced itself it isn’t disappointingly one-note. The cooling quality comes in especially toward the end of the sip, with spiciness preceding it right in the middle. This is a good choice to close out a long dreary day. The more I drink it, the more I appreciate that the black tea flavor doesn’t get lost. I’m so glad I’ve had the chance to try it finally!

From the Great Canadian TTB.

This one reminds me of a chai because of the cardamom. The black tea is actually quite mild. It is very smooth. There is a definite cardamom flavour, I thought it would be stronger but the cardamom pods are whole so they are not providing too much spice. I found while drinking the tea is was quite mild. But there is definitely a spice that comes out in the aftertaste. It is a sweet and spicey cardamom taste.

Tea # 16 from HHTTTB2

Elements of grape and rose on a dry white base. Sweetener amplifies the icewine notes, but I was expecting it to be sweeter from the gate.

Really like this one, I’m enjoying all of the samples from New Mexico! Great mouth feel to this and a nice clean orange taste. Will probably be buying this in a larger quantity.