Trader Joe's

I am drinking this at my parent’s house and don’t have too much to say, it is barely worth writing about. Anyway the weather is yucky, snow/rain so I thought I’d have a cuppa. This seems like a Chinese green tea, mildy vegetal and slightly astringent. Would not recommend but I bet it’s cheap. ;-)

I brew this with boiling water for 5 minutes and wait until it’s cooled just enough to drink.

I really like this tea. I discovered it last year and was disappointed when my Trader Joe’s sold out mid December and I had to wait a whole year to get more. It tastes just like someone melted a candy cane in hot water. It is tingly peppermint and creamy vanilla. There is no artificial taste. It is also sugar sweet. I keep expecting to see calories on the label, but it says 0 calories. Usually I don’t like sweet tea, but I really like this one. This is really perfect for the holidays and the best of the grocery store holiday teas.

THE BEST winter tea. Light green tea, vanilla, peppermint. Not overpowering in any way, and not bitter in the slightest. Perfect!

I love the smell and taste, it didn’t need much to get ideally sweet enough for me and I like the lemur and chameleon on the box.

Tried this at my parent’s house last year, and it was really great. I was forced to relieve them of the rest of their box.

Wow, I gave this a 41 last time I tried it?! It has been sitting in my cupboard for quite some time now. My husband has been wanting iced tea lately since it is heating up here in Texas, so I threw several bags in a pitcher with some water and sugar and put it in the fridge. This time it tastes exactly like the Paradise tea I was hoping it would be! Have my tastes changed? Had this tea aged well? Is the secret in the cold brew? Who knows! Once I added ice it was a little watered down, so I may toss in a few more tea bags. This tea has redeemed it’s self and just when I was about to give up and toss it to make room in my cupboard!

I should start by saying I’m not a huge fan of fruity teas. I bought this because I thought it may have been Trader Joe’s attempt at producing Paradise’s Tropical tea that they used to carry which I love as an iced tea. I don’t mind fruit as an accent to other flavors, but alone they rarely wow me. I find fruity teas have a tang to them that I dislike, but a little bit of sugar mellows it out and that worked with this tea. The smell and flavor of mango is strong and prominent in this tea. The taste is very simple and leaves a lot of room for experimentation with mixing other teas in. Overall I’d say it was decent for a fruity tea, but not something I feel compelled to keep in stock.

Observation 1: The tea is individually wrapped. Yay freshness!

Observation 2: My boyfriend made the tea, not I, so I have no notes on the uncooked tea. To my knowledge, 2 bags were steep for 3 minutes in a 32oz tea pot with boiling water.

Observation 3: Once steeped, the tea has a very spicy pear scent and is a clear deep tawny solution.

Observation 4: My first cup of tea was with sugar. There is a very spicy pear flavor and the tea tastes very bright. It definitely perks me up at first sip.My second cup was without sugar. Alone the tea is very spicy and the pear is very subtle. This tea is all about the ginger.

Overall: I love this tea. Its ginger and pear and a great morning pick-me-up. I will be repurchasing this tea.

boyfriend review:
“I liked it. I put too much sugar but that was fixed with more tea creepy giggle”

It’s GINGER AND PEAR in a WHITE TEA!!!! What more could you ask?! :D

Seriously, I’ll post a thorough review when I make my next pot of this tea. I will be buying this tea again soon, I am running out.

Observation 1: The tea is individually wrapped. Yay freshness!

Observation 2: I did not brew it, my boyfriend did. I did not get to check for initial aroma. To my knowledge, 2 tea bags were brewed in a 32 oz Amsterdam teapot for at least 3 minutes, resulting in a clear tawny solution.

Observation 3: Post brewing. I was greeted with the gentlest sweetest jasmine aroma I have crossed paths with in a very long time. Like the old friend and guardian of the evening I used to smell on nights when I could not sleep, I felt myself smile and immediately relax.

Observation 4: My first cup I prepared my favorite way, with “Irish” cream and sugar and the tea did not stand out very well with the cream (I am noticing that green teas do not stand well against whiskey). Still yummy and sweet, I enjoyed my cup. My second cup of tea, I only added sugar and was presented with a very smooth and moderately intense green tea flavor with not much jasmine taste detectable. My third cup was tea without sugar or cream. There was the smooth green tea taste I mentioned before along with a much stronger jasmine presence.

Overall: What a delightful green tea! I would not drink this tea if I desired a jasmine tea, but as far as green tea is concerned I daresay it is one of the most agreeable green teas I have had.

