New Mexico Tea Company

This tea is very very tart, so unless you can drink tart, be prepared to add sugar. I bought this tea to make iced.

Lots of cherry flavor with raspberry, blackberries and hibiscus notes. Iced, the cherry flavor stands out more than the other berryness going on. Both hot and cold, this tea has a tart dryness, despite sweetening. However, I found Pondi Cherry not flat at all!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/pondi-cherry-from-new-mexico-tea-company-tea-review/

This smells like the Lemon Lime Tart (except with ginger instead of cream). Which is to say…. so very good. The ginger comes out well in the flavour too (with a bit of fruitiness). And this would be good iced.

Last cup of my little sample. This is thick and rich. Pie.

This is another one of those evening teas that I take a while to actually write up. Don’t hold that against the tea though – this one is fantastic. I got it as a sample with my Extra Sleepy Bear and I actually like it better. This definitely deserves a spot in the regular rotation.

10 minutes is a long time to wait for such a yummy smelling tea! It’s like inhaling manuka honey. And you know what? It tastes like honey too! There’s a nice thick mouthfeel and it tastes like hot honey water with a hint of citrusy tartness. A touch of mintiness rounds out the sip and lingers on the tongue. This tea usually leaves a comforting touch of warmth in my chest, though that’s perhaps less comforting in the summer heat.

There is stevia in this, which I’m always wary of, but it’s deployed really well in this blend to support the other flavors without being overwhelming or cloying. I will say that it’s a bit too strong in the aftertaste, but the mintiness keeps it from being awful.

Swapped with GiggleGoddess for this one. Huckleberries remind me of Montana, which reminds me of home (Montana will always be home to me), so I had to try this tea.

This tea has a very strong and malty black base. The huckleberry flavor is very slight, just enough to add a touch of sweetness to the tea. This is perfectly alright with me.

My husband on the other hand, does not like this tea. He says he can’t detect the berry flavor and that it tastes like unsweetened Lipton to him. I don’t think he’s tried (m)any other black teas, so Lipton is his only grounds for comparison. I’m also pretty sure that he has impaired taste and smell. His teas need to be loud and flavorful. He used to drink Lipton iced tea with a pound of sugar (according to southern tradition) and since being introduced to other teas through me, he favors strong cinnamon, mint and various overly-flavored varieties. After drinking this tea for a while, he added that it was bitter and acidic. I’m not too surprised by our difference of opinion. I like me an acidic cup of dark roast coffee and he has to ‘pollute’ his with a bunch of creamer. yuck! So it’s no wonder that our taste for tea matches accordingly :)

ETA: I suggested to him that he try adding milk to it, but he says that milk/cream doesn’t work for him in tea the way it does in coffee. Oh well.

I found this wonderful little sample hiding at the bottom of my tea drawer. I can’t believe I missed this one for so long! This is my first tea from New Mexico Tea Company, and I think I’ve read a few reviews about this one that made me even more excited to try it. It smells very floral and lightly sweet. The tea is very thick and heavy. There is a strong jasmine flavor and finish. The aftertaste is sweet and fruity and it lingers for awhile in your mouth. It reminds me of fruit sherbet, or even of fruity pebbles cereal, yum! This tea was surprising, and not what I was expecting, but in a good way. Thank you, Nicole, for this sample that I’ve neglected for so long!

-Dry blend has medium black and green tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell floral and lightly sweet. Tea liquor aroma is heavily of jasmine.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium brown color.
-Heavy jasmine flavor and finish. Lingering sweet and fruity aftertaste. Thick mouthfeel.
-Milk and sweetener optional.
-Good tea. Strong floral flavor. Aftertaste is reminiscent of fruit sherbet.

I was planning to do a blog review of this tea, but decided against it.

First off, my tea was very twiggy. The tea starts off delicate, sweet and smooth. Mid sip is floral and a really flat wine taste, ending with a bit of grape flavor and quite of bit of dryness. Also, I thought this tea would be much sweeter like icewine. I added sweetener which perked up the icewineness and reduced the flatness.

Ehh, maybe my sample was old? I dunno. Alas, rest of the sample goes to the swap box.

Thank you for the sample, NM Tea co. I’ve never had a tea that attempts to mimic wine before and was very excited to try this. I’m so grateful that there a couple of mugs-worth in the packet because it’s going to take me a few tries before I figure out how I feel about this one. On first impression I like it a lot.

This is a nice floral tea. I wasn’t expecting that and thought it would be more on the sweet and fruity side from the name and the smell of the dry leaf. There’s a hint of roses, with a sweetness that drifts up from the liquor’s aroma. The base is also giving me those crisp and fresh cucumber-melon notes, which contribute to a sense of sweetness.

