where drinking tea is what matters
If you are looking for a reliable no-nonsense peppermint tea in tea-bags, and you are near a Trader Joe, their 20pk for $2 (I think it was $1.80 before) is a good value! It has just one ingredient, peppermint and nothing more. It is a modest minty taste, not as bright as the TeaPigs [see Prime Tea Samples Diary].
Continue reading “Value at 10c per cup, the Trader Joe Peppermint Tea”
This tea has grown on me enough that it is now challenging the Vanilla Rooibos as my favorite from the 2017 holiday season Trader Joe Gift Set. “This” refers to the raspberry black tea, made with just three ingredients loose leaf black tea, natural flavor, and dried raspberries.
Continue reading “Raspberry Black Tea (from the TJ 2017 Holidays Gift Set)”
It “only” took me three months (it’s a good thing I’m not the one writing “The Winds of Winter”) to finish reviewing the Trader Joe Thotalagala Tea Gift Set 🙂 But the project is finally complete with this very review of the Green tea from this tea pyramid set:
This is probably my 1A favorite among the six teas that are the Trader Joe Gift Set, it is the “Vanilla & Rooibos Red Tea” that has just two ingredients, rooibos and vanilla powder! Vanilla aroma is the first thing that reaches your senses when you open the tin, and it is indeed carrier forward in the taste. The vanilla definitely tames some of the “medicinaliness” of rooibos! I liked this well enough I am going to look for vanilla rooibos teas like this (instead of natural/artificial flavors).
Continue reading “Vanilla & Rooibos Red Tea Loose Leaf Tea (from TJ Party Set)”
Oh my! Three weeks without a new tea blog! Where did all the time go? I have a mountain of teas and topics to write about! I must needs write like the wind 🙂
Today we are back with Tea #3 from the Trader Joe Thotalagala collection, a single-estate Sri Lanka tea set in tea pyramids (but the tea leaves can be easily liberated and brewed loose leaf style). We are talking about the Black Tea of this set, which is black tea leaves and nothing more!
And we are back, with our first review of the six tea-tins included in the Trader Joe Tea Party Set that premiered during the 2017 holiday season. We start with Jean Luc Picard’s favorite, the “Bergamot Flavored Black Tea”. Technically they don’t call it “Earl Grey” ~ it’s not that they have to pay licensing fees to the good old Lord Grey ~ or Lord Frey 🙂
Continue reading “Bergamot Flavored Loose Leaf Black Tea (from the Trader Joe Tea Party)”
It’s a tea party at Trader Joe! Introduced (I believe) for the 2017 holiday season, Trader Joe has a second tea gift set, in addition to the Thotalagala set. The “Tea Party” goes for $8 and has six small tins of loose leaf tea, half with caffeine, half without. The first row in the picture below is caffeinated, the second row has no caffeine.
Continue reading “Unboxing the Trader Joe Tea Party Gift Set”
This is the second of the four teas included in the brand new Thotalagala Single Estate Tea Gift Set, two flavored, two unflavored, to keep purists and non-purists alike happy 🙂
Continue reading “Tea Review: Thotalagala Festive Black Tea”
This is the first of four reviews of the four teas included in the brand new Thotalagala Single Estate Tea Gift Set! We start with the most aromatic of the options, the Lemongrass Earl Grey.
Continue reading “Tea Review: Thotalagala Lemongrass Earl Grey”
Tea Santa came early this year! I was shopping at Trader Joe when I noticed this all new exciting tea gift set. It costs $10. I pondered but (of course) eventually gave in and bought it 🙂 You get four tea containers with ten tea pyramids in each. That’s 25c per tea pyramid.
It has a long name, get ready for it, it is the Thotalagala Organic Single Estate High Grown Tea Collection! This is not advertised in their Holiday 2017 Flyer, it just showed up in the store!
I just opened the box and took pictures, and wrote this post. I haven’t tasted the tea yet, it’s late night, I won’t be able to sleep if I drink caffeinated now 🙂 But fear not, there will be four separate posts on each one of the included four teas!
The holiday teas are coming out in all directions, and they are usurping my “Phase II” plans. Today’s review is another Trader Joe holiday classic, their decaffeinated Candy Cane Green Tea. Thanks to Game of Thrones, I have now renamed decaffeinated teas as “eunuch teas” 🙂 I usually avoid them, but because this is a holiday tea, I get one every year for the tradition and holiday spirit 🙂
If it wasn’t a holiday tea, there would be many reasons to avoid this tea. It has SOY, motherfrakking soy (soybean oil part of the “roasted chicory”), the last ingredient in the list. It also has unspecified “Natural Flavors” and of course it is decaffeinated.
