Old Barrel Tea Co

Yum, this is so good my tin is almost gone. My favorite of this box! Tastes like a toasted coconut marshmallow. I know this is tea, and that this is just flavoring, but my brain is fooled enough and it’s delicious. I will need more of this one.

Is this a good tea for eclipse viewing? Dunno, but it’s going down smooth this morning. Still more coffee and shou but the banana sweetness pulls them together.

Definitely tastes like coffee puerh with cinnamon, and a little banana sweetness underneath. The banana note lingers after the coffee and puerh earthiness depart. I like it but prefer the pecan pie puerh version to this one. I did sign up for the 4x a year subscription and I am loving the first box. I probably wouldn’t buy these separately, but as a whole, I’ll sure enjoy sipping them down. A nice way to explore what Old Barrel has to offer.

I have picked up the sniffles somewhere along my travels and can’t taste very well at present. So I opened this new tin (have I finished the first tin?) and am enjoying this nutty sweet puerh concoction this morning. Will it clear out my sinuses? Maybe not, but I can taste it. Pretty yummy stuff.

In the past, I’ve been underwhelmed with dragon pearl teas, largely because I’m chintzy and don’t use enough to make an impact. Today, I went whole hog (whole dragon?) and invested half a dozen pearls from Michelle in a 12-ish ounce Winnie the Pooh mug. Winnie would’ve approved. It’s dark, a little cocoa-ey, and definitely has a lip-smacking honey finish. Perhaps it’ll give me a little smackerel of energy to finish what needs to be done on this cold day.

From the winter subscription! I find it so interesting how Old Barrel offers mixed teas like this. I wasn’t super excited for this one in particular, because I don’t love hibiscus-heavy fruit tisanes generally, and I also don’t love berry and fruit with rooibos…

However, I think they did a good job on the balance with this one. It has tartness, but it’s not overwhelming like the plain Blueberry probably would be (for me at least). The berry flavor is nice, it doesn’t taste chalky and the tartness helps it taste more fresh and less syrupy. I can also taste the rooibos, it gives a smooth and slightly woody base, and then the vanilla adds sweetness and a touch of creaminess, and synergizes well with the blueberry flavor.

I like it more than I expected, and I don’t get any medicinal vibes from it, which is a relief. I don’t think I would go out and buy it, just because I don’t generally reach for rooibos or fruit tisanes, but I’ll have no issue sipping through my small tin!

Another one from the winter subscription, and my first time trying one of Old Barrel’s mixed blends.

At first I thought they hadn’t mixed this, because all I could see through the clear lid was the ginger root. But just due to the difference in size and density, even if I dump it into another container, all of the honeybush immediately falls to the bottom, leaving the dried ginger pieces up top. Makes it a bit annoying to try to portion out a scoop that has a good ratio of ingredients tbh.

To me, this has too much ginger. In my experience, their Apple Empanada doesn’t have a strong apple flavor in the first place, so here I’m mostly tasting a lot of ginger with an undercurrent of rooibos/honeybush and a bit of cinnamon. I’m not surprised, as just looking at the dry leaf, it looked like a lot of ginger to me (which makes sense, if this is a 50/50 mixture). I think next time I’ll try mixing this with plain Apple Empanada, to reduce the amount of ginger overall. 75/25 sounds like more of a reasonable ratio to me.

I was actually happy to see this one in the winter subscription, because I’ve looked at it several times on their website, but just never wanted it enough to order a full tin. To be honest, my first thought when I saw it was “doesn’t Adagio make this?” There are a few teas that Old Barrel carries that seem (to me) like they might be sourced from Adagio, like the Mocha Maté and some of their fruit blends. Could also just be me being overly suspicious though, ha ha. Anyway, this does not have the same ingredients as the Adagio version, so I assume it’s not the same one.

I was a bit nervous to try this to be honest, because the puerh smelled a bit funky in the tin. I’ve loved all of their other puerhs that I’ve tried, but this has a much higher proportion of puerh than most. Luckily, it doesn’t taste funky to me. I mostly taste the earthy puerh base, with subtle strawberry and creamy nut flavors. The strawberry seems a bit candylike, but it’s difficult to tell since it’s quite mild.

