Trader Joe's

Black tea bag. The tea is on the smokier side, not particularly sweet or fruity, mild seaweed taste, the astringency came through. Drinkable, but I recommend Trader Joe’s Organic Assam Black Tea over this one for better value and taste.

sold for $5.49/20 Bags

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/organic-nilgiri-black-tea-074759

This one was surprisingly good. I was looking for a non-caffeine blend for my recently endless nights of staring at a screen. It’s a classic “fall” blend- cinnamon, hibiscus, apple, orange peel and chamomile (though it’s barely there) over a chicory base. I get just a hint of the alleged ginger, though more would be nice.

It is heavy on the cinnamon (real) and apple (slighly unnatural) and very fragrant, almost potpurri-like. I enjoy that, while some tea purists may not. I do recommend to drink it hot. The wet-doggy note (chicory? lurking marigold?) becomes more prominent as it cools down. Probably the cozy autumnal feelings this evokes are more pleasant than the actual drink, but the overall effect is quite nice and I find myself reaching for this more than I expected. At for around $3 per box, it’s economical if you’re looking for a decaf cinnamon/apple blend.

Black tea bag. Smoky plum flavor, surprisingly low in astringency, no bitterness. Light in aroma and flavor but I’m not mad at these tea bags.

sold for $4.49/48 Bags

https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/organic-assam-black-tea-074755

#SVTTB Round Two – Tea 23/23

Welp, I believe this was the last tea from the TTB that I wanted to try so I’m pretty close to having everything wrapped up now. Just need to add a last handful of teas to the box, and get the shipping order figured out – so if you’d like to join round two please leave a comment here or, if you’re on IG, hit me up with a DM!

Plan, I believe, will be to start with a leg of people in Canada and if we have anyone in Canada willing to ship to the US then we’ll extend to the US as well.

As for this tea, it was pretty squarely in the middle of everything I tried. I really thought it might just be a cinnamon black tea because it tasted so potently of that sweet red hot-type cinnamon flavouring with just a hint of woodiness that it was tough to picture any other ingredients in the mix. That cinnamon note was pleasant with a nice sweetness, but boy does it dominate! It just totally masked everything else going on ingredient wise…

I’ve been drinking this every morning for over 10 years. I’m not myself without it. I only like it with cream and sugar! :)

I always have some of this in my cupboard. It’s a guest favorite and warms me up late at night. Good with honey, It’s also a good stand in when I’m feeling under the weather. It’s definitely more mild than the triple ginger herbal I have, but it’s good because it’s mid. My crowd pleaser tea for when it’s too late for caffeine!

I really enjoyed this tea. The peppermint is very rich, deep and pure. This one can be either a refreshing pick me up when chilled, or nicely relaxing and soothing when hot. The best all-round peppermint tea I’ve found to date. I highly recommend it!

I don’t remember where I got this single teabag, but I’m glad I grabbed it! This is probably one of the better Moroccan mint teas I’ve had. The mint is fresh and tasty. The green tea is mild and smooth. I’d love a decaf version! Trader Joe’s has pretty good teas in my experience.

Ashmanra’s Sipdown Challenge | January 2023 | Celebrate National Bittersweet Chocolate Day with a chocolate tea or have a favorite chocolate with your tea!

I had to plumb the depths of my stash to find a sipdown-ready chocolate tea! I have no idea how long this one has been languishing in my tea drawer, but I had two remaining teabags. I figured I’d need to work hard to coax much flavor out of this ancient grocery store tea, so I steeped them together. The scent is pleasant enough, almost milk chocolate-y with bright peppermint notes, but the flavor is almost entirely mint. The black tea gets pretty lost; it’s not really supporting or complementing the flavors.

Yep, pretty much what I expected. Not offensive, but pretty unremarkable.

2023 sipdown count: 5/75

A surprising staple from Trader Joe’s, this blend is shockingly spot-on flavor-wise. It tastes like a blonde roast coffee with espresso sweetened with maple syrup. I’ve been drinking this blend every morning since I got it, I’m almost out already!

