Make no doubt about it; I am a big fan of home brewed iced tea. Tea is refreshing whether you add lemon, sugar, or go plain. It is a much healthier alternative to drinking carbonated beverages or juice which has ridiculously high levels of sugar. For years, when I have home brewed ice tea, I would usually purchase the black tea blends such as Lipton or Luzianne. They seem to do a decent job and they work well with lemon or splash of lemonade mixed in (otherwise known as Arnie Palmer). Well, my taste buds occasionally get bored so I opted to try some different tropical ice tea blends sold by republic of tea as well as those by Barnes and Watson. Those teas taste exceptionally good, but also come with a much higher price tag. I finally found a great tea that has a tropical flavor with a much lower price right at our local Trader Joe’s store, Mango ice tea blend.
Review of Trader Joe’s Mango Black Tea – The Ingredients
Tropical Joe’s Mango Tea first starts with the black cut tea, which is what most iced tea blends use. From there the ingredients consist of Mango and Hibiscus. Mango is a interesting fruit as the taste is exceptionally good but the texture of the fruit can turn many away as it appears rather mushy and buttery when taking a bite. As a tea ingredient, the taste is truly tropical and lends a great flavor the brewed beverage. The hibiscus flower petals also give the tea a rich tropical cool flavor. The final ingredients of the blend consist of other herbs. This tea blend certainly tastes as good as all others I have sampled.
Review of Trader Joe’s Mango Black Tea – The Price
Ok. I will admit the price was the first thing that persuaded me to purchase a box of Trader Joe’s Mango Tea. The box comes with twenty tea bags and costs $1.99. It takes about four to five tea bags to make a pitcher of ice tea which will usually last a day. So doing some quick math I am getting at least four pitchers of Iced Tea for about fifty cents a pitcher (if I brew using five bags). This is significantly less than competitive tropical tea blends sold by Republic and Barnes & Watson, and the taste is just as satisfying.
Review of Trader Joe’s Mango Black Tea – Brewing
I have an iced tea brewer at home that is not the prettiest to look at but does a decent job of making a batch of tea. It is easy to use as I pour in water, then ice, and finally place the tea bags in the filter. I usually brew about four Trader Joe bags and add one bag of regular black tea such as Lipton or Luzianne. I consider five bags optimal for making a quality blend which will provide two quarts of tea to last the afternoon for a few people.