Overall, it’s fine but not my favorite, as I’m not really a plain puerh lover, and that’s mostly what I’m tasting. Will probably add this to the rehoming box, so hopefully someone else can enjoy it.

Sipdown! (4 | 406)

I’ve been sipping this one with milk & sugar, but I figured I’d steep it up plain for this sipdown note. I’m not generally a tea with additions sort of person, but I’ve been enjoying have a warm milky chai as my first tea of the day lately, probably because of the rainy weather we’ve been having. And now that this tea is done, I’ll probably continue doing so with another chai blend ha ha…

Anyway! This is a nice chai with the spices at the forefront. As promised, ginger is leading the way with its earthy spicy notes. I wouldn’t call this a “spicy” chai overall. I think it strikes a nice balance of having the spices be the stars of the show and potent enough to hold up to milk, but also being mellow enough to sip plain. Alongside the ginger, I can taste the cardamom and clove, with the cinnamon adding a subtle sweetness. I don’t particularly notice the anise, which is surprisingly since it’s the second ingredient.

An enjoyable chai, but I’m not sure I would reorder it, mostly because I have several other chai blends in my cupboard.

Another tea from Michelle! Thank you!

I don’t like very many red rooibos teas but I really liked the aroma in the pouch. I decided to make it to go with supper tonight since it was nearly caffeine free.

I made one steep and poured it into a large pot. I made a second steep to taste just to see if it was strong to combine well with steep number one and it definitely was. I combined the two steeps in the big pot and Ashman really, really liked this. He drank most of it. I also liked it. The rooibos wasn’t so infernally medicinal as it usually is. I also like the caramel rum red rooibos or something along those lines from Lupicia, so maybe it just combines well with boozy flavors.

This was sweet, boozy, pretty rich, and had good body. We liked it without additions, but I bet it is really good with milk and/or sugar and probably good iced as well.

Michelle kindly sent a sample my way and her review mentions she didn’t care for this one; I’m guzzling it, so we balance out! I usually associate strawberry flavor (it is a little candy-like in this blend) with spring and summer, but the pu-erh/hazelnut base grounds it; gives it a good deep end. Light on the hazelnut.

If you’ve ever read any of the Redwall novels from Brian Jacques (aimed at middle grades, but delicious grown-up reads as well), you’ll get it when I say that this is something the abbott would have served the Dibbuns at teatime.

This is an interesting one, it’s very creamy and smooth with a light pumpkiny flavor to it. There’s honestly not much spice going on, just a subtle warmth in the background, particularly the clove. And then the honeybush base is mellow and woody.

Not sure how I feel about it just yet, though I like that’s it’s more unique. I think I might try it with a drizzle of honey or maple next time, to see how that affects the pumpkin flavor.

This is from my last order, but apparently I never wrote a note for it, so here we are.

I quite like cinnamon apple honeybush blends, there was one from New Moon Tea Co that I loved, but they don’t seem to make it anymore. This is a lovely substitute though. The cinnamon is the stronger flavor, but I can taste sweet apple as well. I like that the cinnamon mostly tastes natural, though there is a little touch of cinnamon candy that comes through in the finish. The honeybush base is woody and nutty and just so cozy paired with these flavors. I don’t taste the rooibos, which I’m not displeased about lol.

Yummy tea! This one might become a cupboard staple for me, and certainly so in the cooler months. I wouldn’t mind just a touch more apple, but still a wonderful tea as-is.

A new one I picked up from Old Barrel.

To be honest, I mostly just wanted to order their Pumpkin Chai, but I couldn’t bring myself to spend $15 on shipping for one tea, so naturally I spent $60 more on other teas that were all impulse purchases… Yep, this is the logic that landed me with 200+ teas in my cupboard ha ha. Oops? XP

Anyway, I was a bit worried about this one when I smelled it, because I could only smell coconut. Oh yeah, forgot to mention, I don’t even generally like coconut teas but somehow I ended up buying two (this one, and the Coconut Crème Pu Erh). So yeah, there’s that.

However, I am enjoying this tea steeped up. It has a nice balance of soft, fluffy lemon notes with creamier coconut on a smooth and mellow bai mudan base. A bit decadent and yet so light and airy, perfect for the afternoon or evening. I’m not sure I would restock this when I run out, but I don’t think I’ll have a problem sipping through the tin.

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!

Sipdown! (7 | 196)

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).