When I stumbled on a bit of this very old tea in my stash, I thought it would be a perfect way to celebrate Thanksgiving. I steeped 1.5 teaspoons in a 355 ml mug at 200F for 4, 6, and 10 minutes.
Scooping this tea out of the bag, I notice that the years haven’t softened its clove and pumpkin spice aroma. The first steep tastes like a clove-heavy pumpkin pie, with pumpkin, caramel, molasses, cinnamon, and of course cloves. I can’t taste much of the black tea base. The tea isn’t overly sweet, although I get some sweetness in the aftertaste. I’d actually appreciate if the caramel/molasses flavour were less prominent, as there seems to be an off note connected to it, maybe because of its age. However, I guess that’s what gives it its resemblance to pumpkin pie. I’m sure this tea would be even better with milk, but I don’t usually drink it and don’t have any on hand. The second and third steeps were decent and still had lots of spice.
This tea was a nice change of pace, but I don’t have a strong desire to buy more.
Flavors: Caramel, Cinnamon, Clove, Molasses, Pumpkin, Spices