Bush Berry (formerly New Moon Tea Co.)

This is from Cameron B!  Thanks very much!  I wasn’t expecting much with this tea, as I knew this was probably full of rosehips and strawberry teas are usually a let down.  The hardest flavor to get right, I think, is authentic strawberry.  Surprisingly, both steeps at least had a bit of strawberry candy flavor.  Surprising because it looked like half the blend was rose hips!  So really it tasted like strawberry flavored rosehips, as I couldn’t really taste any white tea.  So this was better than I expected?  But the bar was very very low here. 
Steep #1   // 2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  20 minutes after boiling // 3 min

Sipdown! (3 | 3)

Interesting, apparently I’ve never written a note for this? It’s not my favorite, but I’m liking it more than I remember. I’m not sure the black tea is really adding anything, as I’m mostly tasting the herbaceous (but not wet raggy, thankfully) peppermint, the refreshing and bright spearmint, and the lightly toasty, creamy cacao. I think the blend of mints here is quite nice, as it combines the strengths of both and is refreshing without tasting like chewing gum.

Nice enough tea, especially for a chocolate mint blend, which are usually underwhelming to me. I do think you could remove the black tea and not notice much difference though.

Sipdown! (4 | 45)

I’ve been sipping this one with milk and sugar lately, as a sort of lazy London fog. Having this last cuppa plain though.

Honestly there’s not a lot of flavor to it? Bergamot is mild, vanilla is very mild, base is mild… It’s a bit bland overall. The black base is smooth and softly woody, but lacking in flavor.

It’s not bad per se, just bland. And at this point, I’m not sure how I feel about New Moon anyway after they claim to blend their own teas and yet confirmed that many of them are from a wholesaler after I confronted them about it…

Sipdown! (1 | 399)

Happy to see this one finished off. I’ve had a similar issue with a lot of New Moon’s herbal blends, in that they all taste sort of muddled and same-y.

The dry leaf had a nice soft, orange-y scent to it, but there’s almost no orange to be found in the steeped tisane. It’s all a generic, muddled mix of mint and licorice with a bit of turmeric and ginger thrown in. There’s a subtle bitterness that I’m not a fan of, and it’s an odd combination with the sweetness of the licorice root and blackberry leaf. I’m not sure I would even know it was spearmint over peppermint?

Anyway, it needs much more orange and hibiscus in my opinion. As it stands, I wouldn’t even know there was orange here at all… Fewer ingredients would also help it taste less muddled.

Sipdown! (3 | 412)

Yay, finished off another herbal tisane!

I’ve been enjoying this one as my before-bed tea lately, it has a pleasant soft herbal flavor with a nice combination of mint and chamomile. There are a bunch of other ingredients as well, but those are the only two I taste.

Not something I would reorder, just because there are a bunch of other companies I want to try for herbal tisanes. But I still have quite a few to get through before I can buy any new ones! :P

On to the next New Moon Tea Co. herbal tisane after finishing one last night. Happily, this one is much more successful. It still has about a billion ingredients, but it doesn’t taste like a muddled herb soup. Probably because I can only taste a couple of the herbs.

The mint is the dominant flavor, and apparently it’s a mix of peppermint, spearmint, and mountain mint. I definitely get the peppermint, and I don’t know what mountain mint tastes like so I can’t really comment on that one. It’s a nice cooling peppermint though, not the wet rag sort that I often find in mint blends. Maybe the other mints are helping to freshen it up a bit? The chamomile is present as well, more as a background note adding a bit of honeyed sweetness and a softness that’s very calming. I think I get a bit of lemon balm as well?

Anyway, it’s a perfectly fine herbal tisane for the evening. It’s not amazing, and I probably wouldn’t reorder it. But I’m happy enough to be finding it pleasant, as I have quite a bit of volume to work through! :P

So this is my first time trying one of the Farm + Forage blends from New Moon – they’re herbal tisanes sourced from small Canadian farms. This one happens to be from Chickadee Farm Herbs in Flatbrush, Alberta, and is a blend of chamomile, lemon balm, nettle, peppermint, raspberry leaf, spearmint, mountain mint, and yarrow.

I like it! Definitely mint-forward, but it has a nice, cooling mint flavor to it rather than the wet rag variety. There is an interesting vegetal/grassy note, I assume from the nettle? I’ve never yarrow, so it could be that as well. There’s a mellow chamomile flavor in the background and a soft hay note. But mostly, it’s minty and refreshing.

Tasty! I don’t know that it’s terribly special, but I’m enjoying it as my before-bed cuppa.

