Company: Harney and Sons

Type: Flavored Black, loose

Cost: $6.50 for 4oz tin

Tea Notes:

• Dry leaves are covered with cinnamon powder and omit a strong but heavenly aroma of sweet cinnamon.
• This was steeped in boiling water for 3 minutes.
• Taste is sweet and the cinnamon is obvious.  The black tea neither sits in the background or overpowers.

Thoughts:

This week I am featuring some spicy teas that are wonderful for the colder months but would be nice any time of the year as well!

I love cinnamon.  Honestly, the more cinnamon something has, the better it is to me.  I can eat atomic fireballs one right after another and never tire of the tingle they give my mouth.  When I picked up a little sample of this tea from Harney and Sons and gave it a sniffy sniff, I knew it was going to be love at first sip.  Hot Cinnamon Spice has a base of black tea with cinnamon, orange, and cloves mixed it.  This is quite a bold flavored tea that is sweet and spicy at the same time.  I don’t find this tea as strong as an atomic fireball but it has the same type of flavor minus the fire.  The Harney and Sons website says that this tea “sets off miniature fireworks on the tongue” and I totally agree.

This flavored black tea is right up there on my list of favorites.  The small amount of my sample is going to quickly be replaced with a much larger quanity because I love it that much.  I think it will also make a wonderful iced treat for the summer months.  Of course some people may think cinnamon isn’t something you want to have in the summer, but as a cinnamon fiend I don’t think there is ever a wrong time to drink or enjoy cinnamon treats.  If you, like myself, enjoy the incredible power of cinnamon then you will be pleased with this tea.

The product(s) included in this post were purchased by myself or sent as a free sample along with a purchase.

Company: New Mexico Tea Company

Type: Flavored Black, loose

Cost: $9.60 for 4oz

Tea Notes:

• Dry tea is a beautiful mix of tea, orange peels, cinnamon and rose petals with a subtle spicy aroma.
• Steeped in boiling water for 4 minutes.
• Aroma of steeped tea is similar to dry aroma but with a hint of fruit and flowers.
• Taste includes cinnamon with an interesting mix of rose and citrus.

Tea Thoughts:
This week I am featuring some spicy teas that are wonderful for the colder months but would be nice any time of the year as well!

Before I talk about the tea I want to clarify what I mean when I say ‘spicy’.  Coming from New Mexico I normally view the term spicy as meaning hot.  I eat a lot of hot foods, which includes the wonderful and amazing green chile, but when I’m talking about spicy tea I am referring to the spicy qualities of a chai.  That said, Sandia Spice is not a chai but can still be put in the spicy tea category because of the cinnamon.  However, this is unlike any cinnamon tea I have had.  There are apple pieces, orange peel, almonds, and rose petals in addition to the cinnamon bits.  All of those ingredients mesh together with the black tea to produce a truly unique taste.

I found myself spending a lot of time with this tea trying to figure it out.  After a whole pot of it this weekend I finally had to decide to just drink and enjoy it rather than pick it apart or analyze it.  The cinnamon is obvious in the taste but there is an orange taste as well as a rose taste that peek out every so often underneath the black tea and cinnamon.  It seemed like every sip tasted different and special.  I happen to love teas that have a cinnamon punch to them, but this one is softer than other cinnamon teas and has such unique qualities that I can’t imagine anyone being turned off or afraid of the cinnamon in it.  If overly spicy teas aren’t your thing, you might give this one a try.

The product(s) included in this post were purchased by myself or sent as a free sample along with a purchase.

Company: DAVIDsTEA

Type: Black, Green, loose

Cost: $6.50 for 50g

Tea Notes:

• Dry leaves are a brownish black along with green leaves mixed in.  There are also apple and almond bits throughout.
• I prepared this using boiling water, 1 tsp of leaves for every cup of water, and a steep time of 4 minutes.
• The aroma of the tea is absolutely amazing!  It reminds me of a fresh apple cobbler.
• Color of the liquor is a medium orange brown.
• Flavor is delicious with hints of apple along with a cinnamon graham cracker crust.  Black and green tea mixes well with neither one of them being bitter.

