Tea Review: Trader Joe Apple Cranberry Herbal Tea Blend

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.

You get a cardboard box of twenty individually sealed tea bags for $2.50 The package opens in dispenser mode (standing vertically), or the more conventional horizontal opening.

INGREDIENTS

They have a lot of the usual herbal blend ingredients, with dried apples and dried cranberries being the least common, and the ones that give them their name.

Note however that this has unspecified “Natural Flavors” and “Citric Acid”, things that may discourage some. They also have Licorice root, which some are avoiding because of doctor orders.

Per the container, this is a Product of Canada. Not sure if this means all the ingredients are from Canada, or it was blended and packaged in Canada?

BREWING INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions on the box are as you’d expect from herbal blends. Boiling water and 4-5 minutes. As with other herbal blends, you have flexibility in brewing time, even if you forgot to remove the tea bag on time.

HOW DOES IT TASTE?

I liked this better than their sister tea Winter WakeUp blend. Opening the sealed tea wrapper brings up a mild aroma of some of the ingredients. The infusion too keeps some of the aroma. It is not overwhelming or overpowering.

The tea tastes well at all three temperature groups: hot, room temperature and iced. Iced, I found it to be refreshing and crisp, with some of the brightness of the hibiscus fading into the background. Hot, the flavors are more pronounced, you get the hints of apple, cranberry and of course hibiscus.

If I was blending it, I would have used less of the hibiscus, but this may be a personal choice. When I started my switch from Colas to Tea a few years ago, I would inhale hibiscus-based teas. Fast forward to now, I find most hibiscus-dominated teas to be too bright.

Overall, I would call this “above average”, and by average I mean average, not the polite meaning of average which means bad 🙂 I have no problem calling teas abominations 🙂

TEA BAGS

Each tea bag is individually sealed in a clear cellophone wrapper, so that’s a plus if you want to take it with you or share with friends and family; or a minus for using additional material.

Speaking of additional materials, sadly both the tea bag and the tea tag have a staple on them. So you are brewing the tea bag, the string and a staple, as you see in this post-infusion tea bag picture below:

One thought on “Tea Review: Trader Joe Apple Cranberry Herbal Tea Blend”

  1. Love ❤️ this tea. Live 2us hours from TJ so I am shopping to buy multiple boxes. When I make the drive unfortunately they are usually out!!! It is awesome and I have shared with my fry

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