Maple Raisin Oatmeal

First, let me try to describe how beautiful this tea blend is. It looks like little pieces of autumn all gathered up and lovingly blended together with care. There are curled knots of rolled black tea, inch-long pieces of cinnamon bark, dusty rose flowers, and caramel-colored flakes of oatmeal. It may be one of the prettiest blends I’ve seen.

This tea has been hiding away in my tea cabinet unopened and sadly forgotten, no doubt due to the mention of raisins. I’m so happy to have found it once again. The aroma is strong and surprisingly reminds me of cherries in a slightly medicinal way. Not like cough syrup, more like a spiced elderberry syrup with cherries. The primary flavor is maple syrup, though it’s not overbearing at all (as it sometimes can be). The base tea isn’t bold, but it’s very flavorful and feels perfectly matched with the other ingredients in the cup. I don’t taste raisin or hazelnut, but I’m quite happy with all the rest.

I get a lot of raisin, a lot of cinnamon and the black base. I would say this is raisin oatmeal with a drizzle of maple syrup which is mostly drowned out by the cinnamon. It is not bad, but ultimately something I have had before from AQ2T. I love their blends but a lot of these Fall flavor profiles meld together in my mind. This is a nice one but not anything I NEED to keep around. I have one serving left and I am ok with that.

too much going on here imo. I think if this was just oatmeal raisin, i’d like it better. the addition of the maple just makes this one of those all over the place blends that can’t decide what it wants to be. it’s not bad…but it could be better (for me). thanks variaTEA!