Orange & Spice

Drove for hours, completely lost half the day, and came home so late and tired that all I could do is plop teabags in mugs. Funny how emotions play with your perceptions of taste; last night this tea that I enjoyed previously tasted watery and bland. A hint of orange, a hint of something bitter. I noticed my husband only finished half his mug! I’ll hold off on lowering the rating due to my pre existing exhaustion and frustration, but last night had me saying “NO TEABAGS. EVER!!” in my best Mommie Dearest voice.

Last night we had a massive storm, with thunder and lightening crashing around us and shaking the house.
Lightening struck near us and started a fire that ended up burning over 30,000 acres within 6 hours.
Needless to say, I did not hardly sleep last night because I kept jumping up to see how close the fire was to us and waiting to grab my pets and run.
Unfortunately, this morning I had some stressful type meetings, so I met the day groggy, and grabbing whatever strong black tea I could find and making it twice as strong and drinking 3 thermos fulls before my appointments.
When I was done with the meetings,it was around noon-ish so I decided I should eat since I had not really done that yet today.
I went to a cute little all American Diner that was around the corner and had been in business since the early 1900’s.
It is the kind of Diner where the waitress always calls you ‘Hon’ and I think her hand is permanently attached to a coffee pot.
I asked for Tea and she said that they had a little basket of choices for me and she would bring that on over.
I ordered a cup of soup and was brought a hot teapot full of water, a mug and a basket of mainly herbal Bigelow teas and a couple of Lipton bags.
It wasn’t much of a selection, but to be fair, I was not expecting much of one.
I picked this tea, because I thought maybe I should slow down on the intense caffeine intake.
This tea probably is not something I would purchase a box of, but it was not terrible.
It was slightly cinnamon-y and comforting and after the soup and a half a pot of the this tea, I started to feel semi-human again.
So, I thought what would complete it all, would obviously be a homemade piece of peach pie.
I left the diner feeling like I could conquer the rest of the day…or at least make it home to make more tea:)
Thankfully, the fire is mostly under control today.

An interesting tea, that surprised me a bit. Dry orange, some spice, almost like the Bengal Spice I used to adore, with extra added orange in there. I doubt I’ll buy any, however it’s a really nice cup that I’m enjoying this evening!

Thanks to KittyLovesTea for sharing this cup with me!

This tea I picked up a while ago in a Walmart in Las Vegas. Good memories :)

As this tea contains hibiscus it’s dark red in colour once steeped and has a sweet, thick cinnamon scent.

The first few sips reveal a bitter, waxy orange flavour with strong cinnamon spice and hint of hibiscus tartness in the after taste. It’s rather sweet but nicely so, and though the hibiscus is noticeable it’s not too thick.

After half a cup the orange blends in and the cinnamon becomes the most dominant of the two flavours.

I must say that for a bagged tea I really enjoyed this. I love orange and I love cinnamon so overall it was a winning combination. So glad I bought a box of this back with me :)

More of a fruity orange than a tart, citrusy orange. Which is fine by me. After a knot-in-the-neck morning at work, I crawled into one of my nobody-knows-where-to-find-me spots in the building and tried to make a pretense of relaxing with this. This would ice down well, I think.

It’s time for Orange & Spice ‘cause I need something nice! I’m not sure why I’m rhyming so much tonight. All this caffeine free tea is just putting me in that kind of mood.

The dry leaf aroma smells sooo good! There’s a lot more spice in this than I anticipated. The brewed tea aroma is equally as enticing. Ohhhhh yeaaaahh!!! The taste isn’t quite as great as the flavor, but that’s a common characteristic with many teas. It’s still very delicious and really hitting the spot. Yum!

Thanks to my mother-in-law for buying this for me! I’ll have to tell her how much I like it next time we visit. :)

A review that starts with ‘I bought this tea at Walmart while I was shopping for a sturdy broom’ is bound to go nowhere fast. Nowhere, here we come.

So why, oh why did I get this? Last year, after Hurricane Sandy, the missus and I went on vacation, leaving our storm-addled home behind in favor of someplace where we could eat and shower. We traveled south to Williamsburg VA and stayed in an incredible B&B (Newport House). This B&B had a hot drink station set up outside our door. From the tea selection, I chose this one each night. And I really enjoyed it.

Location, location, location. Sitting in my cube in a windowless room on an army base it wasn’t nearly so delightful. It was sour. Hibiscusy. Not the orange delight I remembered. I liked the spices in this which is rare for me, and didn’t notice the chicory. I’ll finish the box, but I’m kind of sad.

What I need to do is take this tea on vacation.

(Epilogue: I did not find a broom.)

Nice spicey cup of caffeine free bliss. Good real orange flavor. Smells really nice almost Chai like, almost. I can see that this will be my before bedtime tea.

This was prepared by adding a teabag to a mug of freshly boiled water, forgetting about it, going out for a walk for an hour, returning home, and drinking the result with a grim sense of obligation.

Grabbed a bag of this from the breakroom, steeped, and iced for an afternoon, caffiene-free drink.

It’s all right iced, I’m not a big fan of it hot. Doesn’t need sweetening iced.