Decaf Pumpkin Spice

This was another tea I got at Wegman’s yesterday. I am surprised to see the reviews of it were so mixed because I actually liked this one, even though it’s a teabag.

Sometimes decaf teas are nice in the afternoon and evening when you don’t want to keep yourself awake all night. I’ve had several pumpkin teas this fall which range from great to downright icky. This has a light pumpkin flavor with a nice mix of spices, none are too prominent and overpowering. Sometimes clove can really make a tea strong. The nutmeg here is nice too. I drank mine with soymilk and it was nice for a chilly afternoon. Overall I thought it was pretty good for a cheap bagged tea… much better than the Celestial Seasonings sweet pumpkin tea IMO.

To be honest I was sort of expecting something a bit more…well, pumpkin-y. This tea has the spice alright, but that’s it. False advertising, I say!

Brewing temp-208 to be exact.

I’ve TRIED to get my mom and dad to go with loose tea and to brew their tea properly. I’ve given them loose tea, which they profess to like, but take forever to drink (if they finish at all). We wound up talking a little tea with their neighbor over the weekend and she was impressing the importance of good water too. My dad DID buy a mesh infuser basket for himself at the tea shop yesterday. However, I think they are still probably committed unfiltered tap, boiling water in microwave, tea bag users. The only tea they bought yesterday was bagged. Granted, some of it looked interesting and I gave them some of my loose leaf in exchange for a few bags.

This was the first pumpkin chai-type tea I’ve come across that looked vegan, so bags, the fact it was still on a store shelf in May, and nearly summer weather be damned, I’m trying it!

I added almond milk and a tsp of sugar to this tea.

I was expecting this was to taste like liquid pumpkin pie-I mean, I assume that’s what they are aiming for here. That’s not a bad aim either-I love pumpkin pie. I taste all the spices and even the pumpkin flavoring, but it’s not fusing together properly as a whole. It’s like they combined all the ingredients for pumpkin pie in a bowl but didn’t mix them together. Pumpkin pie is so good because the spices are fused together-not tasted separately. I think there’s too much of the nutmeg, too. One bag left, I might try it plain, although this is one tea where I think drinking straight is not the intent.

It’s not bad, but I can’t see me ever buying a box of this. I’ll look more seriously for a good pumpkin spice chai this fall.

Smells pretty much like the one from 52teas. There’s a peppery sort of note in the aroma too that prickles my nose and make me want to sneeze.

It’s sweet. Somewhat spicy, it sort of warms that mouth with prickly. And then it’s kind of sweet as if it has sugar in it.

I am still getting a hint of that slightly soapy, rough sort of flavour that I’m also getting in the one from 52teas, it’s just less here. I’m thinking maybe that would be the pumpkin. And if that is the case then I’m still not sure I actually like pumpkin very much.

Thanks for letting me try it, though, Jillian.

I had this last night with pumpkin ice cream, so that definitely influenced the flavor. ;) But I did have a few sips before digging into the ice cream. I really like this tea. The pumpkin flavor is definitely there, and I like the spiciness. Nutmeg and black pepper seemed to be the predominant spices. I’m not sure this tea actually contains pepper, so maybe it is the clove that I’m tasting? Pepper flavor might sound a bit odd, but I thought it was a nice balance to the sweet pumpkin flavor (and all the sugar I added to my cup).

Work had this today so I went ahead and tried it! I DO LIKE IT, ACTUALLY… you can definitely taste the nutmeg, and it’s most definitely got spice. Really don’t taste any pumpkin, though. But I’m okay with that because I’m not the biggest pumpkin fan in the first place. But if that IS what you want, well, YOU WONT FIND IT HERE…

Very bland, there’s a hint of pumpkin spice but the black is much too overpowering for this sort of tea.

I’ve been wanting to try this so long, friend of mine picked it up for me last weekend and now I’m glad I never bought it online.

Its nice, tastes kind of like a fall-spices chai, but…really kind of disappointing. I didn’t really taste pumpkin, and I had to steep it for quite a while to get a really good taste of it.

First time around I steeped for about 4 minutes, added a small amountof milk and a good bit of sugar. Second time around, which was much better, I steeped a lot longer, used a vanilla creamer and less sugar.

Perfect on a cool fall evening…and I’m not even a huge pumpkin fan!

A lot of spice, nutmeg and sharpness like cloves in the smell, and then, like most of the flavored blacks I’ve tried, there’s a wash of black and it’s even sided by the spice flavor — but no pumpkin flavor at all for me? Guess I’ll have to keep looking for autumny teas.