Holiday Tea

It’s overcast today and breezy. The leaves are starting to fall from our peach tree, and it truly feels like fall is finally here. Autumn in Alabama is fickle – sometimes it will be in the 80s, sometimes the 60s. We have to enjoy the good days when they’re here. Since it seems a good fall day, I knew I wanted a spiced tea. And I knew it had to be this one. Not sure why, but I had a pretty intense craving for this holiday tea so I made my husband a different holiday tea and we are pretending it’s the holidays together. It’s too bad he didn’t like his tea. Oh well. I do like mine. :)

This is heavily spiced, and not only spiced, but also spicy. It’s a touch bitter too, probably an error on my part, but full-flavored with the cloves coming on strong. James (the aforementioned husband) took a small sip (as he typically doesn’t trust my tea choices) and made an awful face, announcing that I could have this one all to myself. Sound good to me. I love it.

2nd tea for the day. The dry aroma was a beautiful mix of orange, cinnamon, and cloves,. However, I was disappointed that the brew only tasted of clove. The clove flavor was so strong that it turned very chemically tasting.

Sipdown no. 8 of 2019 (no. 496 total). A sample teabag.

I screwed up so I actually have no idea how long I steeped this. Perhaps not long enough as the color is a bit lighter than I expected. Sort of a medium amber headed toward dark. It smells pretty wonderful, though. I actually get a sort of a cocoa note from this, as well as cinnamon, orange, and almonds.

Not too long ago, I drank some of a sample of something called Christmas Tea from Upton.

Let’s compare:

The more inclusively named one from Harney (Holiday Tea): citrus, almond, clove, cinnamon

The one from Upton (Christmas Tea): cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, cardamom, orange peel, rose petals, almond.

So the delta is in the vanilla, cardamom, and rose. I tasted no cardamom in the Christmas Tea according to my note. So really the difference is vanilla and rose.

Did I mention the cocoa note? It could also read as vanilla — it’s that vanilla-chocolate continuum thing where sometimes the flavors overlap.

In any case, this explains why I was reminded of something I drank recently. The flavor of these two is extremely similar. They are both mild teas with a good balance of flavor. Sometimes stronger flavors like clove can be overpowering. It isn’t here, which is good.

I have to extrapolate a bit and imagine what this would have been like had I steeped it properly. It’s basically the Constant Comment flavor profile again, done with a bit more attention and depth.

I rate it the same as the Upton.

Sipdown 115/395

Drank as a travel tea, black with a little bit of honey, a couple of days back. It was pleasant with mild cinnamon and orange flavours, and I really enjoy Harney’s black teas, but I preferred Cranberry Autumn to this one. Gave the boyfriend a sip and he really liked it, to the point where he asked if we could start drinking pots of tea together. Score.

Thanks go again to Marzipan for this one.

I am drinking it now. The ingredients look good on paper but in reality this tea is quite meh. The aroma is underwhelming and in the taste profile cloves predominate. Just not a very interesting tea with not a lot of going on.

Unless someone is a big fan of cloves (and I am not!) I would pass on this one.

A relative of mine recently ordered this because she really likes this one (she prefers her tea with milk though) I wanted something Christmas-y tonight to drink and decided to revisit this one. The dry leaf smells so good but I still don’t like this one once brewed the clove takes over and it’s slightly bitter. This definitely needs milk.

I want to like this one more than I do. My daughter adores it, I have tried many times but can’t say I feel the same. I would like a bit more spice, the most prominent flavor note I taste is chocolate and almond with hints of vanilla.

Oh dear, I was hoping to love this tea (primarily because the tin is so beautiful). Sadly, the vanilla and almond aren’t very discernible to my taste buds. I’m tasting mostly orange and cinnamon. It’s reminding me a lot of Bigelow’s Constant Comfort, and I’m not overly impressed.

I do have a sample of Harney’s Vanilla. I might try a mix of the two after I’ve sampled it on its own.

To my surprise, I really enjoyed the sample I tried of this, so I bought a box. I am not a fan of spice teas, but this light blend of spices melds so well with the base that to me this comes across more as a particularly rich black tea than a spice tea.

What a tasty surprise!

Harney & Sons included a sample of this Holiday Tea in a recent order, and I love it. We have amassed quite a few samples, and sometimes I don’t feel like going through the effort to brew a pot (lazy, right?), so I’ll grab a sample tea bag. My wife doesn’t do caffeine after a certain time of the day, so when I held out the pre-Thanksgiving offerings, she snatched up an herbal, and I chose this from the remainder.

I’m not typically a fan of clove, but it’s so tastefully woven into the overall flavor of this tea that I was sad to see the bottom of the cup. The almond, cinnamon and citrus were just right to make this a great evening tea, and it would make a delicious dessert or conversation tea at any gathering.