The same profile that reminds me vaguely of roses also lends itself to a flavour that I can only describe as grapey- I get this more near the finish and when I inhale and sip (I probably look funny). The aftertaste, in particular, is fruity sweet. It does make me think of a sweet wine.

Second steep accidentally went over six minutes and tastes a lot like the first steep. It’s silky with a mildly fruity astringent finish.

I have yet to try a Riesling, and the one icewine I’ve had the pleasure to sample was of the red variety, so I can’t fairly say how this tea holds up to what it’s trying to imitate. My obsession with Silver Needle has also made me neglect getting familiar with White Peony, the base of this tea. I’ll have to amend some of these things.

Exactly what flavor do Calundula petals impart on tea? They’re in a ton of the flavoreds that I have – Weeping Angel, Rhubard + Custard, Carrot Cupcake, this one, and on and on – but what do they do? Do they add any flavor or just look pretty? It’s a great mystery to me.

Anyways, I’m sampling this one thanks to QueenofTarts. The steeped smell is that of honeyed vanilla. It actually reminds me more of honeybush than rooibos – sort of a sweet, woody scent.

I took a sip of it plain at around 5 minutes, but it didn’t taste much. So I added some brown rock sugar and let it steep for another minute or so. The taste is still mild, but it’s better. Again it’s reminding me of honeybush. The taste is honeyed, with kind of a vaguely syrupy quality. I’m finding that the vanilla is noticeable more in the aftertaste than in the sip itself.

No notes yet.

I think this is the first honeybush tea I’ve had. I’m not sure if it’s that or the mixture or everything else (orange peel, lemon grass, rose-hips, safflowers, with orange, and lemon flavor) that makes it so delicious. Everytime I take a sip, it makes me smile.
This is a light tea which flavors well with sugar. I’ve only tried it hot and I’m wondering how much better it would be iced. (Note to self – buy more of this sometime.)

Makes me think of my aunt living way out in Henrietta, her whole family (all those cousins) working summers at the berry farm, and how she lives off Huckleberry Lane. Again, for a fruit tea (for someone who generally doesn’t like them I sure am plowing my way through a lot of ’em this month…oh well, knock ’em out right away I guess) this was surprisingly palatable.

I can tell this wants very badly to be iced; it will be super refreshing, like nearing jamaica-level refreshing, that way. Bet when I do that my husband will be all over it. The fact it’s going to make perfect iced tea is what bumps this rating up.

Not bad straight up hot, but there are so many (!) good teas out there I don’t think I would get around to drinking it that way too often.

Had this last night as my last cup of the day. Wasn’t crazy about the mint smell or taste in this one, made it taste medicinal and almost bitter. Not enough licorice root to counter that (I admit though I love the stuff). It wasn’t terrible—I liked it more than the Blood Orange Rooibos—but it reminded me of the elements of Extra Sleepy Bear that make me sigh and suck it up before drinking, without the reward of practically narcotic sleep. Might do OK iced.

The orange zest is immediate and strong both dry and in the cup. This is the first NM tea that smells “off” to me—like it could include something artificial as it’s so cloyingly sweet, almost like a kids’ orange drink flavor a bit. I’m not saying it actually is artificial, just that that’s the impression I get from the aroma.

Oh, I’m bummed! Upon first sip I get that immediate “oh no it’s Celestial Seasonings from my childhood all over again” repulsion I had with Joy’s Teaspoon Almond Cookie. I guess I’ve figured out the main culprit—apparently I really don’t like apple bits in my hot tea (which is strange considering really tart, crisp apples are one of my very favorite fruits)! Sad. This isn’t a strike against the tea and how it’s blended per se, and now I’m wondering if I can give this a good home anywhere…I might try icing it first; maybe then I won’t mind that fruit-tartness so much.

Like everything I’ve had from NMTC, I’m impressed with the quality of the ingredients here—I find it’s hard to do coconut in any form without it being really heavy and artificial seeming, overly sweet, or kind of oily. The coconut presence is absolutely there but it’s not fake seeming in the slightest, and even though it’s quite strong and sweet in a genuine way somehow it never feels overpowering (I can still appreciate the taste of the black tea, and by the way it seems rather good for a flavored blend). I dig how it seems to get creamier and richer the more you sip. Bet this would do well with the latte treatment. Have yet to be disappointed with anything from them.