Sipdown! (7 | 7)

This one sounded good from the ingredients, but I don’t taste much besides chamomile, a bit of mint, and a touch of licorice root. And I would’ve guessed peppermint, not spearmint which is the actual ingredients. Not that I dislike any of these things, it’s just rather boring and muddled together. There’s no crispness to the mint and the chamomile is sort of a bland.

Not a winner for me! But one step closer to sipping down all of my herbal tisanes so I can buy shiny new ones! :P

Hmm…

This one sounded good to me because of all the ingredients, but really I mostly just taste chamomile, followed by a bit of mint and licorice root.

So not offensive, but disappointing. I was hoping to taste more of the apple and orange, but honestly I wouldn’t even know they were here at all if I hadn’t read the ingredients.

Oh well!

Sipdown! (35 | 165)

This one was included as a free sample with one of my orders. Not being a lavender lover, I wasn’t too excited to see it. But I’ve been trying to give lavender more of a chance lately, so here we are.

Clearly since I’ve finished off the sample packet, I like it more than I’d planned! The lavender isn’t too overpowering, which is nice, and I really like chamomile, which is the other ingredient here. The chamomile is the stronger note here, with the lavender adding an herbal/floral accent.

It doesn’t quite go perfumey for me, though it’s not far off. I appreciate lavender as an aroma, but I don’t think it will ever be a favorite for me in tea. But this is still quite pleasant to sip on before bed! At the same time, I think I would prefer a chamomile and mint combination.

But here’s to broadening one’s horizons!

Sipdown! (45 | 118)

This was a free sample with my last order, and I was happy to see it, since it’s one that I considered getting!

The green base here is actually quite nice, with rich buttery and nutty notes and a silky mouthfeel. It feels thick and satisfying on the tongue, probably helped by some of the herbs.

I like the freshness of the spearmint here, but the other three ingredients sort of get muddled together. It doesn’t taste lemony really, just “herbal”. I would guess it has peppermint by the flavor, but it doesn’t, so it must be the lemon verbena that’s giving me that same sort of vibe.

So it ends up being more of a mint green tea with some extra stuff. It’s tasty enough, but not something I would feel the need to order. I would be interested in other blends on this green base though, as green tea is often so generically grassy and this one is quite yummy.

So I recently subscribed to Bokksu, a Japanese snack subscription box. I’ve been doing some casual short little reviews of the snacks on Instagram, and for the last few I’ve been pairing them with teas. This is the tea I chose to have with an absolutely scrumptious white peach castella cake.

Honestly though, this one’s just not great. There’s barely any peach or osmanthus at all. Mostly I taste the generic Chinese sencha base, with its dry grass notes. There’s no bitterness at least, but there’s not much else either…

So, a bit of a rant. I’m having a really hard time with New Moon Tea Co lately. I noticed that this and one of their other new Spring teas – White Strawberry – are very obviously sourced from Shanti Tea. And while I get that a lot of places resell blends from wholesale sources, the packaging states these are “small batch, hand blended, farm to cup teas” and that this is “proudly made in British Columbia, Canada”… Which is clearly a load of crap when it comes to these two teas, and I assume many others.

This is a brand that I’ve been so happy to support in the past, but now I have to wonder how many of the teas are falsely advertised like this. I don’t know whether to (tactfully) bring this up to the owner, or just stop buying from her entirely…

Have any of you have this issue before…?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CLNRQuyg2k4/

(ETA: I confirmed with the vendor that this tea is sourced from Shanti Tea. I would delete this note, but I don’t want to lose the comments!)

Sipdown! (15 | 88)

The last one from Courtney! \o/

I’m not sure that I’ve ever had echinacea before, but I do enjoy elderflower so I’m excited to try this one! Dry scent was a bit… odd. Almost savory, will a sort of dill note?

Wow, this is surprisingly scrumptious! The elderflower has a sweet creaminess that’s almost buttery and reminds me of sugar cookies. There’s also a light honeyed, herbaceous floral note similar to chamomile, but much softer. And underneath is a hint of crisp cucumber and warm hay.

So yummy and relaxing before bed, and now I’m just sad that I just ordered from New Moon and this was not included… :|

But thanks Courtney for the awesome share!

This one smells super tasty, both dry and steeped! I’ve been putting this off because apple and cinnamon just wasn’t exciting to me. But I’m so glad I steeped it tonight! The cinnamon and apple are perfectly balanced, and there’s a delightful sweetness that is reminiscent of apple cider. But not so sweet (like actual apple cider) that I get ‘fuzzy teeth’ haha!

During my undergrad, I used to have many an early lab and I would always treat myself to a warm apple cider from the coffee shop at school that opened early, because it reminded me of home. This is bringing back all those good memories.

