Old Barrel Tea Co

Spring subscription tea.

This is a bit of an odd combo. I actually do like their horchata rooibos and have a full tin of it – mostly it’s just rooibos with a bunch of cinnamon, but tasty enough. I assume they were going for a cozy sort of sleepy time blend with this, but I just don’t think chamomile and rooibos go together all that well. It’s not a bad combination, I just prefer them separately I guess? Either way I like that they use actual cinnamon instead of flavoring, it’s so much mellower and more cozy.

Subscription box tea! I’m not sure about this one, it certainly tastes like vanilla cake, but it’s a fake flavor that my tastebuds think is just ok. It might be suffering from a comparison to my favorite vanilla tea from San Fran herb. I will say that adding a scoop of collagen made this creamy, but I don’t normally drink my tea with add ins, so I don’t think this is a keeper in my cupboard.

Spring subscription tea!

This seems like a weird combo to me. I get the butterfly garden and lavender together, but then a creamy element? Floral and fruity and creamy seems like a bit too much… Plus oolong and rooibos together?

It’s not bad though. The lavender comes through quite strongly, and I don’t notice the fruit or the oolong. Mostly it’s lavender and red rooibos with an undertone of custardy vanilla. And since I’m not a fan of either of those first two things, into the rehoming box it goes! :D

A spring subscription selection.

When I first saw this one, I assumed they had renamed their Mocha Maté. But this seems to actually be a completely new tea! Usually they send an email announcement for new releases, so I was surprised to be seeing this for the first time in the box. It does seem to maybe be a replacement for Mocha Maté (which AFAIK was just Adagio’s Mocha Nut Maté) as that one is no longer on the OBTC site.

Anyway, this is a green yerba maté and black tea blend with coffee beans, cacao, and cinnamon. I love all of their blends with coffee beans, so I was excited to see them here as well. And I enjoy this one, too! It’s somewhat mellow with an earthy/grassy flavor from the green maté, a bit of body from the black tea, and a kick of roasty coffee. The cinnamon is quite mild, and the cacao even moreso. They describe it as being similar to Mexican hot chocolate, but to me it’s more reminiscent of a cup of black coffee with a sprinkling of cinnamon and cocoa powder. Not really desserty or decadent, but comforting and slightly sweet.

I think I will probably pick up a tin of this one the next time I order from OBTC (not anytime soon, LOL!) as it’s different enough from their other coffee blends to have a place in my cupboard. I like the flavor that the green maté contributes in particular, which is different from their usual puerh (which is also good!).

Sipdown! (7 | 46)

This was a lingering tin from the winter subscription box. Red rooibos just isn’t my thing, so I never tend to reach for it, which is why this was still hanging around. It’s fairly unremarkable, mostly just red rooibos and herbaceous peppermint – I don’t really notice much in the way of vanilla. And because the rooibos is quite woody and the peppermint more herbal than crisp, it goes to a very earthy-tasting place that doesn’t really fit the name.

Not awful, just not my thing and didn’t come through on the promised vanilla.

Another one from the spring subscription.

Was dreading this a bit, as I hate Western cherry blossom-flavored teas, and have tried OBTC’s before. But thankfully, the berry fruit infusion mostly overpowers the cherry candy flavoring, and the tanginess helps tame the cloying, medicinal notes that I so despise.

It’s not amazing, but it tastes more like a very mild tangy raspberry fruit tisane, with a dash of cherry and an undertone of green tea. Very easy-drinking, and I might just try it as a cold steep as well.

Spring subscription tea.

Tried this one a few days ago and didn’t write a note. It was nice enough, mild and inoffensive with a softly sweet floral flavor. Didn’t taste like perfume or excessively flavored. The oolong base was green and silky.

However, I’m not a floral person in general, so it’s going into my rehoming box. :)

TTB 2025. I rather like this! I agree that it’s probably more “melon” than “prickly pear,” but I made it iced with sweetener and it’s quite refreshing that way. The tin also suggests adding a squeeze of lemon… maybe I need to just go get some lemons now…
Anyway, progress on the TTB slowed today because I, uh, can’t be trusted to use a toaster oven. Thankfully everything is ok and nothing actually caught fire. But there was a lot of smoke and that kept me out of the kitchen for a while (don’t worry, the TTB isn’t being stored in the kitchen so it’s still safe!). I should be able to keep chipping away at it tomorrow.

2025 TTB. Hibiscus, cinnamon, and a sour berry note. Not bad-sour. I can see the sangria-adjacent vibes. I don’t really like sangria though so I may not be the best judge of flavor profile accuracy. I think this blend falls into the category of “interesting, just not to my personal taste preferences.”

TTB 2025. Since the first Old Barrel Tea Co. blend was so tasty, I decided to go for another one. At first I thought I might have messed up the steeping parameters because all I’m getting is a big hit of cherry cough syrup. But then I looked at the other tasting notes and they say similar things! So I’m comfortable saying this is a no for me.

