New Mexico Tea Company

A friend gave some of this a while back, and I have to say I find it to be an aquired taste. It’s not my favourite tea, but it seems to grow more and more on me each time I taste it.

I had it clear this last time, and I think I prefer it that way, which is somewhat odd as I’m normally a milk and honey/sugar kind of tea drinker. However, each tea has its own character, and this one appears to be best left to its own devices.

Today I decided to make a sort-of chai latte with this. I don’t own a milk steamer and I find that steamed milk will sometimes give me a stomachache, so I improvised! I brewed some of the Kama Sutra Chai and added the last of my meadowfoam raw honey (which has a taste of marshmallows — goes VERY well with this tea) and let that sit while I prepared milk. I poured some 2% milk and added to it a few drops of vanilla extract. I put it in a lidded container and shook it until it was rather foamy. I then added the tea, stirred thoroughly, and had a perfect little easy “latte” to enjoy. I think it would work BEAUTIFULLY with almond milk or vanilla soy as well!

This is a malty dark chai, but with something sweet lingering in the background. It brews a deep reddish amber cup and is somewhat bitter if over-steeped. I sweetened it with a rosewater sugar cube. Smooth flavor and highly enjoyable. At the bottom of each teacup I found a thin layer of powdery spices. Very interesting.

The tea is a dark brown with deep red undertones. It smells like the dried leaves did. It is like someone stuck a campfire in the tea cup. Breathing it in it is as though you are sitting right in front of a fire. The tea is warm, not heat warm or spice warm. It has a flavor profile that is warm and makes you feel warm from the inside out. This would not be a tea that would make a lot of sense to try to make into an iced tea because of this warm flavor. It does sort of taste like drinking smoke. All the flavor of campfire or barbecue smoke is mixed up in the flavors of this drink. It’s not a sweet taste, although the start of it could be considered a little sweet, moving down into the a nutty and light flavor. This is a very thick tea, it sits heavy in your stomach. At the same time, it is surprisingly smooth.

For more information and pictures see below.

http://teasnobbery.com/2010/10/29/tea-review-russian-caravan-from-nm-tea-co/

This tea is a dark amber. It smells like roses, light and floral. There is no smell of berries like in the dry leaves. Tasting it, the primary taste is just like the smell. It tastes very strongly of roses, almost as if they were actually in the tea itself, although I have seen no parts of it. At the end of the tea, after I have let it sit for a while there is a sweet raspberry aftertaste that slowly overrides the other tones in the first brew. I brewed it a little too hot for the first brew, for a little too long, so it is a little extra bitter.

For more notes on this tea see the review on my blog.
http://teasnobbery.com/2010/10/08/tea-review-ontario-icewine-from-nmteaco/

Backlog. I drank this once this week, but when I went for the tin today, it was empty. I’m guessing he really loved this one!

Backlog. Had this yesterday.

I had Lapsang Souchong this morning. I had received this in a swap off of teachat a few months ago, and I wanted to wait until my tin of Bamileke was finished (I have at least 2 unopened tins left – Amazon has those deals). So now that it was finished here it goes!

WOW. My expectations weren’t that high since I wasn’t a huge fan of Bamileke but I eventually became accustomed to the Lapsang Souchong in the blend. This one, standing alone, was unexpectedly delicious! It was smokey and smooth without tasting or smelling like bacon. It smelled like a wood burning in a fireplace or a firepit. I love that smell! It was slightly sweet but maybe it is because of the sweetener my boyfriend put in there.

Last night he asked me, “Why do you love tea so much?” I don’t know… I just do! It makes me calm and I enjoy those quiet and peaceful moments with him and when I’m alone. :)

Having some of this in the evening with lime and honey. I’m using lime because I don’t have any lemon.

I am having this tea with milk and sugar with lunch.

I drink this tea with milk and two sugar cubes. It has a musky flavor that some people don’t like, however I find it pleasing every now and then.

Backlogging. Used up the last bit. This was delicious and just what I needed to end my day. Sad to see it go. I will definitely be purchasing kukicha in the future.

Yum! I steeped this and placed it in my rice cooker with the rice today. Yummy :)

Wow! The taste really stood out after I steeped it a little longer than before. So delicious! It reminds me of winter at an empty lodge or cabin with a fire roaring. I can’t wait to have some more. I even let it linger in my mouth for a while to absorb all the flavor.

Not so bad. Pretty good. I got this from a swap off of teachat. It looks like houjicha but mostly twigs and stems. It smells and tastes nutty, a little smokey, and very light. It is a milder houjicha… I have to try this again another time, but so far so good.

Mmmmm, vanilla.

Haven’t found many teas that do vanilla well but this one is really great. The vanilla is obvious and creamy with an ever so slightly floral quality which gives it an interesting twist. I think it helps the vanilla not seem so fake. I hate fake vanilla. This is smooth but with a tiny, tiny amount of astringency on the back of the tongue. There are cinnamon rolls calling my name in the teachers lounge and I think another cup of this will go wonderfully with them.

The leaves of this tea are simply beautiful when fully infused. They look good enough to eat. When brewed, they render a medium oolong with red-brown liquor and an aroma of black tea and earth. The taste is somewhere between black and green. Smooth and delicious, with some earthy notes underneath. Second infusion is as good as first, with very subtle peach and flower notes coming forward. This is one to savor in the aroma as well as the more subtle flavor, because they could be from two different teas.

This is an incredibly good tea, though I’m not really sure why. I steeped it for 4 minutes, per NMTeaCo’s website. The initial smell I got was classic barber shop, some kind of hard candy, and a little bit of old man cologne smell to it. Very strange.

Upon tasting it I found a pleasant light flavor, with hints of mandarin orange in there. It isn’t a dominating taste of orange, which is good, considering that it was encased in orange peel. Still tastes a little old man cologne-ish, but I guess that’s the aged pu erh at work, right? There’s a very light yellow tint to it as well, a bit different from most greens I have brewed in the past.

Overall I really do enjoy the subtle-ness of this tea, even if it has barber shop/cologney overtones to it. It has some kind of charm to it, that inspires me to drink it; weird. Definitely a tea to try, I’m going to give this guy a 90 Rating on the TeaCast scale. Just excellent!

There are no artificial tasting coconut flavors in this tea. This was the perfect complement to the huge breakfast I had this morning.

Softly green with rose strong in the nose and mouthfeel. Have to be in the right mood to drink a tea a rose flavor, but when I’m in that mood, it is lovely. Very pretty looking tea with the rose petals.

Sick at home and drinking this. Very soothing tea.

This is such a lovely, comforting tea. I feel a cold coming on and this is just what I needed to relax with.

Brew it really strong – Oh Yes.