I was on the fence about this tea for a long time, but I’m finally ready to announce my verdict. While it doesn’t taste like biting into an actual oatmeal raisin cookie, this tea does share some very similar flavors. Overall, a pretty tasty tea.
This tea smells like a bakery. I think the brown sugar and oats really contribute to the cookie-like quality of the smell. Once brewed, the cinnamon packs a bit of a punch which blends really nicely with the other flavors. I don’t get much from the raisins at all. Honestly, I think they’re just eye candy.
As far as resteeping goes, it’s pretty decent for a flavored tea. I’ve found that keeping the first steep short really helps. For a long time, I found the 2nd steep of this blend to be almost flavorless until I found the sweet spot— 2:30 for the first steep, 5 minutes for the second. While enjoying my second steep today, someone sitting a few seats over from me could smell the cinnamon and clove!
For experimentation purposes, I steeped this a third time. I accidentally let it go for 15 minutes! The black base was not bitter at all, which I found remarkable for such a long steep. That being said, the tea was incredibly weak and the cinnamon was the only other flavor I could detect. I can live with having just two good steeps, though.
