"Harvest Blend" firmly ranks among the few best herbal teas I've had, and it's a store-brand product. A few options are out there for excellent, comparably delicious, fall-winter, "cinnamoney" seasonal herbal teas, but with the value of a low price point innate to Trader Joe's, I can't think of any better for the buck. Indeed, for the combination of price, potency and aromatic/flavor quality, "Harvest Blend" readily beats cool-season herbals from a lot of name brands costing 2-3 times as much. For example, this tea resoundingly blows the doors off Republic's similarly themed, much weaker, and far costlier "Comfort and Joy" blend, reviewed here recently. That "Harvest Blend" has been around for at least a decade, while a long line of other TJ's teas has come and gone after short runs, speaks to an apparently substantial and loyal fan following. For good reason, I'd say!

The dry-bag aroma fills a room within a couple minutes of opening the box: cinnamon-heavy as you'd expect, but also, plenty of apple and ginger components too. This translates to the in-cup aroma, which my wife unfailingly notices from many feet away as it steeps. They use a muscular, spicy variety of cinnamon that has obvious mouth- and throat-warming properties, probably accentuated by the lesser-magnitude, but still prominent ginger component. And what autumnal/Christmastime tea worth its name doesn't have noticeable apple and/or orange flavor (in this case, both)? Those four main flavors all balance really well, even though cinnamon clearly leads the charge. The liquid steeps to an opaque amber/tan color, hastened by bag-in stirring, as I like to do to maximize flavor intensity. It doesn't take much with this blend.

If you want a hot herbal tea for breakfast, it's hard to conjure a better scenario than a steeping cup of "Harvest Blend" on the table, steaming into a beam of low, wintertime, morning sunshine, spreading the smell throughout the room, ready to live up to all that promise as it plunges down your throat.

Add your own review

Login or Sign Up to comment on this review.