Another tea from today!
I don’t know why but the name of this tea really gets me – like, it’s cute and adorable as a stand alone name but also kind of witty/clever as a Spice Girl’s reference which feels extra clever since it came from a British tea company. Like, why does that hit me so much!? I had the bag of this tea at my desk today and every time someone came by while I was drinking the mug I would thrust the bag at them and excitedly squeal “look at this tea! The name is so cute!” It was like one of those out of body experiences where I was watching myself get excited about it and I just reacting with slight amusement and lots of confusion…
As for the taste!? Well, I actually enjoyed this A LOT more than I expected to. My initial fear was that it was basically just going to be a whole lot of spices and it would just taste like a generic pumpkin spice mix without either a unique element to the profile or any actual pumpkin. Well, colour me shocked because it was delicious. Definitely a spice blend to be sure – but the combination of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, and just a little ginger are very well balanced. I particularly loved the amount of clove in the blend; it was distinct and so tasty. However, the best part was this thick and creamy vanilla note that I wasn’t prepared for, along with a hint of pumpkin – mind you, I imagine it was a pumpkin flavouring comboed with either just vanilla flavouring or either cream or vanilla cream flavouring but those notes were really smooth and strong. It actually tasted like having a slice of sweet pumpkin pie with cinnamon baked into the crust topped with a scoop of fresh vanilla ice cream and finely ground pumpkin spices. Really accurate and well done! Definitely more interesting than a straight up “pumpkin spice” blend, that’s for sure!
Only criticism is the sprinkles – cute as they are (and they are cute) I really just don’t think they’re necessary in the blend. I mean, I don’t love sprinkles in tea blends in the first place but in the case of this tea is just seems like something meant to elevate the visual, but I think the visual looks just fine – appropriate for the tea as it stands…
I think the original blend needs that hint of sweetness from the sprinkles. It’s a perfect blend. I haven’t tried Baby Spice yet though!