Spiced Pumpkin Pie

And that’s the end of this one! (91)

It’s funny that I did my pumpkin pie tea-off, and then finished off the pumpkin teas that were my least favourite, while completely ignoring the Della Terra one that I really did enjoy. :P

I guess now that this and DAVIDsTEA’s pumpkin chai are out of the way, I can focus on the better one?

I’m super excited at the moment, because my Bluebird Tea Co. order arrived yesterday, and this tea is now officially back in my cupboard. It’s been too long! I also picked up samples of their other autumn blends (Kung Flu Fighter!, Nuts About You, and Pudina Chai). Of these, Pudina Chai is probably the one that has me most intrigued, because I’ve never tried a mint-based chai before. There’s always a first time. The other exciting thing about my Bluebird order was that they also put in a sample of this year’s Christmas Cake blend. That got me running back to their website to see if the rest of the Christmas stuff is available yet – seriously, they have the cutest hampers this year! They’re not in stock yet, which is probably a very good thing for my bank account, but I’m eyeing one up as a present to myself.

Yay tea!

I’ve been drinking this tea for a week or so but haven’t yet logged a review.

It smells strongly of clove and cinnamon spice. It’s like having a warm hug from Autumn as I sniff it.

Flavour wise it’s of medium strength which features a malty yet smoky black taste, refreshing but not too strong clove, a pinch of spicy cinnamon and a sweet squash/pumpkin flavour. It’s a subtle pumpkin tea with the focus being on the spice itself but with that said I still very much like this blend.

A drop of soy milk in my second cup adds a nice creamy flavour and texture. It also smooths out the clove and it tastes more cardamom like now.

I think this is a very nice Autumn tea and I’m glad I bought a pack to try. :)

Additional notes: I was trying this one again (only one teaspoon of my sample left!), to see if I liked it as much as I remembered. It is better than I remembered! I don’t know if it’s the time of year or what, but it just WORKS. The spices are very nice, hints of squash/pumpkin even from the one piece in my infuser. The black tea is lighter but it lets the flavor shine. The cup was even an amber pumpkin orange. I’ll definitely be ordering this one. ONE teaspoon.. not even heaping. So so good.
Just boiled // 3 min // 6 min

If anyone is interested, there will definitely be a bluebirdteaco.com group order happening! A chance to try these amazing teas (haven’t tried a terrible one yet!) and split the $15-20 shipping costs. More info here: http://steepster.com/discuss/9558-bluebird-tea-co-group-order-accepting-orders

KittyLovesTea sent such a generous amount of this tea, I’ve been able to enjoy it again and again. I wish more pumpkin teas were available year-round. This one is so tasty.

Now I will enjoy this delicious tea with my grilled cheese sandwich with apple. :)

So I just ordered the DAVIDsTEA advent calendar, and used one of my rewards to get a package of Pumpkin Earl Grey after hearing good things about it on Tea with Jann. I don’t generally consider myself a fan of DAVIDsTEA because of all of the “food” type teas and teas with chocolate chunks and stevia. But it’s been several years since I tried their advent calendar, and I figured it’s time to give it another chance. Also, the cute tree box helped to push me over the edge… :P

Anyway! I was feeling a pumpkin spice sort of tea after ordering the Pumpkin Earl Grey, so I pulled this one out to steep up. Can you tell I’m ready for fall? XD

Honestly I’m finding this a bit mediocre though. And I fully admit, I’m not a big pumpkin spice person, so I’m sure that has something to do with it. But I’m mostly just getting quite a bit of clove, some cinnamon and ginger, and a generic black base. Not really picking up on the vanilla or any pumpkin notes. Maybe a teeny hint of creaminess from the vanilla if I really search for it?

Anyway, it’s fine but it doesn’t warrant its 80+ rating for me. But clearly I’m in the minority! It is also probably nearing a year old, so maybe that has something to do with it. (shrug)

Of the Bird & Blend pumpkin blends, I’ve always preferred Baby Spice over this. It just never turned out the way I hoped. But, I decided to open a sealed 20g packet from last year’s subscription to try it again. Glad I did! I added a bit of buckwheat honey, and it’s absolutely delicious. It tastes like actually pumpkin (rather than most pumpkin teas, which always have such an odd flavoring- usually either weirdly fruity or like fizzy cola). The clove and ginger are really nicely balanced with the squashy tasting pumpkin. Not sure what was happening the other times I tried it( which was multiple because I so desperately wanted to like it).
It also smells like a baked pumpkin covered in ginger. Yum!

A gift from Martin Bednar!

My husband only likes chai type and spiced teas as lattes usually, so I was saving this one to drink by myself. Also, I am not the world’s biggest fan of spiced teas except exactly as he likes them – made with milk and deffo some whipped cream on top! I like my spiced teas milder or appley with a really good, smooth base and not too much clove. (Hi, Kiki!)

But today for lunch I was having (canned) beef with barley soup, which is a fairly strong flavor profile and a half peanut butter sandwich with it. I thought it was just the right time to try this.

It was just perfect for that meal. The soup has a pretty strong aroma but I kept getting whiffs of the tea over it. The strength of the tea was perfect, and hearty enough to pair just beautifully. The color was nice and deep and it is quite fragrant. It may have oversteeped a little bit as I decided I wanted to build a fire to sit by during lunch and I was minimally delayed pulling the steeping basket. It didn’t seem to hurt it at all.

I don’t think there could have been a better tea for pairing with a strong soup on a cold day.
Well, cold by NC standards. It was in the forties! Ha ha!

Thank you, Martin! It really was the perfect tea for lunch!

Sipdown

I liked this. It had all the nice pumpkin spice flavor but with an interesting custard quality. Don’t recall much else because the dog and the baby made things a bit nutso when I tried to drink this.

The first few sips I had of this when it was really hot were absolutely amazing. Pure pumpkin pie. I poured a small amount into a separate cup to try it with some milk, and that was great too. Definitely pumpkin with light spices in there. I brought the rest to work, and for some reason, it didn’t taste special anymore. I did overleaf it since I had a little too much leaf for one cup but not enough for two, so maybe that could lead to some flavor confusion. Yeah it just tasted like many other spiced black teas. The spices became more pronounced as it sat. I did enjoy it, but I guess if I ever have this tea again, it either needs to be very hot or with added milk. It made a decent second steep with plenty of starchiness.

Thanks to tea-sipper for the sample!!