Old Barrel Tea Co

The TTB has arrived today! So big, so many teas… no chance to try them all!
Tea #2

Evening has came fast today. So I have decided for second tea being decaf-caffeine free. Again, I just picked a few and chose the most promising.

Honestly, I am not really familiar with Crème Brûlée I think I had once some store-bought one and it was like overpriced creamy custard.

But tea with such flavour is interesting. Creamy tea with lavender, why not actually. I like the latter, so decided to steep 5 grams of this for 6 and something minutes.

Well, it is indeed lavender forward, but not soapy. Reminding me a bit Moondrop Dreams by B&B, with extra creamy flavour and less citrusy notes.

Interesting blend for sure. Creamy lavender.

Another new tea! I figured I’ll try one tea from my Old Barrel order each day, as honestly I’ve been sucking at sipdowns lately so I don’t want to make it even worse by drinking all new teas ha ha… ^^’

I love Old Barrel’s puerh blends, and I love apple, so this was a no-brainer. Plus, perfect for fall! But honestly I had a bit of trepidation when steeping it up, partially because there is a lot of lemongrass here, which obviously dilutes the amount of actual tea, and partially because the puerh smelled much earthier than some of their other blends.

But I needn’t have worried. I did end up using extra leaf because of the lemongrass, just to ensure I had enough puerh and maté flavor in my mug. This is quite different from the other puerh blends I have from them, which tend to be more on the sweet/desserty side of things. This is smooth and mellow, yet refreshing. The puerh and maté are somewhat equal in strength, though perhaps the maté pulls ahead just a touch. An unusual combination, but a nice balance of grassy and herbaceous with deep and earthy. And then there’s that crisp Granny Smith-esque apple adding sweetness and refreshment.

Just a really nice, mellow, natural-tasting apple tea. Another winner from Old Barrel in my book!

Yep, more new teas. As I said, I’ve been really bad lately, heh… :P I saw Old Barrel advertising their Ginger Chai as a seasonal offering, and I’ve been loving chai and spiced teas lately, so of course I had to get it. And a few other teas came along for the ride, along with the Hatch green chile powder (which smells amazing by the way).

This was an admittedly risky choice. I haven’t historically gotten along with bee pollen, to me it smells and tastes a bit like a wet dog. But the mention of cake got to me, LOL.

And I’m glad I ordered it, because this is actually really nice. It’s smooth and sweet with a nice mellow vanilla cake/frosting sort of note, and the bee pollen actually tastes like pollen, and gives a bit of a honey vibe. Almost similar to chamomile, really. I like the rooibos too, the gentle woodiness goes well with the other flavors.

Tasty! I guess taking a risk paid off this time ha ha… :P

My friend bought me this tin. I’ve been drinking this one cold lately, and it tastes pretty refreshing and straightforward. Chamomile can sometimes turn out dusty or lame, but this one seems really fresh. It’s mixed with just the right amount of lavender so you can detect it without it totally turning into a lavender tea. I’m glad the rose isn’t too strong since I’m not a rose fan. I don’t really taste the mint. Although this is a nice version of this flavor profile, I am getting a little tired of it since it’s too simple a blend for me, and I have several other teas just like this on my shelf already.

This was gifted to me by AJRimmer, thank you!

I’ve finally worked my way through the tin, making hibiscus coldbrew. I drink it ice cold without any sweetener, and find it so refreshing. I actually get a strong cranberry note from the hibiscus in the absense of other fruit (a flavor I notoriously can never taste in cranberry flavored teas). It’s really nice! Tart, tangy, and hydrating.

Can a tea be weak strawberry and weak puerh and brew up nice and dark? Somehow the candy fake strawberry cancels out the puerh and what’s left is not all that appealing. As it cools, the strawberry is more pronounced, but I’m not sure I can wrap my head around iced puerh tea. The hazelnut is nonexistent. Its my least favorite I have tried from Old Barrel, and I think it goes in the give away pile.

The chocolate here is subtle, but it goes well with the toasted mate. If you don’t expect it to be a cup of hot chocolate, it’s a pleasant surprise and quite drinkable. The second steep is less chocolate and more roasted mate, but still smooth. I would add this to an order if I was low on chocolate tea.

Sad to see this go, it’s such a cozy tea! The nuttiness and cinnamon work very well together

I am succumbing to peer pressure to post a whisky or alcoholic themed tea. It seems to be a popular post, so I am jumping on the bandwagon. This is a new to me tea, not a sipdown, and I like this butterscotch forward and bourbon bite on the finish. Old Barrel Tea co was only a few miles from the interstate, so I stopped by on my way through. Its not a big shop but they do all the blending there on site and were very friendly. This one smelled amazing, and really doesn’t taste anything like puerh (its mostly red rooibos). I like this better than Kentucky Bourbon or even Black cask from H&S. I might need more of this in my cupboard when I run out!