Boyfriend’s remarks
“I thought that it was a little too much green tea, but not enough jasmine for my taste. I would have liked for it to have a bit more jasmine taste.”

For a large box under $3, this is a really great tea. It is moderately flavorful, dark, and balanced if brewed properly: 3.5 minutes at 205F. I like my tea strong and usually brew at least 4 minutes, but with this tea anything past 3.5 mins and it gets very bitter. Brew 3-3.5 and it’s actually got some sweet notes, in addition to the classic English Breakfast flavor and “brightness”, but not much maltiness (TJ’s Irish Breakfast has that in spades, though). It’s got a beautiful dark red color and a nice nose. I actually own much better and more expensive black tea than this, but I find myself coming back to it on a regular basis. It’s a keeper.

This is my go to tea when I am sick, congested and want something non caffeinated and soothing. The mint is decently strong and because it is bagged, it’s a no brainer to prepare when I’m under the weather. The taste is clean, simple and minty. It’s also inexpensive compared to other teas that I favor, so I don’t feel wasteful when not tasting any subtleties while congested. I find it goes well with a little honey and is a good addition to my collection as a staple.

I had a can of the TJ’s chai mix in the past and remembered liking it well enough, so when I saw that they had a pumpkin version (and I’m a sucker for trying anything pumpkin flavored) I had to nab it. The check out gal commented on how good it was while I was purchasing it, so I was even more hyped up to try it. The first whiff I took smelled a little soapy with pumpkin. When I tasted it, I found the same. It was sweet with a muddling of spices, some pumpkin flavor and that overwhelming soapy taste on the sides of my tongue. That was about all I got out of it for the whole cup. Not as good as their plain chai and not worth using up my self imposed one caffeinated cup a day ration. I can tell this one is going to sit in my cupboard for a while taking up precious real estate for other teas. Bummer.

I’m on my second cup tonight. This is the first mint tea I have tried, and i am absolutely in love. It makes you sleepy, though, so watch out. Amazing. Very minty and fresh, but relaxing.

I always have a box of this on my tea shelf. At first I thought it was really bitter and odd, even with honey and milk, but after a couple of times trying it I started to really like it.

I’m sorry, but this is the worst earl grey I have ever tasted. The bergamot was perfumy, bitter, petroleum-like. The gold-standard for earl grey in a bag (as far as I’ve tasted) is Ahmad. Try Twinings Organic, Stash Organic or ANYTHING BUT THIS!!!

A cheap, covenient, drinkable jasmine green. Sweet and floral.

Had this one last night and this morning, while staying at a friend’s place. It is so nasty and snowy and cold outside that I needed a quick, easy warmth and grabbed this off my shelf. My apartment actually got power back yesterday, but the bad news is that it appears that my thermostat is broken, so it’s still pretty cold in there.

I definitely need a careful hand when dishing out the powder on this one, and my cup last night resulted in a slurry of tea and spices at the bottom of the mug that had never been suspended properly. This morning I used less powder and it turned out well. I want to mix this with some hot cocoa and try it out!

Last night I was in Trader Joe’s surveying their newest pumpkin paraphenelia when I noticed a cannister of this on their “New Products” endcap. Even a few months ago I wouldn’t have given this a second glance, but my love of all things pumpkin, a recent unexplained craving for spiced teas, and my recent appreciation for other forms of powdered tea made me pick it up and put it in my basket.

The first two things on the ingredients list are sugar and non-fat milk, so that should give you a sense of what we’re dealing with. Tea ingredients are listed as Black tea and Darjeeling tea. It also includes powdered pumpkin. The powder smells intensely pumpkin-spicey, like raw pumpkin pie mix. I prepared it as instructed and it yielded a intense brown color that seems dark for a latte mix. The flavor is very sweet, and quite tasty. It got a little two sweet for me at one point, but the addition of a little more water evened things out, and I will probably make my next cup with 8oz instead of 6oz of water. It’s not super tea-ish, but honestly when I drink chai I’m not super concerned about that. It is quite like drinking liquid pumpkin pie, and a good easy mix when I don’t have the energy to deal with other chais or matcha.

This tea is simply Christmas in a cup. Amazing.

I love this tea. This is definitely my go to for any event or for when I just want something simple. Best tea in the world!

Brewed hot, this is a pretty run-of-the-mill fruit-flavored black tea (you don’t even get the overwhelming sense of mango right from the off, but rather a generic sweet tropical). However, brew it for icing, add some goldenrod honey, and you’re in for a treat!