Nelson's Tea

TTB

Dry Aroma: Lemon, Lemon grass, a hint of ginger
Wet Aroma: Not much there. Kinda spicy. Allspice, nutmeg, and orange.
Flavor: This is the definition of “I drink this when I’m not feeling good” tisane. Medicinal and all the good-for-you flavors. The Hibiscus isn’t quite as strong, so it doesn’t quite take over, but don’t think about it too much.
Smooth mouth feel.

Sipdown of a tea swap tea or a sample for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge. I grabbed this from the recent TTB and it didn’t last long around here. This was kind of perfect for migraine days – better than the mediocre peppermint I keep on hand for when I’m not feeling well, but not as good as my fancy mint blends so I don’t feel bad about drinking it when I can’t fully focus on enjoying. So glad I got to try it!

The moment I opened the bag, it smelled so much like a candy cane. This isn’t the greatest peppermint I’ve ever had but it’s pretty good. Bright, minty, a tad sweet. My best guess is that this leaf is fresher than similar ones. It’s not whole leaves or bright green but definitely greener than the almost-brown peppermint from some other brands. Probably going to keep this one tbh.

TTB 2025. This doesn’t really taste like I expected it to from the name. I don’t know if it’s the echinacea or the marshmallow root (or both, or something else), but it has that slimy quality that I don’t really love. Like licorice, but there isn’t any in here. More than anything else, this reminds me of Calabash Tea’s Eleuthero Vandross blend. And I think both fall into the same category for me: teas for sore throats and sickness, but not necessarily for fun. Plus the ginger is very very soft and I like a stronger ginger. A blend like this has its place but for me that’s a very limited place.

The strongest flavor is licorice. It’s quite sweet. There might be a bit of other stuff in there, but it’s really mostly that licorice. It’s not bad, but not something I would choose. It doesn’t need sweetener. Since this one is a bit boring, I find myself choosing it when I just need hydration and am not paying attention to flavor. I unsubscribed from their subscription box a while ago, and I think this was the last tea I had to finish!

I mostly taste lavender here. It’s super strong, but I’m a big lavender fan. There’s also a touch of something else that I suppose could be the orange. This flavor combination never spoke to me very strongly. Not bad, but I guess I prefer these flavors separately.

Homemade Advent Calendar from AJRimmer: Day 17

I had just enough tea to make a nice little bedtime cuppa! Buttt I drank it while eating a very tart and flavorful Sumo orange, so the tea simply could not compete: It’s mild despite the two potentially powerful main flavors. There was also a smidge of mustiness that reminded me of chamomile, even though there’s none in the blend.

I should’ve timed my snacking and tea-drinking a little better!

I gave this my typical chamomile treatment of milk and sugar free flavoring syrup. This time it was banana syrup, which was really nice! I didn’t find this to be better than any bagged blend, but this was nice enough!

Hot, this wasn’t great. Once it’s cooled down, you really can taste the apple! There’s something a little desserty like caramel, which melds pleasantly with the apple. I wish this didn’t have a combined black/rooibos base, as I’m not really enjoying the quality of the black tea. The rooibos is nice enough! I also wouldn’t call this chai, as I only taste maybe a hint of spice. I much prefer their other caramel apple tea.

I wouldn’t call it spicy, but certainly spiced. The chocolate goes really well with the spices, and the combination black tea and rooibos base is a great choice. This is one of my favorite teas I’ve tried from Nelson’s! Some cups didn’t turn out as tasty as others, but I try to remember it based on the best ones. Sometimes it was a little muted.

The flavor was pretty fresh and fruity the first time I had this. The second time, it was weirdly sour. The last time, it was tasty and interesting again. 2/3 isn’t too bad! Definitely one to drink cold.

The orange tastes really juicy and candy-like. I don’t taste anything chocolatey. Both the first steep and the resteep taste super refreshing cold. This is one of my favorite orange rooibos blends I’ve tried. The rooibos is the perfect base for this.

This is a pretty even mix of authentic orange and natural cinnamon. I like it best cold, though I wouldn’t want it again. It’s not too interesting to me.

This tastes mostly like clove along with the brisk black tea. It’s not amazing or nuanced, but not bad with sugar and milk. The clove leaves my tongue tingling. I shared this with my partner who agreed there was too much clove. You can taste a bit of other spice, but not much.

This tastes too earthy for my preference. I’ve had a bunch of good root beer teas, and this is one of my less favorite ones due to that. I do taste the root beer vibe as well, it’s just overpowered by earthiness. Cold with sugar, it’s not bad.

The tea has a very strong cherry aroma which smells delightful! The taste was a little of a letdown for me because I love a very strong chocolate taste, which wasn’t super there. The cherry taste was pretty good but a bit borderline medicine tasting. Overall not too bad.

I actually really like this one! I taste a lot of caramel along with the apple. It’s quite desserty and nice with sugar and milk. I would order this again! The rooibos is a delicious base for this flavor combo.

This tastes like a pretty typical almond rooibos, but that’s the sort of thing I enjoy. Cold, the marzipan flavor comes through quite strongly. I wouldn’t necessarily seek this out, but I liked it!

This was a little plain for me, so I gave it my usual chamomile treatment: milk and flavoring syrup. It’s super tasty like that! I never noticed the mint or lavender, but the chamomile was pretty nice quality!

Not a bad straight rooibos! I don’t have a lot to say about this one except it was rooibos with no murkiness or weirdness. I wouldn’t seek it out, but I wouldn’t say no to another cup!

I don’t enjoy this quite as much as the herbal version, but this was tasty too! Sometimes I could taste too much green tea. Usually though, it was a pretty tasty combination of mint and white chocolate. I like it with milk and sugar.

This is quite fake tasting, but not bad cold. I taste a pretty even mix of peach and raspberry flavoring, but I would have preferred more of a fresh flavor combo.

This has a flavor that almost tastes like bitter oversteeped tea, but it’s an herbal, so I wasn’t sure what that was from – maybe the chicory? I enjoy the spice combination used here, so with milk and sugar, this is tasty enough apart from the bitterness. The resteep was strong and similar to the first. I don’t taste much pear, just spices and the bitterness. I couldn’t really recommend over other spiced herbals.

Wow! The Clove is so strong! I love that scent though. I feel very healthy drinking this. The turmeric isn’t nearly as strong as I thought it would be. In fact, the clove definitely reigns supreme in this blend. The aftertaste is very creamy. I don’t fancy how it first hits the palate though. It is somewhat medicinal but that changes quickly. This pairs affably with my cinnamon sugar bagel.