Cinnamon Rooibos Chai (Organic)

This is SPECTACULAR! Very sweetly cinnamon-y, spicy (but not peppery), round and robust! With honey and a splash of milk, I feel like I’m having black tea! This is my new favorite herbal chai. I’m a cinnamon fanatic, so this is pretty much heaven in a cup to me. I don’t do number ratings, but pssssst – this is a 100!

Tonight I’d been sitting at the computer too long and decided that making a cup wasn’t going to take long enough. So I decided to try stovetop chai again, this time with my favourite chai tea. Whereas last time it was still runny and slightly burnt, this time it was so thick I couldn’t strain it in even my most lenient strainer. It tasted delicious, rich and creamy and like a dessert in a cup. But I think I may have made it just a little too well . . .

Oh, Oh this is “wicked-awesome” (to steal a phrase from a co-worker)

I loved everything about this, from the fact that I was able to steep 1.5 tsp twice and still was strong enough to pour over ice and not loose flavour!

I offered my hubby a sip and without telling him what kind of tea it was he sniffed and said: “I smell cinnamon, something citusy, cardamon? No, but defiantly cinnamon” and I will say that after that sip I was done sharing. I sip, savoured and drunk the entire cup to myself and was excited enough about this one to put it on my MUST buy list!

1 TB for 450mL water, bare.

Pulling a late (for me) night as I work on revisions … the delicious sharpness of this blend helps keep me focused depsite the yawns and won’t ruin my eventual sleep. The more I drink this one, the more I like it.

Thanks, greenteafairy, for this tea!

We were all joking at the last tea meet-up that this smelled like olives and since nobody else wanted this tea I decided to take it, be brave and make my olive-loving Greek ancestors proud.

And guess what? There is an olive-like flavor too this tea. This rooibos is particularly fruity and the cinnamon and cloves help to bring out those notes even more. It’s almost as if I were eating an olive while chewing on some big red gum. Strangely enough I kind of liked it. It just worked for me. I could see how someone with different tastes and especially people who don’t like rooibos could hate it.

Ohhh dear. Thanks to Cavocorax (and it looks like thanks should also extend to jessiwrites and Courtney? Boy has this made the rounds!)… but this tea is terrible, hahahahahaha. I loooove Coco Rooibos Chai…. but this one is very true to its name, and tastes like CINNAMON. I like cinnamon. Usually. But I Do Not Like this type of cinnamon. It’s like…. hot tamales(?) sort of cinnamon. Cinnamon candy. BLECH. Reminds me of DT’s Hot Lips, which I also immensely disliked. I think this one will have to go to another home, because it is just way too cinnamony, in a bad way, for me. And it has an artificial sort of sweetness to it as well (possibly the cinnamon), which makes me gag a bit. Needless to say, this cup is going down the drain… (and boy am I glad I never picked any of this up myself!)

So I didn’t mean to purchase this tea yesterday. In my excitement over buying new teas, I mistook this one for Coco Chai rooibos, as they smell pretty similar, but this one is stronger. So I ended up with 25 g of this tea, and I’m not the biggest fan of cinnamon. Score. I found out that I can take it back, but as it’s only 25 g, I might as well try it out, and I can always share it with my mom, who likes cinnamon quite a lot.

Anyways, onto the review for this tea. The dry smell is SUPER CINNAMON and spice. It smells ok, but I am a bit worried. I didn’t really know how to prepare it, as I didn’t want a crazy cinnamon hit, so I attempted to do my chai way that I use for making Pumpkin Chai. Steep the tea in a tiny bit of boiling water to concentrate it for 2 mins, add some hot milk to it and sweetener, steep for another 5 mins or so, strain. I added honey on a whim instead of brown sugar just to see how it would taste.

And the verdict is – it’s actually not too bad! I ended up with a smooth cinnamon chai flavor, quite spicy actually, maybe a bit more spice in total than Pumpkin Chai. It’s warming and cozy and very smooth. The rooibos is very nicely blended in this, it’s not overwhelming at all! I don’t get a huge amount of orange brewing in this method, but I’m sure it’s in there adding to the nice spice blend. It is slightly reminiscent of cinnamon hearts, yes, but (thankfully) not as strong as them in this method of brewing. The honey was a pretty nice sweetener for this too, just a hint of sweet to balance the spice. I was a bit worried about it not being able to stand up to the milk because there’s no black tea in it, but it is doing quite an excellent job!

Overall, this is actually pretty good, and for me not being a huge fan of cinnamon, that is a huge win for this tea. I will get through most of my bag, I will share some with my mom though because she will LOVE IT. I will also try brewing it with just water and see how that goes in the future. As I continue to sip this, it grows on me because it’s just so cozy! So, yay for my tea mistake panning out to be ok! :)

Looooove this tea. I found myself craving it after my last pot and hoped the cinnamon would help my throat…and it has! Yum. I’m trying to keep hydrated today, and this is a tasty way to do it! The cinnamon is nice and smooth without burning and it’s just…delicious.

I screwed this one up. I was making a pot and put way too much in I guess because this was like drinking cinnamon toothpaste. I’m not bashing the tea, this was human error. :(

Soooo silly me, I wrote this review below for Coco Chai Rooibus and it’s no wonder I was extremely confused about not smelling coconut. This would be why, it was the WRONG TEA!!! I feel extremely bashful now, but my review stands. However I am willing to bump up the review slightly because I feel that the name now makes sense with the tea and I’m not missing a ingredient completely.

Day 14 of the 24 Days of Tea

At first sniff: This is a combo of DT’s Pure Chai and TWG’s Red Christmas. You get the overpowering cinnamon smell from Pure Chai, and the cloves and “Christmas” smell from Red Christmas, but minus the slight medicinal notes that are apparent in Red Christmas. Now, seeing as I rated Red Christmas 100, this one has a lot to live up to. I guess rooibus tea pairs well with the holiday smells and tastes, as I see it a lot with tea companies. I am not really getting coconut in this, and considering the description states a strong note of it, I was a bit surprised. I just sniffed it again for good measure, nope, nadda. It does smell good, if you’re into those teas that smell of Christmas and spice and everything nice. I know I am.

At first steep: The cinnamon carries over into the aroma of tea. The liquor is a deep red (might be my brewing too, as I don’t like a weak rooibus, or weak tea in general.) The cloves come second and pair nicely with the cinnamon. Still waiting for the coconut. It might be the sample, but I don’t see any cardamom in mine. The taste is an underwhelming cinnamon rooibus. I feel the cinnamon over powers the rooibus taste and pretty much anything else in this blend. It smells of cinnamon hearts and has a little of heat to boot.

I’d like to think I enjoy subtle. I have a greater appreciation for French tea, now that I am slowly running out of all the teas I was spoiled with. The French do subtle, but flavourful the best. DavidsTea on the other hand does strong aroma and weak tea. I keep going back to my French teas, and I think I’ll end up staying there. Although I am definitely curious about H&S. If anything the advent calendar has shown me how I truly feel about DT, after having so many back to back teas. There are a couple DT Teas I love, but there many more I don’t like. This one is in the middle. I don’t hate it, don’t love it. I would have a cup if offered, doubt I will stock it.