New Mexico Tea Company

This blend isn’t too bad. It smells lovely…like pomegranates. Once brewed I get a vague smell of cotton candy of all things! Even the first intial sips taste like cotton candy. I can taste the black tea. There’s a nice balance of fruitiness and black tea. The fruit kind of lingers on my tounge the longer I let it sit. Perhaps adding sweetener would make it spot on? Perhaps with a future steeping:)

Sipdown! Chocolate teas and rooibos blends have a rough history with me but I enjoyed this one despite it all. Before I order more I want to check out Silk Road’s Chocolate Panda herbal blend again, but it’s a toss up between the two.

This blend made me realize that rooibos can smell like old cigarettes/cigars/tobacco (can you tell I don’t smoke?) and, against all logic, I actually don’t mind it at all. I guess I enjoyed the odor of gasoline as a child too, so their is prescience for liking awful, harmful smells on this end. Yay me?

Awkward back story! This tea wasn’t originally a part of my initial online order. One of the random teas I’d selected was out of stock, and someone from New Mexico Co. phoned to inform me about that during the Christmas season. She offered to substitute in a similar tea instead… and I replied by telling her she could pick whatever she wanted and I could just find out when they emailed the adjusted receipt. Clearly I need to work on my early morning phone call skills. Decisions were made that I was happy to have no part in, and this chocolate rooibos found its way into my possession.

I actually like this rooibos a lot. I’m not always a fan of chocolate, or rooibos, but I’m happy with both here. The leaves have a chocolate liquor smell and the flavour is like that of rich dark chocolate bar with fruit and nut notes. At least for me, this one isn’t cloying in anyway, despite the cocoa and vanilla, which makes it easy to drink later in the evening.

Edit: for non-rooibos fans,you can definitely taste the base in this one.

I’m glad this one came my way! Now I just need to figure out if I want more or not.

Backlog:

This is a wonderful black tea with a nice flavor. It’s great to cuddle up with on a cold day.

After drinking this multiple times next to 52tea’s Coconut Cream Pie I’ve decided this is the one I’m keeping in large quantities. While 52’s offering is slightly more sugary and brisk than this NMTC sample, Coconut Cream Pie is still delicious and tastes exactly like cream pie right at the lukewarm stage. I may keep a small amount of the Cream Pie around for summer. One can never have too many coconut teas.

A note from LiberTEAS pointed me in the direction of this tea and company, and I’m very grateful for it. The coconut flavour and the black base are both perfectly creamy and smooth. There’s no cloying sweetness, or a crazy amount of ingredients. It’s a simple coconut tea and it’s awesome.

I purchased this for the peach-faced lovebird picture and stuck around for the straightforward, soothing cup it created.

All peach flavoured teas and tisanes that I’ve tried thus far have reminded me of fuzzy peaches candy. This one doesn’t break the mold but that’s ok. I like fuzzy peaches.

The rooibos is noticeable but it blends well with the peach flavour, tart blackberry leaves, and the salty sweet calendula petals. It’s juicy and sweet but it also makes my mouth pucker. This is another cup that I think will be great for a warm summer evening. I’m so very ready for spring and summer right now.

I think this would be more peach-faced lovebird if they used green rooibos, for a green “body” and peach “face”, just for kicks… I miss my loud, strong-willed bird so much.

Oof. Just got back from having dinner with friends. They decided to cash in our wedding present to them and get dinner at our local Brazilian grill. I didn’t eat all day in anticipation of the feast.

My tummy is seriously angry with me. So. Much. Meat. I’m thinking this might be soothing.

Dry leaves smell more like bergamot than anything else. Steeped liquor is a lovely dark honey color. The bergamot is what I notice first. Then at the end of the sip, the cool of the mint comes to the forefront. This is a nice, balanced cup and my tummy is approving.

annnd sip down!

1oz sample didn’t last long – I guess it doesn’t help that it’s a heavy fruit tea. I got 3 cups out of this, 2 of them iced – this being the last iced.

