New Mexico Tea Company

Since I moved to NM, I try to visit this shop whenever possible. Got this tea as one of my samples. I always like the golden colour of the leaves. There is a scent of cocoa, and hints of yams. The flavour is sweet, and a bit malty. It’s smooth, mild, and very good.

I bought a sample of this recently and upon smelling it filed it away as ‘to try but not now.’ I finally got to it today, and I must say I like it quite a lot more than expected. It smells very floral when dry, but steeped the scent is less intense.

The taste is floral, but not overwhelming. It’s a sweet tea that I can’t imagine taking with additives—and that’s a good thing in my opinion.

Waaaaaaaaaaay too flowery for me. I might as well be munching on the blossoms! Bleck!

Such a great tea! It’s so light and fruity! It doesn’t have a really sour aftertaste like some fruit blended teas have as well. Can’t wait to try ice brewing this sometime!

Strong but not overly sweet floral scent. Taste is standard Earl Grey with a floral aftertaste that tones down the bergamot. Would be a good choice if you find the regular Earl Grey too strong but like the flavors.

I’ve been drinking almost entirely herbals this month (trying to reduce caffeine), but was really in the mood for a black tea today.

HOME BLEND: 50/50 mix of this and their Assam CTC (see link below) I’d originally bought on recommendation as a base for a homemade chai. Result: a mildly spiced black tea with a refreshing ginger aftertaste. Could even use a slightly longer steeping time than I gave it. (I was trying to avoid bitterness but apparently that’s not an issue with CTC?)

New Mexico Tea Co’s Assam CTC (Crush, Tear & Curl): http://steepster.com/teas/new-mexico-tea-company/61060-assam-ctc

(Edit: See my other tasting note about blending this with black tea.) This tea smells delicious but is rather picky to prepare. I used a half-serving (because the tea-ball was too small) with a long steep and got a decent ginger taste with a little bite from the cinnamon. I suspect you can get wildly different flavors depending on how much you use and how long you let it sit in the water.

Not giving this a numerical review yet since I wasn’t able to follow the instructions. Brewing notes for self reference:
- do not use iron water pot.
- try with larger teaball

Bought a large variety of teas when I was in New Mexico, but this one was the first tea to run out. Very citrusy and a good wake-up tea for weekends (or keeping you going throughout the day after you’ve maxed out your caffeine).

From what I recall it also survived long steeps and resteeps in the tea thermos, so it’s a good commuter option.

The leaves are black, full, and uniform as they are sprinkled into the tea pot. The fragrance is malty, slightly smoky, loamy, slightly sweet and herbaceous. Steeping at just one teaspoon per six ounce cup in 205 degree fresh water for three minutes creates a beautiful dark red amber tea with a smooth and balanced aroma. The taste is smooth but full on the tongue, solidly astringent although not puckering, slightly tangy and sweet, and leaves a long finish on the palate. This, to me, is the quintessential taste of tea. Everything else should be compared to this. It is also an outstanding value as provided by New Mexico Tea Company at $0.24 per six ounce cup (or less if purchased in volume). After enjoying this tea I felt invigorated and focused with many memories of enjoying excellent cups of tea around the world.

The dry tea is black full leaves of uniform size with many golden tips and a malty, slightly smoky aroma. In the cup, the tea is honey-amber in color and has a balanced, woody and green herbaceous fragrance. It has a thick mouthfeel (at one teaspoon per six ounce cup steeped three minutes in 205 degree fresh water), is smooth, balanced, and delicate with a pleasingly astringent mild bitterness. The taste includes a touch of saltiness and sweetness, no sourness, and finishes with an even stronger mouthfeel on the palate. Overall, for taste, aroma, and value, this is a superb black tea for mornings or afternoons. I enjoy it with a little sugar and just a teaspoon of milk. It comes from a single estate, Doomur Dulling, in eastern Assam, and is an STGFOP (Special Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe) meaning it has the highest quality leaves of its type and the highest proportion of leaf tips.

This is definitely not the best tasting tea on the planet but it really does work. I have bronchitis right now and a cup of this stuff made me feel well enough to walk down the step without gasping for breath.

