Trader Joe’s Salted Caramel Chai Latte Mix, reviewed

Chai tea lattes are sweet, spicy and milky. I typically find them to be a great alternative to hot chocolate on a cold day when you want something that offers a little more indulgence than another cup of coffee. On a recent trip to Trader Joe’s, one of their holiday items caught my eye: Salted Caramel Chai Latte Mix. Of course I put it straight into my cart, because there are few things that are more appealing than treats that feature salted caramel.

The latte mix is like many other tea latte mixes: add hot water and stir. The mix includes a blend in cinnamon, clove, cardamom, anise and ginger, as well as black tea, honey, sugar and nonfat milk. The overall flavor is good, and you get a nice blend of spice and honey with a smooth black tea aftertaste. It is quite sweet because of both the sugar (which I assume went towards the caramel flavor) and honey included. For all the sweetness – which made this a good dessert tea drink – I did not get much caramel flavor and I didn’t really notice any notes of salt, although it is listed as an ingredient. Of course, I don’t want my tea latte to actually taste salty, but I did expect there to be a more distinct nod to salted caramel and I don’t think I would have guessed the flavor without knowing in advance what it was. I might have guessed caramel, but definitely not salted caramel.

All that said, I still like this mix even if it doesn’t quite capture the essence of salted caramel. It’s a good blend of flavors and has a holiday feel to it. It is a little too sweet to be a breakfast tea for me, but I like it in the afternoon and after dinner as a sweet way to end the evening.

Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Rooibus, reviewed

I tend to drink inordinate amounts of tea when I have a cold, so the silver lining on having a cold for me is that I have the chance to try a lot of new teas. This Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Spice Rooibus had been in my tea stash for a couple of weeks and had gotten passed over in spite of the very nifty tin that is packed in. The onset of the cold made me crack it open and I haven’t looked back.

This herbal tea is packed loosely in nice looking square tea bags. It includes a redbush (rooibus) herbal blend, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and natural pumpkin flavor. I’m not exactly sure what the natural pumpkin flavor is (it is unlikely to be actual pumpkin, since dried raw squash has a rather unpleasant flavor to it), but I felt that the spices came through more than the pumpkin “flavor” in any case. The tea definitely reminds me of a well-spiced pumpkin bread, with a great balance of all the spices in the tea. The rooibus is the perfect base for the spices and it is a great tea overall. This tea is particularly good hot, when sweetened with a little bit of honey or agave. If you have a loaf of pumpkin bread on hand, so much the better.

Trader Joe’s Well Rested Tea, reviewed

There are many caffeine-free herbal teas out there, but just because they’re caffeine-free doesn’t mean that they make a relaxing cup of tea. Many are rich and fruity, better suited to a pick-me-up than something restful. Trader Joe’s Well Rested Tea is a herbal tea that promises to let you down after a busy day. The tea is definitely one of my favorites when I want something to unwind with. It is made with a blend of chamomile, lemongrass, spearmint and peppermint leaves, and it has a very smooth flavor. The mint helps you clear your mind (really!) without being too strong, and the lemongrass blends very well with it to give the tea a clean hint of citrus. Chamomile gave me a little hesitation because it isn’t one of my favorite flavors, but it makes a great base for the even stronger herbs that appear in this tea. It provides a mellow backdrop for the other, brighter flavors.

I like this tea both hot and iced, depending on the weather. In the winter, I’ll definitely stick with hot tea, but it makes a very refreshing iced tea (I prefer unsweetened) on a hot summer night.

Trader Joe’s Mango Black Tea, reviewed

Lately, it seems like green and white teas are chosen to blend with fruits more often than black teas are. Green and white teas can have such a mild flavor that it is easy to bring other flavors out in a blend with them. As a result, I wasn’t sure exactly how much actual mango flavor to expect when I tried Trader Joe’s Mango Black Tea – and was very pleasantly surprised when there was a lot of fruit flavor there!

This tea is made with black tea, natural mango flavor, blackberry leaves, hibiscus and calendula petals. Mangos are a fruit with a very sweet, floral flavor to them and it was a stroke of brilliance to add these extra elements to the tea (rather than just tossing in some dried mango pieces) because they really highlight the floral flavors of the mango. If you’re already familiar with the flavor of hibiscus, you’ll be able to pick it out from the other background flavors, too (although if you aren’t, it will most like just blend in). The tea has a smooth black tea background, but is really bursting with a tropical feel and a distinct mango flavor. I typically drink tea unsweetened, although this is one that I found was even better with a little bit of honey added to it, as that also served to enhance the mango and make the tea “juicier.”

I haven’t tried this tea iced, but I suspect that a pitcher of iced tea with some actual sliced mangoes in it would be a huge hit at a brunch!

Cook’s Country reviews supermarket green teas

To be honest, I almost never buy bagged green tea unless it is flavored with something fruity. The reason is that, while there are lots of excellent green teas out there, many of the more “mass produced” teas don’t have a flavor that appeals to me. They can range from bland to having somewhat unpleasant vegetal notes to them. In fairness, as green teas have become more popular the overall quality of what is widely available at grocery stores has improved tremendously, and a supermarket tea is likely to be much more affordable than a specialty blend. In the most recent issue (Aug/Sept 2011) of Cook’s Country magazine, the test kitchen set out to taste test a bunch of supermarket green teas to pick out a winner. They were looking for something with good flavor that was affordable for everyday drinking and for cooking with (cooking being a category where you really don’t want to use the most expensive wine or coffee out there, either!).

They tasted five nationally available brands and tested them brewed, infused in a custard and rubbed on their luau-style Kalua pork. The test kitchen admitted that none of the options blew them away, but they still were able to find one that fit their needs. The winner was Celestial Seasonings Authentic Green Tea, with a “clean” flavor and a  “nice grassy quality” that was good plain and in recipes.

Twinings Green Tea, Bigelow Green Tea and Lipton Green Tea were all “recommended with reservations.” The Twinings tea had a harsh, astringent flavor that the taste testers didn’t like, but that balanced out fairly well in recipes. The other two were subtle and bland, with the Lipton barely squeaking into this category. Tazo China Tips Green Tea was “not recommended,” with its overly strong “harsh,” “soapy,” and “tinny” flavor that verged on an unpleasant bitterness, even in recipes.