If none of the above turns you off, keep reading….
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe’s Candy Cane Decaf Green Tea (2017 edition)”
A brand new tea came out at Trader Joe, the “Apple Cranberry Herbal Tea Blend”, so of course I had to drop everything and try it! It is the second tea in this brand new line. The packaging has the same design language as the new Winter WakeUp Blend. The Apple tea is all herbal, no black tea.
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe Apple Cranberry Herbal Tea Blend”
As of review time, it is the middle of Pumpkin Season at Trader Joe (TJ), but surprise-surprise, a Winter Tea made its premiere (I don’t think I’ve seen that before at TJ) in the middle of the pumpkins. It is the “Winter Wake Up Blend” (20 individually wrapped tea bags, $2.50), an attempt at the not uncommon “Winter Blend” with some modest holiday decorations sneaked in the design of the box 🙂
How does it taste? Is it a must buy or a “mindless drinking” tea? Read on to find out…
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe Winter Wake Up Blend”
Trader Joe is launching new teas faster than I can drink them, and derailing my tea blogging plan, because “shiny new tea”! This organic Moringa, Mango and Ginger herbal tea blend is a sister tea to the Organic Peppermint/Cinnamon, they both came out at the same time, they are both organic from Sri Lanka without any additional materials (no flavors, natural or artificial), and they have similar packaging, and a $3 price for a 20-pack of tea pyramids.
I didn’t even know what Moringa was before I bought this tea. Sadly I haven’t developed any superpowers after drinking it! It is, according to the packaging, leaves from the “moringa oleifera trees” [see Wikipedia for all the details on moringa].
Continue reading “Tea Review: organic Trader Joe Moringa, Mango and Ginger Herbal Tea”
This was supposed to be Genmai Cha month here at the blog, but as with most things tea, there’s always more tea to distract me! First it was a Matcha Starter Kit impulse buy, then the Trader Joe Harvest Season iconic teas arrived! First it was the dorky foxy Harvest Blend and then the good old Pumpkin Spice Rooibos in its very orange tin!
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe Pumpkin Spice Rooibos”
This tea has a special place in my heart. It was one of my very first “breakout” teas when I was struggling with the switch from Colas to Teas. Looking at it more critically now, years later, it is not as magical as it felt at the time, but let’s not forget, it’s still a $2 box of tea 🙂
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe Harvest Blend Herbal Tea”
Yes, dear Tea Friends! We have a new blog achievement unlocked! Back to back days with new blog posts! Today too we have a Trader Joe tea, this is another one of their new product arrivals. It is a RED tea, Melisandre red!
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe RED Refresh: Taming The Hibiscus, Nice Iced”
Trader Joe has been bringing new teas the last few weeks, that’s why you see more Trader Joe teas mentioned these days.
Today we take a look at the first of two Organic tea pyramid teas. The Organic Peppermint Cinnamon Herbal Tea has just two ingredients, organic peppermint and organic cinnamon, product of Sri Lanka. Nothing else! No flavors, nothing else!
UPDATE: the second tea that came out with this is the Organic Moringa, Ginger, Mango Herbal Blend…
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe Organic Peppermint Cinnamon Herbal Tea”
So I was strolling and trolling the Trader Joe tea section the other day and I noticed something interesting. Their Pomegranate White Tea has been replaced with a new version! The differences are both in packaging and in content. The new version is fully organic, while the previous version was marked as 94% organic. I have both of them as you can see in the picture, and will try to compare them side by side later on when I find time for a direct comparison.
Continue reading “Trader Joe replaces their Pomegranate White Tea with fully organic version”
I have dozens and dozens of teas to review, but as fate would have it, it’s another Trader Joe tea that drew the assignment! This is a relatively new addition to their line-up, a flavored tea bag mix, the Chocolate Mint Black Tea! You get 20 tea bags per box. The price is $2.49 per box. [updated]
The taste is as the name suggests, you get a reasonably good mix of the three advertised flavors (chocolat-i-ness, mint-i-ness, black-tea-ness) ~ considering the price. There are various Natural Flavors, in addition to the tea leaves (peppermint, black, spearmint) and the various chocolate-y ingredients (cocoa bean shells, carob pods and such) and glueware (sunflower oil in the roasted chicory). So definitely not something for a tea purist 🙂
Continue reading “Tea Review: Trader Joe Chocolate Mint Black Tea”