Pumpkin Spice

As you probably know, Hurricane Sandy is out in force in NY today! However, I live pretty far inland in Queens so I have zero things to worry about. Stocked up on candles, matches and batteries, my Kindle is charged and I have a gas stovetop so I can make tea no matter what! However the power is still on and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna go out so I’m kind of just hanging out and watching Spider-Man.

Most people I know are treating this more like a vacation than an emergency—it’s pretty funny actually, so many people are acting like schoolkids. Yeah, no work today! Us New Yorkers don’t tend to panic until… well, ever. It’d have to be the end of the world. I had the news on earlier and all of the areas under mandatory evacuation still had TONS of people there. The reporter seemed baffled, but everyone interviewed was all “whatever, how bad could it be? I ain’t moving anywhere.” One lady stayed because the nearest shelter was 6 miles away—an insurmountable distance for people who have spent their whole lives in the city!

It’s raining pretty hard and it’s windy, so imagine my surprise when I got a notice that UPS is out delivering my Lupicia box! See, this story is kind of tea related. They haven’t come yet, but they deliver till 8 so I am just waiting to see if they actually show up. Funnily enough, my box was scheduled for Wednesday but for some reason it’s showing up 2 days early… in a hurricane. Yet my post office is closed. I was supposed to ship out a swap box today too. Damn you Sandy!

Okay, onto the actual tea. I got a free sample of this in the RoT catalog and it seemed like a good day for a warm fall cup. I know a lot of people here don’t like Republic of Tea, but I’ve always had a soft spot for them. Remember when Barnes & Noble used to stock them? Now it’s all Harney & Sons, but years ago you could find RoT tins there and that’s actually how my tea obsession took off. Their Moroccan Mint was my first loose-leaf love! So I was excited to try this one.

It’s kind of like a mild pumpkin chai. There’s a definite and strong pumpkin flavor and a smooth spicy taste, a bit of ginger and cinnamon. It’s nothing wow-worthy really, just a nice warming cup. If I didn’t have a pumpkin combo in my cupboard already (Culinary Tea’s Pumpkin Cream + Pumpkin Chai = heaven) I think I’d add this one just for a nice fall tea.

I picked up a tin of this the other day on sale at WF. The cool weather has caused me to crave some dessert-like teas. Really, I’m craving desserts, but that will cause nothing but problems for me, so a few flavored teas will have to do. This is not bad. With ROT I always use 2 bags (if you read their directions, one bag is for a 6oz cup). I think it would be even better if I added a little maple, but for this morning, no.

Felt like having a cup of this one today. I’m gearing up for fall tea! Can’t wait to pick up some of the new ones from DavidsTea, but that’ll have to wait until next week. I didn’t try the DavidsTea pumpkin chai last year since I had a bunch of this tea around, but I’m definitely going to give it a try this year! This tea is a solid pumpkin pie tea, but we’ll have to see how it compares to the DavidsTea version!

bleh. I like the rooibos version better but i’m glad to have tried this. There’s something about the base that doesn’t sit well with me.

Sipdown and a thank you terri for letting me try this version!

Continued celebration of my mothers birthday by drinking all the pumpkin teas.
I got this as a sample from ROT, so it will be a sample sipdown as well.
This tastes like pumpkin pie spice, which is exactly what it is billed as, isnt it? Its got a decent underlying pumpkin quality which is good. Pie like, and good.

I have one sample of this and for some reason it looked good, so I decided to go for it. Not really pumpkin season any more, but oh well. The teabag has a strong pumpkin and ginger smell, with a little hint of spices. The tea has a rich, heavy pumpkin aroma. The flavor is pumpkin with a strong ginger finish. There is a light warming, spicy aftertaste that I imagine would be nice in the winter. For me, this tea is just a little too gingery. I can taste that flavor more than the pumpkin or any of the other spices. It’s not a bad tea, just nothing like pumpkin pie in my opinion.

-Round natural unbleached teabag.
-Teabag smells strongly of pumpkin and ginger. Tea liquor aroma is of rich and sweet pumpkin.
-Tea liquor is a cloudy medium golden brown color.
-Pumpkin flavor with a ginger finish. Light warming and spicy aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Fair tea. More ginger flavor than pumpkin.

Traveling Tea Box C #2
This was my after work tea today. While it was a good cup it was not what I was expecting. The flavors weren’t as strong as I would have liked them to be. And sadly I didn’t taste the pumpkin. Just the spices. I ended up adding cream and sugar to finish it off:) and I’m guily of even adding whipped cream on top and a dash of cinnamon. I was going for the pumpkin pie effect. As I sipped the rest I stumbled upon this quote on the back of the tea bag package.
“Tea tempers the spirit and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents drowsiness. The spirit of tea is one of peace, comfort and refinement.”
-Lu Yu, The Sage of Tea
Welp! 2 down and plenty more to go!

I received a single sample bag of this. Steeped 2.5 minutes with water just under boiling. I was able to get 2 really good steeps.

This is a really nicely flavored black tea. The pumpkin spice flavoring is soft and creamy. The tea is subdued and in the background. This is probably the best pumpkin tea I’ve had.

Today, as you might know, is the day before Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve…Eve. It has been a perfectly stormy day complete with hail and a nicely flooded basement, a great sign for a good Halloween. I do have a special tea that I am reviewing tomorrow that is on theme, but I wanted to start off the festivities with a bit of pumpkin goodness (I did not carve one this year, tragic).

Presenting Pumpkin Pie Spice Black Tea by Republic of Tea, an Autumn themed tea made from a blend of Black teas, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cloves. They advice adding a splash of cream but I am a completely out and there is no way I am using the much maligned skim milk that is in the fridge. The aroma is very spiced, and very evocative of pumpkin pie spice. There is of course absolutely no pumpkin and just spice, but the it said that on the tin so you won’t get me raging about being misled with squash. There is also a touch of buttered rum aroma which I always enjoy. The most prominent spice aroma is clove, definitely lots of clove!

Time to dunk the teabag! The aroma is super sweet and pie like, I can even detect a bit of crust but I am willing to chock that up to ghosts. The spices are well balanced after being steeped, no one spice sticks out unlike the un-drenched bag. The aroma is practically crying out ‘drink me on a chilly day! Enjoy me with mounds of Autumnal foods’ not to mention the desire for cream.

Drinking the tea the first thing I notice is the sweetness and balanced spices. I do love a spiced tea that is well balanced and nuanced, having one spice drown out all the others is sad. The taste is very much so pumpkin pie spice with a delightful mouth tingling from the cloves. As per my usual gripe, the tea tastes nothing like actual pumpkins, one day I will find a pumpkin spice tea that tastes like pumpkins, but as just spiced teas go this one is pretty good for a tea bag! Not that there is anything wrong with teabags, I just have gotten very spoiled with all my loose leaf. So far this has been my favorite bagged pumpkin themed tea that I have yet tried, so give it a try if you are part of the pumpkin craze!

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2013/10/republic-of-tea-pumpkin-spice-black-tea.html

Got this sample in the mail today with the RoT catalog. It’s my first taste of any kind of “pumpkin/pumpkin spice” tea. It’s different than I expected. I thought it would be overly spicy. But it’s very mild, pumpkiny, and creamy. The spices are soft. Actually, the whole flavor of the tea is very soft. Soft and creamy. Like a pumpkin pie! I like it!

And it arrived just in time to warm me up! The heat in our house isn’t working, and it’s 55 degrees (F) inside!