2025 TTB. Ooh, I’ve been wanting to try Old Barrel for a while! Getting to try new-to-me companies is one of my favorite things about TTBs. To give this its best chance, I made it iced with orange blossom honey as instructed. It’s pretty good! The mango is sweet and clear and juicy. I’ve never actually had prickly pear itself but the flavor here seems similar to other prickly pear blends I’ve tried, so I assume it’s fairly close (or everyone is using the exact same flavoring that may or may not taste like its namesake). I can see this being a winner in hot weather.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – March 2025 Tea #1 – March 8 – International Women’s Day – drink tea from a woman owned company

A quick search for ‘women owned tea company’ had many more results than I thought, even for some tea shops that I currently have with me.  So I had plenty of options for this prompt!   This tea is from CameronB - thanks again.   This blend was just calling to me with its awesome ingredients- it has so many ingredients I love.  Really, the majority of it looks like roasted yerba mate.  A little bit of puerh, a chocolate chip here and there.  The flavor is like a mocha yerba mate. Tasty, if mild.  The flavor is sweet, creamy, a bit roasty and a bit like coffee.  I think I might try adding this blend to another ripe puerh and see how that does.  I bet more puerh would dial it up a bit and add richness, as I would really love for this blend to have more puerh.  Or I could just actually use two teaspoons as the tin suggests… (it says 1-2 teaspoons.)  Today I’m also drinking Dessert By Deb’s Houjicha Caramelized Butterscotch Blondies — another women owned company.
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 //  just boiled // 6+ minute steep

2025 TTB #4

This is such an interesting blend…woodchips? corn? The flavor is also unique: I’ve had bourbon teas and butterscotch teas, but never both in one blend. The flavor is smooth and buttery-sweet with a lingering boozy aftertaste. Definitely more butterscotch than bourbon, but quite yummy!

Lavender creme, mmmm. I can’t believe I haven’t written a note for this tea, somehow it got sipped down from my cupboard, but now its back. I don’t like many lavender teas, but this one is yummy, and smells great too.

Sipdown! I overleafed the last cup I had of this as I was wondering if it would bring out the pumpkin flavor. Seems that it did the trick, but it is a bit heavy on the clove too. Not my favorite from OBTC but I’m glad I got to try. I do like the honeybush base, but not enough for a future purchase.

This base is a combination of green tea and green rooibos, which go together really smoothly. The flavor isn’t as special as I had hoped. It’s just a sort of fake red fruit sort of vibe. It’s not tart, but kind of candylike. It’s refreshing cold, but pretty one-note.

Subscription tea. Too much hibby in the first steep. Second steep is quite nice as the hibby is muted and the cinnamon comes through. Don’t need any more of this.

From the winter subscription box.

This sounded like a weird combination, but I’m mostly just tasting the coconut with a touch of cinnamon. And since I’m not a coconut fan, this is going into my rehoming box. It’s not bad though, it actually reminds me a little bit of horchata, but coconutty. There’s a distinct toasted coconut note to it.

Kinda strange to be drinking this tea in the middle of winter, but it was in the subscription box, so I’ll sip on it. It’s mango and coconut to me, seems like I should be looking at waves and a nice beach to drink this. It’s not artificial, but I’m not sure I’d buy a tin of it. Maybe I’ll add some black tea and see how it tastes caffeinated.

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From the December subscription box. Not a fan of this one, and I’m sure that’s partially because Winter Cabin is my favorite tea from OBTC, and I’m grumpy that they mixed it with something instead of including it unadulterated, like they did the previous year (and the previous box with the fall seasonal tea, Pumpkin Pie Chai). Harrumph.

But I also feel like peppermint mocha and pecan pie just don’t go together, mostly because of the mint. Buttery pecan with mint just doesn’t make sense to me, and it doesn’t make sense to my tongue either. It’s not awful, just weird and discordant. The beginning of the sip is all buttery pecan, which goes well with the chocolate and coffee flavors, but then the end is all mint and it’s just weird.

The first time I brewed this tea I thought it was a bit muddled, this steeping session, I lengthened the steep time and it came out a bit better. I think I prefer each of these on its own (the coconut does go well with vanilla rooibos) than together. There is an apple note up front and a coconut finish, but they just don’t mesh well together. I’ll have no problem finishing this little tin, but not something I need to mix up on my own.

Subscription box tea. The pecan pie would have blended better with the vanilla rooibos in this box. Instead, it is blended with vanilla mint? The first steep was mostly pecan pie flavoring, which I love; and the second steep was more minty, and not a toothpaste mint, but they don’t really go together. It’s not bad, and I will drink it because I like the pecan pie, but the blend is a miss for me.

Sipdown! (5)

Teavivre’s dragon pearls definitely ruined this tea for me, ha ha. It has none of the rich cocoa notes that I expect, and instead tastes much more generic – very woody and earthy with a bit of a barnyard hay flavor. Not terrible by any means, but definitely not up to the standard I’m accustomed to when it comes to hongcha. This is why I only buy unflavored teas from companies specializing in them, ha ha… Yes, I am a tea snob. XD

Tea of the morning, from their winter subscription box. I was happy to see this in the box, because I love the version from Teavivre and was curious how similar these are.

Welp, seems not at all similar to me ha ha. It does have a thick and rich texture, but the flavor is totally different. Not really getting any cocoa notes, which are very prevalent in my preferred dragon pearls. Instead this is quite haylike, almost reminding me of an aged shou mei. Savory, earthy, and haylike without any sweetness to it. I admit, I am somewhat satisfied that I vastly prefer the Teavivre Fengqing dragon pearls ha ha… :P