I swear I was tricked into liking this one! When I bought it, I was looking for something that Tre would really enjoy. He loves hot and spicy foods, and insists that he likes tea with cinnamon in it. So I went to David’s and asked the lovely sales lady what the hottest and spiciest teas they had were. She played along and had me do a blind “smell” test between two different teas.
I don’t really remember what the other one was, but I’m pretty sure it was a black tea. Regardless, I took a smell of this one as was INSTANTLY hit with the smell of those little cinnamon candy hearts you get around Valentine’s. I swear, I have no clue how they do it – but that’s EXACTLY what it smells like. The other one, whatever it was, didn’t smell nearly as good or as spicy so I went with this one! Imagine my shock when I found out it was a green tea! I HATE green tea.
Regardless, since I mainly had Tre in mind, I bought some anyway. Let me just say, I think I ended up liking it more than him. I found out a couple weeks later that while he claims to love spicy things and cinnamon teas, he apparently hates Chai tea – and this one is very chai like (it’s even included in the collection of Chai teas listed on the David’s website).
It really doesn’t take much steeping for the flavour to really come through in this one – and while it’s steeping it just smells like sweet cinnamon sugar. Again, it reminds me of cinnamon candy hearts or of those mini donuts you get at the fair that are doused in cinnamon sugar! Yummy! Steeped, the liquor is a pretty vibrant yellow green colour, though more yellow than green.
Drinking it, you do taste the green tea base more than you’d expect based on the smell. The cinnamon really stands out, as well as the peppercorns. There’s a lovely kick of spice that’s not nearly as sweet as the smell of the dry leaf, but still sweet enough! It’s a great “warm you up” sort of tea, and I bet it’d be perfect in a thermos during cold winters (especially waiting outside for the bus).
Yeah, when it’s really cold out I can see this being much more of a ‘go to’ tea for me than it is now. Can’t imagine how it’d work iced – I think this tea is just one that’s meant to be consumed hot!