I would order this one for our cupboard for sure! We’re nearly out of Relax & Renew, so perhaps I’ll be ordering this before I know it!

Thanks Cameron!

Flavour is not very strong… brewed to bag specs it tastes like vaguely flavoured water to me. not sure if it’s the apples? I find a need a lot of tea brewed for a long time to get the flavour. That being said when I do that (like 2tao in 1 cup or 7 min) the flavour is pretty nice!

Holy mint madness! Would have enjoyed more cocoa and tea flavour to balance. Sometimes mix with additional black tea which is nice, not great without milk.

Sipdown! (41)

The first one to be finished off from my swap with Courtney!

I don’t have much experience with tulsi blends, so I thought this one would be fun to try. I’m surprised by how mellow it is – I expected the tulsi to have a stronger flavor. But this is mostly a pleasant and gentle lemon ginger tisane.

The ginger is soft and warming, and not too strong. I think I can taste both lemon peel and lemongrass here, which together give a soft and well-rounded herbal lemon note. As far as the tulsi, I get a little hint of a minty or basil note, but it’s extremely mild.

A perfectly pleasant herbal tisane for the evening! :)

I can’t say I really care for the dry or steeped scent all too much here, and this tea strikes me as one someone would only drink if they’re feeling under the weather. That said, I ordered this for Lex because she is one to drink things for the betterment of her health, even if she doesn’t enjoy the taste (which is so not me haha).

There is a significantly better taste than scent here. The ginger is a bit muted, which I prefer. Ginger-forward teas are generally not my favourite. The lemongrass adds a nice dimension to the taste, and although I’m unsure what these separate tulsi plants taste like, there is a subtle sweetness at the end of each sip that makes me happy I didn’t add additional sweetener (which I did consider).

Sipdown! (35 | 71)

Been sipping through this one as a London Fog, but I figured I would have this last cup plain.

It’s surprisingly bland. I can taste a hint of cardamom and perhaps a hint of bergamot, but mostly it’s just generic black tea without much flavor to it.

An unfortunate way to send it off, I did enjoy the lattes I’ve had with it lately, and there was much more cardamom flavor to it. Oh well!

Cracking open this first pouch from my recent New Moon order because I felt like a seasonal tea for my seasonal mug this morning! And with such a gorgeous label, how can I possibly resist? This one is an Earl Grey on a black base with added vanilla and cardamom. It sounded too interesting and unique to pass up, so naturally made its way into my cart…

The first thing I taste is definitely the cardamom, and it tends to be the strongest note overall. Cardamom has such an interesting flavor to me, it’s like the intersection of warm spices like clove with floral herbs such as lavender. Here it melds seamlessly with the bergamot (which also can sometimes be slightly floral), and they are a bit difficult to tell apart. I feel I can taste more of the bergamot’s citrusy notes mid-sip, and the vanilla becomes obvious at the end with a sweet custardy note. Overall, the combination of all three is lovely.

However, I am getting a bit of astringency that I’m not a huge fan of, and I feel the cardamom sort of accentuates it a bit, along with the slight sharpness of the bergamot. I wonder if the base here is an Indian tea, and if I would be better off with a slightly shorter steep. I have a message out to the company to inquire about the base tea, so we’ll see what the owner says. The dryness is certainly not a dealbreaker here, but it does detract a bit.

Anyway, it’s tasty and I’m happy that it hopped into my cart! :)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHYLkqlAq4F/

2022 sipdown no. 8

This tea is pretty tasty for being called surgical recovery haha! I have always enjoyed this one, though it is perhaps slightly medicinal, with a warming from the ginger. If/when I decide to reorder from New Moon, I would be fine to add this to my order (though for immune-related teas when I’m not feeling well I’d choose Nettle from Steam over this).

Finally gave in and made this one tonight. I went to bed last night not feeling 100% and woke up feeling the same. I was hoping today I would start to feel better, but alas, that has not been the case.

So, this tea to the rescue! I really do enjoy the gingery clove of this tea, which is nice for a ‘healthy herbal’ type tea. We also have an Echinacea and Elderflower that I’m much less enamoured with in terms of taste haha!

I had to go in to work today, and because I work on a hospital campus, I was a tad panicked (I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work from home). However, all went smoothly, and now I’m back home in my sweats with tea!

I was feeling a clove tea and didn’t want to use up the chai, since I have very little left. So, this was the only other tea in my cupboard with clove! I’ve had this one a fair amount over the years of purchasing New Moon and I do enjoy it. It’s very herbal-y, but still quite tasty. It’s fairly ginger-forward, with some cloves and hay right behind.