I tossed in some fresh blackberries in my iced tumbler along with lemon slices! I’m hoping I’ll find a really good fruit only tea out there so I can load up for iced teas all summer.

This hibiscusy fruit tea has an good strawberry flavor. Very tart tea! Iced, the raspberry and blackberry flavors come out nicely! However, I found this tea kinda flat despite all the fruityness going on.
Overall, this tea was pretty good iced and sweetened with lemon to cure the flatness and have the berry flavors pop!

Full review at my blog, Oolong Owl: http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/lady-hannah-from-nm-tea-co-tea-review/

Nice, vibrant cinnamon orange black tea. Good for breakfast!

This tea is very nice! This is another one I was very unsure of based on the smell of the dry leaves. Light buttery green tea base with a nice mild tropical flavor. I am enjoying it hot but I bet this one would also be very good iced.

Backlog:

This is a really delightful tea. Deliciously fragrant, and so warm and comforting to sip. The black tea is the strongest flavor and it is rich, flavorful, slightly earthy and has a hint of malty flavor. The cardamom is sweet and warm and reminds me of candied citrus. Here is my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/01/27/cardamom-tea-from-new-mexico-tea-company/

The aroma reminds of rich hot cocoa. The flavour is sweet, and like milk chocolate. Very good with a little vanilla, and cinnamon.

Smells like holidays. :)

I picked this up thinking maybe my mom, who likes spiced teas but can’t have ginger and cardamom, might like it. She does, and said that it reminded her a lot of Constant Comment. Myself, I’ve never had Constant Comment that I recall so I can’t say.

Heavily orange, heavily cinnamon. I don’t really get apples until it cools off. Then it reminds me a bit of spiced apple cider.

I think it does what it says it does. Not going to be to my taste enough to keep it in the cupboard, but I’ll rate it based on how closely it matched expectations. :)

Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m sure a fan of having wine with breakfast. At least that’s what this lovely wine-infused tea tastes like, and I’m now just a little in love. The tea itself didn’t smell terribly similar to icewine when dry, but as soon as water is poured on the leaves (which become vibrant green and utterly gorgeous), the true scent emerges: light, sweet, slightly fermented. The liquor is slightly red and has a surprisingly full-bodied flavor for a white.

Since I love strong teas in the morning, and this tea satisfies me bright and early, it’s definitely a keeper. Thanks to T.C. for giving me a chance to try this baby!

This is what I get for making an order without checking my notes. I forgot that I was going to reorder the Golden, not the Royal. Again, though, not that the Royal is bad. Not at all. And now that my experience with Yunnans has widened perhaps I should do another side by side with them.

For now, I will say that I prefer what results when I use my tap water rather than the filtered water at work. I had a cup at work today and then one at home and they were very different. Too much smoke in the foreground with filtered water for me to really enjoy it. At home, the tap water must have something in it that damps that down or sublimates it in some way because it’s just a nice, pleasant cup of malty, dusty Yunnan. Nothing special but nothing bad either. And the second steep is still good as well, so that’s a plus for this one.

Made a pot of this at work today. I forgot about it and it steeped for about 20 minutes! O.O

It was delicious. The longer steep brought out smokey notes and reminds me somewhat of coffee. A strong several cups to get me through the day. It might not be what this tea was intended to be, but even at that long a steep it was still a good tasting cup.

No rating on this one as I’ve already rated and see no need to change it.

Okay. First – warmth is good. :)

Second, this is a good morning tea. Dark, heavy, slightly sweet… with an odd almost fishy aftertaste? Dusty? Not a bad thing. But not something I tasted in the Yunnan Gold from NM Tea. This is good and if I hadn’t tried the Gold I’d be pretty happy with this.

When I reorder, it will be the Gold I keep in the cupboard, not this one. Not a thing wrong with this one, just prefer the other, I think.

Oh, my. This is just wonderful. Lovely and malty with hints of cocoa. Strong and very smooth. A perfect tea to be snowed in with today.

