New Mexico Tea Company

Sample grabbed from a TTB. I’m not a coconut fan, but I actually really like this. The coconut is so fresh and strong and a bit naturally sweet. It can survive a decently long steep. It’s really good! Only nice things to say about this one, and this company is right in town if I want more.

A bright Sencha blend,very rose heavy in this cup.
I can taste some of the cherry but the floral overpowers it, I will likely try it iced next.

For a decaf EG, this is pretty impressive! The bergamot is strong and clear. The black tea is hearty enough to not be disappointing. With my usual amount of milk and sugar, this is quite the satisfying cup of tea!

I didn’t expect to enjoy this, but I’ll always try a new tea box herbal. There’s a shocking level of throat spice from this tea. Other than that, it’s quite watery and thin. It’s like taking a shot of cayenne and black pepper water. There are a ton of other ingredients, but none of them show up. This is super weird and not at all pleasant. I only drank a few sips. It was even worse cool.

Sometimes I am really in the mood for licorice, sometimes I am absolutely not. I bought this last year, and I’m just trying it now (I guess I haven’t been in the mood for licorice). Black licorice seems to fit with spooky season for me, so I decided to finally give this a try. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how tasty it is. Much more soft and delicate than I expected.

Heeey White Antlers, where are you? Thanks for this herbal tea!

Tastes like twilight in the high desert. Look to the stars and breathe in the sky. The unmistakable aroma of scrubby shrubs, dry grass, juniper, hard earth still retaining the heat of the day. Stray rosehips and lemongrass.

<3 fond <3

Excellent cold brew, almost syrupy. Very nice hot as well, a classic herbal tea taste and body.

Have you ever licked a cedar chest? Can’t say I have. But I wouldn’t put it past the toddler version of myself to do so. This tea is fairly heavy with cedar influence when it comes to the flavor. The aroma, however, initially when the hot water hits it is woodsy. Then it changes to a strange medicinal pitch with a hint of vaseline… Luckily that went away pretty quickly and morphed into fresh barn hay. The flavor for the first 3ish sessions was stone fruit with cedar backdrop and after that became more woodsy. Around the 5th or 6th is was very cedar in flavor. The mouthfeel almost makes me feel as is Ive licked a cedar chest.

As someone who enjoys the bergamot flavors of earl grey, but in moderation, this blend is the perfect balance for me. It’s become my staple go-to tea for mornings and afternoons, and I’ll re-steep my pot multiple times. None of the flavors overpower, but instead all of them blend well into a nice subtle balance that can be drinkable at any time.

I tried this tea from White Antlers again, and this time I steeped it longer and crushed the berries.

It was a game changer! It was lightly lemony, a bit smoky, a bit piney, and finally a bit of the juniper. Overall, interesting combination; worked well alltogether, but maybe even more flavour would be nice. Longer steeps are the key.

Not a tea that I would crave for often, but certainly not a bad one.

Another pouch from derk. Thank you.
Steeped as suggested, 1.5 tsp, 100°C, 5-7 minutes.

I had to seach what “cota” is. In Czech it is called Marunek or Rmen. Never had it as a herbal tea.

It had somehow generic lemony taste, I was expecting some notes from juniper but nada. No pine notes too! Have I took bad teaspoons? Do I need to have more cota in, or more juniper? Should I crush the berries when brewed? So many questions, some tea left for trying. Won’t rate so far.

Sigh! I was really looking forward to this tea. New Mexico is one of my favorite places in the world and I was delighted to discover their website from which I ordered a number of samples. When it came to this tea I ordered a bit more solely based on the description and ingredient list. Biscochitos are the iconic New Mexico cookie. Hard to describe them, but if you’ve ever had one, you never forget the taste of it. I was pretty psyched to see someone had made a tea inspired by it. I will admit to have slightly been put off by roasted rice in the ingredients list, but I figured it was still worth the risk.
But the minute I poured the loose leaf tea into my steeper I knew something was off. The smell was strangely biscochitos adjacent. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I poured the water in and waited for it to finish enfusing. After all you never know with teas, sometimes they smell one way in the cup and taste different on the palate. I drank a cup and while it wasn’t a horrible tea, it didn’t taste as it had promised. Something was off. I made a second cup and as the tea bloomed in the steeper I noticed what at first I thought were pieces of dried fruit. On closer inspection I discovered the issue. What I had mistaken for dried fruit -which I should parenthetically add would have had nothing to do with the cookie in question-what I had mistaken for dried fruit was actually a chunk of star anise. I went back and read the ingredients list on the package and even pulled up the page on their website. Both stated this tea included “anise seed.” Not star anise. But what was unmistakably in my strainer was star anise. Somehow they’d blown the recipe. I don’t need to explain to anyone the profound difference between anise seed and star anise. They are not the same plant and really register in very different ways. Somehow whoever came up with this tea didn’t know what they were doing. Or weren’t familiar with the New Mexican cookie in question. Star anise is not a substitution for anise seed, any more than orange peel is the same as bergamot. These are very distinct flavors and it’s the whole point of making good tea blends.
So very disappointed in this tea. While in and of itself it’s not a horrible tea, it is most definitely not what it was aiming for.

SIDE POINT AS SILVER LINING: I need to add that in looking for this tea to rate it, I came across a different tea company a few miles up the road in northern New Mexico. I managed to reach them to ask if their take on this tea included star anise or anise seed. Fortunately they didn’t laugh me off the phone and offered to send me a sample which they most assuredly told me included anise seed. They shared my confusion as to why anyone would use star anise. So perhaps a silver lining for me and a new customer for them.

Sipdown 90-2021
I grew to really enjoy this tea. It tastes exactly as it presents itself- cardamom and black tea. Adding honey really helps soften the intensity of the cardamom.

Enjoying this with some honey. Really smooth, no bitterness. Cardamom flavor is extremely strong.

This is pretty straightforward- a bold black tea, and lots of cardamom. I love cardamom, so I’m really enjoying it. Added a bit of honey and it’s a really enjoyable cup. Would probably add a splash of oat milk next time.

I’m finding this one to be a bit bland. Not really any vanilla flavor, and the spices are too muted for my taste. Not bad by any means, just not a favorite.

Sipdown 78-2021
Sad to see this go, but I will be purchasing more once I get through some more sipdowns.

I’m really loving this blend, and I’m just about out. I’ll be repurchasing this one when I drink the last cup.