I really love this tea. I enjoy both coffee and tea, this captures the feeling of a naturally sweet light/blonde roast coffee with a touch of black tea. Great for a winter afternoon when you need a little pick me up, but don’t want to be up all night. Maple is present, but not overwhelming.

I tried the pineapple green tea version of this RTD earlier in the year when we were in LA and I remember liking it, so I was intrigued by this one when Marika offered it to me earlier in the month. It was certainly unoffensive but this definitely felt more like a carbonated juice drink to me than a tea. Like, I tasted zero black tea. What it actually reminded me of was the Peach Juice that’s sold by Tim Horton’s. So sweet and artificial, but still kinda good in a nostalgic sort of way.

Would probably be a great cocktail mixer, tbh.

Sipdown! (8 | 355)

Random impulse purchase from Trader Joe’s.

It’s not very good to be honest, ha ha… It’s a bit like a thinner herbal version of Harney’s Hot Cinnamon Spice. There’s also a bit of a musty flavor going on, not sure if it’s the chamomile or something else? There are other ingredients, but mostly I’m just tasting the sweet cinnamon and maybe a hint of apple. I wish there was a bit more hibiscus? It’s in the ingredients but I’m not tasting it at all.

Anyway, not terrible but not something I would repurchase. But definitely very appropriate for fall!

Lovely evening tea. I steep this hot and enjoy it with just a bit of organic agave nectar before bed most nights. This blend is balanced and refreshing; perfect accompaniment for winding down after the day. The mint is the most prominent flavour of the blend to me.

This was one of the first blends that got me into tea to begin with, and I still enjoy it greatly. It’s a very mellow pumpkin spice blend while still having a very identifiable flavor profile. It takes oat milk very well, and I enjoy that I can have it any time because it’s a rooibos. Thankfully I still have a tin of the Harney loose leaf.

Another cast off from a friend. I find TJ’s teas can be hit or miss in the same box. It was chilly this morning (62*) and a warm mug sounded good. Since my social media is complaining about pumpkin spice, I was thinking cinnamon and cloves might be nice this morning.
Sadly, this mug is a very lack luster mug of water. I do get a vague cinnamon flavor but that could just be because I am looking for it. I’ll be honest and have no clue as to how old these tea bags are. Since they aren’t on the shelves right now, I would guess, at a minimum, a year old But I also know from experience that TJ’s tea bags can vary widely in their blending. Perhaps the next one will be better or perhaps I’ll just use these for the kids and their desire to have a cup of tea with mom.

This has a bit of a chemical flavor that I don’t love. I’m also not a fan of the white tea. I grabbed this from a TTB, and it’s definitely not one that I need to have again. The fruitiness does remind me somewhat of pomegranate, but it’s a bit tart, and the sharp perfumey flavor is too distracting.

So, I just “discovered” this in the fridge (or my s/o did) – I had purchased it some time ago when I discovered it at Trader Joe’s & since I love green tea & pineapple together, I figured I needed to try this.

And – it’s OK. I don’t generally care for sparkling water. I find it a bit too bland and all that sparkle should not be so bland, you know? But here, the sparkling water works because there’s a good amount of flavor from the pineapple juice. I don’t taste a lot of anything that I’d recognize as green tea – maybe a hint now and then – that could be more of my wanting to taste green tea than it actually being there. But I definitely do taste pineapple juice – and I like pineapple juice so I’m not hating this. I don’t know if I’d buy this again – it’s not something that I’ll be heading out to Trader Joe’s to get more of tomorrow or anything, but if I happen to be at Trader Joe’s and I see it – I might put another one in my cart if the mood strikes me – but it’s not something I’ll hunt down.

This is my “tea that I’ve never tasted before” for August’s scavenger hunt.

I bought a box of this tea in January to have as a work tea, and I’m finishing it off today. Overall, I like this tea. The base tea is incredibly light. Light enough, in fact, that I often leave the tea bag in my mug throughout the day, and I’ve never had this tea tun bitter or coarse on me. The main flavor is cinnamon, but the ginger does make itself know here and there throughout the cup. Easy to sip, and a nice little pick-me-up in between helping patients.