Both glad and dismayed that I asked for this as my free sample. Glad because it can easily become a staple. Dismayed because it should easily become a staple. :)

Next up for today’s adventure in lots of tea since I can’t go anywhere is the regular Royal Yunnan from NM Tea. Try it in comparison to this one and see if I can tell a difference and if so, what one I’ll like better. I really need to spring for the gift tins from NM Tea on my next order. I love so much of their label artwork.

Off to shovel snow since we have a break in the storm for a few hours. Maybe I can get a path to the car and get the drive done in front of the car before it piles on more this evening. Then I’ll really want hot tea!!

The flavour is too floral, and not enough fruit. It’s nice if you want rose rooibos, but I was hoping for something more like berries.

T.C. sent me just enough of this to make a ~20 oz pot of Ontario Icewine, which put uberpressure on me not to screw it up with heat or oversteeping (I ruined a perfectly good re-steep earlier because SQUIRREL). TA-DA, a perfect pot! Lucky me!

After a 30 second brew this is amber-colored and strong, with a fruity, slightly sharp white wine aroma. It has the bright mouthfeel of other wine teas I’ve tried, and the sip is impressively well-balanced (IMO) between the delicate white tea flavor and the wine. I can taste both easily and there’s a harmony of flavor between them I really enjoy.

There’s nothing fake about it, which is usually where a tea and I part ways.

Anyway, the leaves were a little beat up from their trip in the envelope, so there’s a lot of detritus in the bottom of the pot. I have a sinking suspicion that it will be bitter by the time I get to the rest of it, but we’ll see.

I managed to leave most of the swirly leaf powder in the pot. I’m smelling sweet spring flowers now in addition to the juicy wine grape. Yum!

Now I’m sad I don’t have any more. But you bet I’ll try to re-steep it later and see how it goes. Thanks again, T.C.! Great cup.

I only get to go to my favorite restaurant in NYC once a year for dinner: on Valentine’s Day, because usually anything but the lunch menu is way outside our budget. It’s a Japanese place, but not sushi and tonkatsu Japanese (not that there’s anything wrong with sushi and tonkatsu!). It’s all small-sized, more traditional fare for the most part with some interesting twists thrown in.

We had an 8 course meal this year including smoked duck negimaki, baby scallop tempura, slow-cooked miso pork belly, black sesame creme brulee and a whole lot of sake. It was absolutely to die for, and so overindulgent I feel like I am going to burst hours later. After the meal I was so full I could barely down the genmaicha they give you after the dessert course, so I had to wait a few hours after I got home to make some tea of my own.

Peppermint is my go-to detox tea for that “oh god did I really just eat that much food” feeling, but I wanted something a bit special since it is Valentine’s Day! Originally I was planning on sharing a cup of one of the two Della Terra vday blends I haven’t tried yet, but they both contain chocolate and the thought of anything sweet was making me a bit nauseous. Then I remembered this blend—black tea, green tea, bergamot and peppermint! Sounds perfect.

Peppermint and bergamot are two flavors I’ve found that can really overwhelm a cup and drown out other notes. So how would they do in direct competition? Well, after a 3 minute steep the cup is a gorgeous golden tone and it smells strongly of both. At first sip it’s actually bergamot that is more present, but it fades into crisp mint. You can definitely taste the nuances of the base: a bit smokey from the black, but with a hint of that classic “green tea” taste. Okay, not the best description, but you know that one nameless flavor that makes you say “oh yes, this is a green tea”?

I love earl grey and this is such a great twist on it, the perfect way to lighten up a classic blend. Definitely one of my favorite variations! And it definitely cured my over-full feeling! In fact, it did its job so well I am now eying the box of Godiva on my bed…

Pausing from a very busy day to write something about this little bit of heaven I drank this morning. I had tried a hojicha from Den’s tea and loved it, so I thought I’d give this a try. It’s a nutty, toasty cup of awesome. I definitely will have a stash of this in my cupboard at all times. It tops my love of genmaicha.

Ok, back to work :)

Strong rose smell out of bag.
Taste is of rose and rooibos. I’m losing any and all of the berry flavor somehow. Was hopeful for a bit more flavor (especially from certain ingredients in the blend) as it does seem a tad washed out.