Trader Nicks Tea Company

This tastes pretty floral with a background of green rooibos and green tea. I think the floral flavor is too strong, and I would have preferred more balance, but the mixed base is pleasant. Cold, it was refreshing, but again, I would have liked a different ingredient ratio.

The flavor here is really basic, but also watery. I taste some spices like clove, but they’re blended in a sort of amateur way. It’s just pretty boring. The clove tingle still hits though. It tastes a lot more interesting cold with milk.

This tastes lightly fruity with a combination of green rooibos and green tea. It’s pleasant, but not special or strong enough. It was refreshing cold!

TeaTiff TTB #3

I wish I could have played around with this one a bit more. There was only enough for a single cup and the flavor I got was watery chocolate with a hint of ginger. But the dry leaf smelled so nice! I’d love to see if using more leaf or turning it into a latte would bring out more flavor.

AJRimmer Advent Day 10

This was a pleasant fruity blend. Can’t say I picked up on mango or pear specifically, but definitely fruity with hints of bergamot. The base tea is too light for milk, so it didn’t really come across as a traditional earl grey…thinking it would be better as a cold brew or iced tea.

Honestly, this blend was kind of lackluster for me. It smells heavily like banana but its more of an aftertaste to me. I didn’t get the desserty aspect either so it tasted like mushy bananas and black tea watered down with green tea.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #28

I think I would have enjoyed this one a lot more if they had used black tea in the base instead of puerh. It has a nice rich dark chocolate and almond flavor that reminds me of a candy bar. But the slightly funky note of the puerh base is unfortunately making me think of almonds that have gone rancid. I do appreciate how the blend fits the name/theme here; the flavor just missed the mark a bit for me personally.

Forest Moon is becoming one of my favorites from Trader Nicks, I’m a sucker for red berry flavors.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #13

Pumpkin and blueberry are two flavors I’ve never seen together in one tea before, but it is a clever Cinderella reference! I was curious enough to overcome my rooibos aversion and give it a try…but ultimately was underwhelmed. I honestly don’t taste any pumpkin in this blend. It’s just a blueberry rooibos; perfectly drinkable, but nothing special.

I love this blend, it is a perfect wake-up call for another slow-to-pass morning. School is really kicking my butt this semester.

Strange VariaTEA TTB #4

I first heard about Trader Nick’s on fellow Steepsterite Roswell Strange’s podcast Geek Steep. (Side note: if you aren’t listening, GO LISTEN! I always hit play on the newest episode the moment in lands in my feed and I’m never disappointed by that choice.)

I immediately went and checked out their site and this particular blend went straight on my wish list. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie and I love smoky black tea, so this sounded like it was practically made for me!

Needless to say, my expectations were probably unrealistically high. It’s a fine tea, just not the spectacularly magical experience I was secretly hoping for. Not a lot of smoky notes coming through for me; mostly milk chocolate and a bit of bourbon. A perfectly pleasant sip, but probably not something I’ll go out of my way to drink again.

(That being said, I’m so grateful for the chance to try a cup via the TTB rather than spending the money on a whole bag of a tea I end up not being crazy about. Thanks to Roswell and VariaTEA for putting this one together!)

This is what I’ve been drinking all day on campus I absolutely adore it.

I really love this blend, while it looks a bit like the traditional pumpkin chai that a lot of blends come out with around this time of the year, I think that this one leans more into the cinnamon and creme brulee notes which I love. It’s perfect for the cozy cold day in I’m having!

Well…. I have finished all 50 grams with my family in the past few days. I guess I’ll be ordering more in a few weeks.

Um… LOVE this blend! I was very hesitant because it smelled very sweet because of the apple, pumpkin, and caramel flavor. However, is so delicious. When you first sip it, you get the apple-y bit of the apple pumpkin muffin. Then, when you keep sipping you pick up the mild pumpkin bread notes with a hint of maple. Maybe it’s just the caramel but I get apple maple pumpkin bread without any spice. I really enjoyed it, I will likely be grabbing another bag before it retires in November.

I like this blend, please don’t get me wrong. It’s nice but I don’t get pistachio orange cookie from it. I think the pu-erh base and the Dragon pearls take over, the citrus note is only noticeable in the scent that wafts off the cup but the pistachio note is vaguely there. That being said, it’s a nice cuppa to wind down with. Would I get it again? I’m not sure. Will I finish the bag? Yes, absolutely!

Sampled from the Strange VariaTea Traveling Tea Box

Smells like slightly smoky caramel; tastes like… a mild slightly smoky black tea with hints of chocolate and whiskey. It’s a bit muddled, but nothing is too overpowering, which is good. And the cocoa is nicely done, not artificial or chemical-y. I can dig that.