Thoughts:

I really quite enjoyed this tea that is part of the DAVIDsTEA fall collection which includes some incredible sounding flavored teas.  It was a very nice treat that was sweet, comforting, and satisfying.  A great tea to drink this time of year as the weather starts to get cooler.  Imagine yourself wrapped up in a huge blanket with a cup of tea in hand and this is the tea you would want in your cup.  I think that it is very tasty and sweet on its own, but adding just a pinch of sugar adds to the sweetness for those of us whose sweet tooth can never be satisfied.

The product(s) included in this post were sent to me to be considered for review by the company mentioned or by a PR agency that represents them.

Company: Mighty Leaf

Type: Black

Cost: $9.95 for 15 tea pouches

I continue to be impressed with Mighty Leaf’s products.  Their silken tea pouches are really wonderful.  They provide enough room for the tea to expand and you can plainly see that the tea is not dust.  I decided to try their Orange Dulce flavored black tea despite the fact that I have not always had good experiences with bergamont  flavor in teas due to the horrid Earl Grey teas I have tried.  When I first got a sniff of the aroma coming from the dry leaves I think my heart skipped a beat.  Orange Dulce is made up of Ceylon and China black teas and flavored with bergamont, orange, vanilla, and jasmine blossoms which all make the tea highly fragrant.

I steeped this using boiling water and let it sit for 4 minutes waiting impatiently to take my first sip.  I was pleased to discover that this flavored black tea is quite amazing.  If you don’t like flavored black teas, then stay away from this one.  It is full bodied and flavorful to the max.  The orange and vanilla are strong and mingle together in harmony.  I did not pick out the jasmine blossoms but I am sure it added to the fragrant nature of this tea.

For a flavored black tea, this is about as good as they come.  Couple that with the great silk pouch it comes in and you have a great tasting and convenient tea.  This has not gone bitter on me, has a tea taste, and the flavors are a perfect mixture.  I haven’t found a lot of teas that I truly dislike, but neither do I have a lot of teas that knock me over with love.  This one is darn near the top of that extreme and a tea that I am truly loving which is impressive for a flavored tea.

The product(s) included in this post were sent to me to be considered for review by the company mentioned or by a PR agency that represents them.

Company: Mighty Leaf

Type: Green

Cost: $9.95 for 15 tea pouches

Mighty Leaf’s Green Tea Tropical comes in a lovely silken tea pouch and smells divine.  The ingredients in this tea are Green tea, banana, strawberry, pineapple, guava, and exotic fruit flavors with red, white and blue cornflowers, and pineapple pieces.  All those together provide an intoxicating tropical smell that if you close your eyes could transport you to an exotic island for a moment.  Or perhaps that is just my wishful thinking talking, but it still smells pretty darn good.

To brew this tea I used one pouch for one cup of water which was roughly 180 degrees.  I let it steep for 3 minutes and then removed the tea pouch.  The color of the liquor was a pale green and the fragrance smelled just as amazing as the dry leaves.  I repeated the exercise of closing my eyes and inhaling the tantalizing aroma.  Then I took my first sip and instantly felt pleased. Though the taste is not quite as strong as the fragrance, it is still strong enough to be present.  Some people are of the mind that flavored teas are maybe not as high quality as say a pure sencha, but my taste buds aren’t picky in that sense and so flavored teas have a place right along with all other types of tea.  And when I find a high quality flavored tea, it causes much joy for me.

I’m impressed with this tea pouch and even liked the fact that the fragrance in the pouch does not diminish after it has been steeped.  The tea tastes good, smells good, is clean and refreshing.  The only bad thing I could say about it is that the green tea taste is not as strong as it could be.  If your looking for a simple green tea that tastes…green, this is not what your looking for since it is packed with flavor.  Despite that small flaw,  I have a feeling I will be giving this tea a permanent home in my tea collection.

The product(s) included in this post were sent to me to be considered for review by the company mentioned or by a PR agency that represents them.