Very perfume-y without some of the elements that typically are part of that package that I can’t stand (jasmine, tons and tons of rose). I could see getting this as a novelty/change of pace once in a while for my EG tin. It smells lovely but it’s not overpoweringly floral in flavor, just right.

Oh, I like this one very much! I could see it rotating with Upton Imports Baker Street Blend for my occasional afternoon “smoke break” tea. I love the way it smells. The tannins and astringency build by the end, but it’s hard for me to tell if that’s just because this is the third earl grey I’ve tested this afternoon. :b

Beginning to feel like I need to do an earl grey plot map or something, with creaminess as one axis and bergamot/floral character as another maybe. If I could do it in 3D that’d be even better, ‘cause there’s so many other possible dimensions…smokiness, briskness, fruitiness. My goodness.

But anyway, if I were to do that, Della Terra’s would be much further to the creamy side than this one. This has more of the classic earl grey character—the taste of smooth black tea and floral notes. There is some vanilla, but it’s with a much lighter hand. It’s not as like-eating-ice-cream dessert-rich as Della Terra’s. And it’s not as harsh as Harney and Son’s. It smells fantastic both dry and in the cup. It’s very…smack dab in the middle of everything, relative to all of the others I’ve tried. No one element is way far out there with everything else receding. Balanced, I guess. The floral aroma is particularly vivid and lovely, I must say. There’s some tannin and astringency build-up as I finish the cup (but I think I might’ve used slightly too much tea leaf, granted). I could definitely drink this again with pleasure. It’s a good afternoon earl grey.

The tea blender for NM Tea Company must be a genius, every tea I’ve tried has been just right. Perfectly balanced bergamot and jasmine, a delicate green tea.

The scent is almost as good as Casablanca.

Had some trepidation with this one because as much as I love love LOVE lavender (!!) I tend to hate rose (yeah really). But I want more “teas” I can drink after 5pm beyond just baked good/candyshop dessert offerings, and New Mexico has impressed me in the past with the freshness and quality of their tisane ingredients. I’m glad I risked it because I think I love this! It’s so clean and refreshing, yet it has a floral and fruity thing going on too. Not too astringent, surprisingly smooth. Really love that I finally have something in my repertoire like this, not a sugarbomb but totally delicious and satisfying as well as calming. Yay! Prospective bonus, it has a flavor that makes me think it’d be fantastic iced, and also like it’d be delicious mixed with gin. So. Fingers crossed! Even if that doesn’t live up to my hopes this is still a definite keeper.

EDIT: As with other NMTC stuff I’ve had, this resteeps alright too, yay.

Cannot say enough good things about NMTC. The quality is way up there, the customer service has been great (and my stuff’s come really fast and packed appropriately), and the price is oh so right (especially because they have free shipping). Love.

Sipdown the sixth! This blend sounded intriguing to me, but I ended up finding it a bit weird. There was sweetness from the vanilla and tartness from the pomegranate, but the two seemed at odds with one another. The black base was a bit more astringent than I would have liked, but still drinkable.

Thanks for sharing, GiggleGoddess!

Can never get over how well this works. I tried Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Extra out recently (I know! But the ingredient list was almost identical so I was curious, and it’s at the grocery store so if I ever ran out of the loose, good stuff it might make a good backup option, plus I just love doing close comparisons) and it wasn’t nearly as effective. Took this last night ‘cause my sleep cycle’s been off, gradually shifting later and later in a bad way, and once again was hit with a double whammy of instant sleepiness followed by deep, crazy deep sleep. You could have shook me and I don’t think I would have gotten up before 8 hours passed. And when I did wake up I felt like I’d been asleep for years, and come back from a long journey. It’s so effective I know now not to use it if I’ll have to get up super early—I don’t think I would!

White pu’er stuffed in an orange? Sign me up!

This thing is a mess! After unwrapping it, the skin of the orange was thin and brittle, flaking all over the place. You are supposed to steep the tea without the peel, but that is a tricky when the thing is falling apart!

Taste? White tea, floral with some orange notes. The flavor became very crisp and delicate at the end.

Full review and pictures of the experience on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/30/white-puerh-mandarin-orange-from-new-mexico-tea-co-tea-review-and-experience/

At the end, I was wondering what else they can stuff pu’er in to..

Anyone wanna split an order of melon pu’er? Need like 60 of us, lol! http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Melon-Tuocha-Pu-erh-Tea/dp/B0002H8OUE

Backlog:

Maybe I’m just not a fruity tea drinker, but this tea was not that great imho. It was super strong and did not have much of a Rooibos base to me. It was just sweet and the “orange” flavor just didn’t taste right.