Another sample from Cameron B! Thanks so much! One teabag, one more sipdown!  Oh this blend sounded complex and well thought out.  I was trying to think of an appropriate movie to watch while drinking this, as the description mentions “your favorite princess movie”.  And really, the flavor here really does seem extremely fitting for a princess theme.  I couldn’t think of a resulting flavor from a tea that would more scream PRINCESS. And it’s hard to describe why!  It’s all fruit sweetness.   Mostly rhubarb with a hint of coconut, which reminds me of a Dammann Freres rooibos blend.   I definitely wouldn’t mind stocking up on this to be yet another tea available for a rhubarb choice!
Steep #1 // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 minute steep
2023 sipdowns:  78

Cold Brew Sipdown (2661)!

This was a nice, refreshing cold brew and I slightly bittersweet sipdown. The red cherry notes are muted in a gentle, pleasant sort of way and the whole infusion has this almost powder-y, soft icing sugar taste and texture throughout that goes so well with the medium bodied cherry and vanilla flavours. It’s hard to describe because in a lot of ways it’s as much about mouthfeel as the balance of flavours and the fact the sweetness hits in such a different way compared to any other cherry tea I’ve tried.

I won’t be ordering from Trader Nick’s any time soon since I already placed such a massive order earlier this year that I’m still sipping through, but I would 100% repurchase this blend. It’s up there with my favourite Trader Nick teas, for sure.

Though I usually tend to pick out mugs that loosely match the vibe of the tea I’m drinking, lately I’ve kind of been doing the reverse? AKA picking out a mug first and then finding a tea that goes with it. In this case, I started with a mug covered in cherry print and then went searching for the first cherry tea I could find.

This tea is really, really growing on me. I think what I love so much is that it’s a very distinctly red, ripe cherry note but it’s so soft feeling – almost in a way that makes me think of powdered sugar? I’m so used to that red cherry note being accompanied by so much hibiscus. And, yes, there IS hibiscus in this blend but it’s a very restrained amount. Plus, there’s a subtle creaminess here that just sort of weaves throughout the mug in a nice, silky sorta way.

I doubt I’ll be order from Trader Nick’s any time soon since I just placed a MASSIVE order, but this would definitely be on a reorder list in the future!

Cold Brew!

Y’know, from the deep red liquor colour of this blend you would expect it would be like some kind of intensely tart cherry bomb but it’s actually surprisingly smooth. Definitely still cherry forward some some tartness/acidity from the hibiscus but it’s blanketed with an overarching softness and a smooth, silky vanilla undertone and finish. Very enjoyable, and very different than any other cherry teas I own.

Definitely a blend on the lighter and more delicate side, but I really appreciated this softer and more gentle take on a sweet cherry profile. Not that I dislike a cherry that punches me in the face with flavour, but cherry is one of those fruits that actually has a shocking range to it so it’s nice to see that explored a bit more! Plus, it complimented the naturally floral white tea and the undertones of smooth, silky vanilla. Though “sweet” is not necessarily one of the first words that come to mind to describe this tea, it does have that sort of airy type of delicate sweetness to it that made me think a little bit of icing sugar as I was sipping…

Overall, just an ultra pleasant cup with a cute pinkish red cup colour to go alongside it!

I was lucky that Cameron B wanted to do a cleanup of teas, because I received an amazing treasure trove of teas yesterday. I couldn’t help asking for some, as there were some that I had wanted to try for years and also some old favorites that I didn’t have around anymore! Thanks so much, Cameron B! I appreciate it!
I can tell you right now… I LOVE THIS TEA. What the heck. I also feel like I have problems with cherry flavoring, just as Cameron B does, but sometimes cherry teas hit that right balance with other flavors, making them not taste QUITE like cough drops unlike if it was a cherry flavor standing on its own. The balance here with the mild rose is wonderful. And that green tea with oolong! It’s a perfect base. And since this is a Mary Poppins tea and Admiral Boom resides on Cherry Tree Lane firing his cannon from the roof, I get an extra kick that this tea uses GUNPOWDER green tea. I consider Mary Poppins one of my favorite Disney films, so I’m honored to try this tea and even more pleased that I love it. It might be one of the better cherry teas I have tried. It also reminds me of a Bird & Blend tea but I’m not sure which one at the moment. (But this is NOT an exact blend sourced from B&B.)
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 35 minutes after boiling // 2 min

Sipdown! (33 | 285)

So I didn’t expect to like this one, since it’s a rooibos base with almond flavoring. But actually, it’s really good. The tart and fruity notes really help to balance out that cloying amaretto sweetness and make for a really well-balanced tisane. It ends up bringing to mind some kind of fun, fruity cocktail with a splash of amaretto.

Not sure I’ll order it again since I rarely drink rooibos, but I would consider it.