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I enjoyed this one, it’s nice and lemony but in a soft, fluffy way. Like lemon drops mixed with clouds. Don’t taste much of the lavender or sage, which I’m actually happy about.

I don’t think I would buy it again, since it mostly tastes like lemongrass. But I did enjoy sipping through the small tin (although Old Barrel’s small tins can be so difficult to open lol).

Last one to try from Old Barrel! So this is a blend I wouldn’t have ordered, but it was included in the New Mexico sampler that I got. Not that I don’t enjoy herbal tisanes and lemongrass, but I already have some so I don’t necessarily need more. Plus, I’m not a big lavender fan.

That being said, this is a very tasty tisane. It tastes like lemon drops with a bit of extra zestiness from the added peel. The lavender and sage are both very subtle, though I do taste hints of them. But mostly, it’s a tasty lemony herbal blend that I’ll enjoy sipping through. :)

Overall, I’m really happy with the teas I got from Old Barrel, and I’m glad I ordered from them! Some of them will likely become permanent cupboard residents, and that’s the highest praise I can give.

My friend knows I prefer herbal teas, so she bought me this plain hibiscus from our local shop, which was so thoughtful of her…I only wish I liked plain hibiscus! It’s just too tart for me. It leaves an unpleasant acidic sourness in my throat after each sip. It was okay cold, but I’m passing the rest of this along instead of finishing the tin.

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So since I didn’t find this horchata-ish, I tried it as both a hot and iced latte with rice milk, to try to give it some of that creamy rice flavor. I wasn’t a fan though, I think I just don’t really like rooibos as a latte, I find the flavor a bit weird.

Oh well. It’s a perfectly pleasant cinnamon rooibos, and I like that it uses actual cinnamon so it doesn’t taste like candy. I wish I was tasting the vanilla though, because if I want a rooibos with some cinnamon added, I can just blend it myself. :P

So this is a nice enough tea, but it doesn’t say horchata to me.

It basically tastes like rooibos and cinnamon. To be fair, the rooibos is fairly nice and doesn’t taste medicinal at all, and I like the subtly sweet taste of the powdered cinnamon compared to the usual candy flavoring. But I don’t get vanilla at all, nor do I get any creaminess. So because of that, it doesn’t fit the name for me.

Maybe I’ll pick up some rice milk the next time I go to the store, to bring in that creamy rice factor… :D

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This was the only one from my Old Barrel order that was meh, so I figured I would just sip through it to have it out of the way.

I’m not saying it’s a bad tea, because it’s not. But it just tastes like a generic melon green rooibos to me, and I’ve been spoiled by yummy melon teas from other companies (ahem Lupicia) so it’s just very bland to my tongue. Plus it has quite a lot of green rooibos flavor to it, which I don’t dislike, but it’s not like I would want to drink it plain if that makes sense.

I think more hibiscus tartness would help this one be less bland, but as it stands it’s definitely not something I would order again.

So this one… is just okay.

Just like the description says, it mostly tastes like melon. And I do love melon, but this just doesn’t compare to Lupicia’s version. To be fair, I’ve never actually eaten a prickly pear, but most of the other renditions I’ve had of this flavor have been more on the tart side, and I think this could use a bit more of that. There’s hibiscus in the ingredients, but I don’t taste it at all. So this ends up tasting like a generically melon-flavored green rooibos with a bit of green tea thrown in there. And the melon is definitely on the green side, it lacks that lush, juicy quality of a ripe melon.

So still very drinkable, just nothing special IMO. I checked my grocery store for prickly pears recently (there’s a pretty high Latino population here in Austin, so there are a lot of fun and more exotic fruits in the produce department), but sadly they do not seem to offer them. I’ll have to find one somewhere so I can try it myself… :)

Okay, this sounds like such a weird combination – pineapple and coffee?

And yet, I really like it ha ha. The base is oolong and honeybush, and they’re quite vague about the oolong, but it’s a dark rolled style and I think it’s roasted? Difficult to say since the coffee adds roastiness too, but I think I’m also tasting that charcoal sort of oolong note. That being said, it’s not overly strong because it’s diluted by the honeybush.

The pineapple here is very sweet and candylike, it reminds me of pineapple gummy bears. And honestly that sounds like it would be bizarre combined with coffee beans, but somehow it works for me. The foundation of this are those toasty notes from oolong and the coffee, plus a gentle woodiness from the honeybush, and then that candy pineapple sort of just sits on top and adds a sweeter, brighter note to it all.

Now, it doesn’t taste at all like pineapple upside down cake or coffee cake, or any kind of cake for that matter. It tastes like a mild and smooth coffee with some additional dimension from those other flavors, and then with a pineapple gummy bear melted in, LOL. Still sounds weird, but tastes good! I think I would like it slightly more if the pineapple were more authentic, but even as it is, it’s quite tasty IMO.

So I’ve never heard of a biscochito, but apparently it’s a New Mexican cookie that’s similar to shortbread, but with added orange, cinnamon, and anise. Sounds scrumptious! This tea also has the addition of Hatch green chile powder to make things a bit more interesting.