I do suggest being careful with how much tea you use and how long you steep if for, it can get extremely spicy.

I can’t believe I am the first to review this tea… I know NMTea has had it for sale for awhile because I’ve looked at it before and considered buying. I got this sample in the Christmas card swap from Naylynn.

I do taste the chocolate, which is odd because being white chocolate and caramel I should only be getting sweet, not chocolate. Along with cloves, ginger and cinnamon. I didn’t notice black pepper. Overall, this is a very pleasant chai blend. I steeped with 1/2 water and 1/2 light cream, 2 teaspoons sugar. This goes on the wishlist. :)

This is the last tea I have to try from Dexter… from a while ago! Shame shame! Well, the tea generosity lasted an entire year, so another big THANK YOU! This tastes almost exactly like I thought it would, though I have no experience at all with Ice Wine! It’s very flavorful – the white tea actually brews up a golden color, so it’s definitely full of flavor. But there is a bubbly fruity flavor that I could only describe as Ice Wine, even if I’ve never had it. It does seem more like Ice Champagne to me though, now that I think about it. Wonderful to try! I’ve been very happy with the few teas I’ve tried from New Mexico Tea Co. I’ll have to order from them at some point.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps // 32 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // 30 min after boiling // 2-3 min

I cannot begin to say how GOOD this is! It was an impulse addition to my order and I am so glad I gave into the impulse. Soothing, rich, interesting, rounded . . . it is both comforting and somehow “sophisticated.”

Vodka may be #1, but I will take this over it any day, any time, anywhere. A wonderful tea that both demands your attention and provides quiet companionship that does not intrude. I love the smoky quality of a good Russian Caravan and this one definitely does not disappoint. It’s balanced.

Nicely tart and refreshing. Good hot but I think better iced on a hot summer’s day.

So I apparently never reviewed this. Shame on me!

This is a fruity sweet black tea. It was okay hot, but I made the most wonderful jug of iced tea from this over the summer. It’s lovely, and light, and perfectly refreshing. I sent on the remainder to Arshness in the Pass Your Stash TTB. Hopefully she enjoys it!

Very relaxing evening tea. Subtle fruit flavors of lemon and lavender with a hint of mango. Just the right balance between these flavors makes for a great alternative to chamomile. Holds up well for re-steeping.

This is an interesting tea – it brews up to a wheat-golden liquid that smells remarkably like Hubbard’s Shoe Grease…I wasn’t expecting it to have that bacon/pine tar scent that reminds me of nothing more than bootblacking.

It’s hard to get past that to actually assess the flavour of the tea, but there are definitely fishy, leather-like notes that are all kinds of strange. I’m not sure I enjoy the experience of drinking this cup, but that might just be an aversion to puerhs, so take my rating with a grain of salt.

Hm. No idea how I haven’t reviewed this yet. I’m pretty sure I’m on my second package of it. This is a smooth, deeply vanilla and lovely bergamot. A very, very good EG cream. An easy daily drinker.

Iced always of course, It reminds me of Country Time pink lemonade that I have not had in years. My husband does not agree so I may be off on my idea. I’m making the last of it for a family get together tomorrow and I will update how it goes over.
Edit: They thought it tasted like flowers, so I looked up the ingredients and guess what, It has flowers in it. I think I should note that they normally drink super sweet black iced tea or Arizona so this may have been a little different for them. I still like it and being able to buy an 1oz for 2.75 I can happily get more just for me.

I meant to try it on its own but I forgot. I made concentrated amounts and added it to 7up. Kind of like a cherry limeade and reminded me how much I once liked cherry 7up that I forgot all about. My son liked it also, why wouldn’t he.

I sipped down the sample that Dexter sent me a while back. Made a strong cup with the rest of the leaf and then made it into a latte with lots of sugar. Probably more sugar than I would have normally needed, but I had this right after eating two bowls of Lucky Charms, so my sugar meter is way off.

I think this had lost some flavour due to poor storage on my part, but it was still very tasty.