I admit, I wasn’t too enthused by the smell, which is mostly just cinnamon. But the taste is actually quite different. It’s less sweet than I expected, and I can actually taste the green chile. It’s not spicy though, I just taste the flavor of the chile if that makes sense. The cinnamon and anise are both present, but nicely restrained so they don’t take over the blend. I can even taste a bit of the cocoa shell!

It doesn’t really taste like a cookie to me, but I am really enjoying the combination of flavors and it’s nice on the green base. Unsure yet if it’s a reorder, but I’m looking forward to future cups!

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This one was fast-tracked to be sipped down just because I like some of the other Old Barrel blends so much more.

Not that this is bad, it’s not. In fact, it’s quite good. I think my problem with it is that overall it’s just quite sweet. The puerh base is nice, it doesn’t go too earthy/funky like some other flavored puerhs I’ve had. Just the right amount of darkness and depth, and then the cinnamon and pecan remind me of coffee cake. It doesn’t specifically remind me of pecan pie, mostly due to the cinnamon.

Would highly recommend for pecan and dessert tea lovers though! Really, really good example of a flavored puerh.

Another great puerh from Old Barrel! I was worried these flavored puerhs would be too samey, since a lot of the ingredients are shared across multiple blends. But actually, so far they’re all quite different.

This one tastes like a nutty coffee cake to me. It has a distinct pecan flavor, whether from the local pecans or the flavoring or a combination of the two. But then it also has a buttery quality mixed with a fair amount of cinnamon, and that combination is really reminding me of those crumble-topped spiced coffee cakes that you can buy by the box at the supermarket. The puerh gives a nice earthy base and helps keep the more desserty flavors from becoming too cloying for me.

That being said, this one is quite a bit more desserty than the others, and I think it’s because there’s no coffee in it. So because it’s quite rich and decadent, I’m not sure I would drink it very often. But it’s certainly a delicious tea, even if it doesn’t remind me of pecan pie.

So this is another one where I usually wouldn’t buy a tea with this flavor profile, which is mostly a butterscotch rooibos. But those weird other ingredients – oak chips again and corn kernels?! – once again convinced me to try it.

I will say, I do actually like it. It is mostly a rooibos base – there is some puerh mixed in, but I don’t feel like I’m tasting it. Up front, I mostly get sweet and creamy butterscotch, but then toward the end it morphs into more of a whiskey/bourbon note with vanilla and a hint of butterscotch. I think it’s the woodiness of the oak that pulls it in that direction for me, plus the rooibos base is naturally a bit boozy.

I’m not sure if this is something that I would reorder, because the strong butterscotch flavor does get a bit cloying for me, and I can’t imagine I’ll drink this super often. But I do really like the combination, I just wish there was a tiny bit less butterscotch and a tiny bit more puerh. Will have to try this one as a latte as well for a butterbeer sort of beverage. :D

More Old Barrel teas!

So this one was another one that Stacey from As The Tea Brews was raving about. Generally I’m not the biggest fan of chocolate-mint teas, or chocolate teas in general. But this has so many other interesting things going on – puerh base, coffee, oak chips?! – that I had to order it anyway. Plus it has cacao shells, which always help give a more natural chocolaty note.

I gotta say, I’m so glad I ordered this. It tastes like a wonderful combination of Andes mints and chocolate-covered coffee beans. Everything is so well-balanced and I taste the chocolate, coffee, and mint pretty much equally. The puerh base is a perfect choice, and it really helps the chocolate to taste rich and dark. I’m not sure whether I’m tasting the oak chips, since the puerh already has that earthy-woody thing going on. Maybe a little bit in the finish?

Anyway, this is a wonderful tea. I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes chocolate-mint or mocha and is okay with having coffee in their tea. And again, I’m sure it would be wonderful as a latte! So far, these puerh blends from Old Barrel are knocking it out of the park for me.

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This was a free sample included with my order. Yay samples! It’s not one I would’ve chosen, but free tea is always nice ha ha.

It’s nice enough, a generic tropical mango green rooibos blend. It’s the sort of thing I would expect from Adagio, in fact. The fruit is very nonspecific, as I often find mango teas to be. It’s sweet with a hint of tartness and perhaps a tinge of citrus?

Anyway, pleasant enough cuppa for the evening, but certainly not something I would order. And how does “Mountain Sunrise” make sense for a tropical-flavored tea…? I guess if you’re in the mountains of Hawai’i, but I don’t think that’s what they had in mind ha ha.

Steeped this one up over the weekend! I found that once my mug had cooled just slightly I really started to enjoy how the flavours were developing. Pleasantly nutty with a cozy level of cinnamon and lots of deeper dense brown sugar and molasses type notes that conveyed a lot of the flavour of good pecan pie filling. Not overly rich/sweet though and that I appreciate the most because, as much as I love a good slice of pecan pie, it’s one of those desserts that can get to be too much very quickly!