Naturally Flavored Cinnamon Chai Tea - TE36

One of my new samples from Upton!

This tea is pretty much everything it says it is… a black chai with a heavy cinnamon flavor. The cinnamon is more of the red-hot style cinnamon flavoring, which I am perfectly okay with. It isn’t as overwhelming as the cinnamon in MarketSpice, or probably any of the ‘hot’ cinnamon teas. It’s the same style of cinnamon, just not the same intensity, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

The other chai spices are an afternote, at best. The clove is really the only one that’s still readily noticeable in the flavor, everything else is just kind of lost in the tea.

So, to recap:

Big cinnamon.
Small clove.
Smooth ceylon.

Not too shabby, really. I think I might keep this one around, as it would go really, really well with just about anything else where I wanted to kick up the cinnamon. Missy mentioned mixing it with SerendipiTea’s Colonille Vanilla, and I think I agree that would make a delightful little brew. Unless you happen to dislike both Vanilla and Cinnamon :P

My tea of the morning…. Happy Friday! :D
Edit to add: Wow! This is my 400th tasting note! (I wish I could show such dedication to other things in my life. Ha!)

This is a good cinnamon tea. I am not sure I would classify it as a chai, but it fits the flavor profile without the ginger and cardamom. I guess I am missing the bits…..or the spices that you can see in a chai mix. If I think of it as a cinnamon tea, it works better. This is not red hots in a cup, so for those of you who prefer a more subtle cinnamon tea, this is for you. I think if you wanted to blend this up into a traditional chai by adding some whole cloves, cardamom pods, and ginger, it would be fabulous.

Steeped by the usual parameters.

I made Dylan some of this today while I am drinking my Big Red Robe. I have to say it’s pretty good. I got a lot of the red hot cinnamon flavor and a very little masala. The tea base is malty goodness to support the masala and cinnamon. A nice blend for cinnamon lovers.

The pot of this tea that I just had was amazing. Much better than the previous one. I steeped for less time on this pot. Too bad I didn’t pay attention to the exact time. I’ll just have to hope I can get it right next time. Nice, non-artificial tasting cinnamon tea, with a nice, light black tea base (this time it wasn’t too present, which was perfect for my taste). My favorite cinnamon tea so far. Really hit the spot tonight!

Just a note: I wouldn’t really consider this a chai. It’s more a cinnamon flavored tea, and not really all that spicy. I personally didn’t have a problem with this, since I was looking specifically for cinnamon and not chai. Great without milk and sugar!

Testing 3 Upton “spice” samples tonight and this is 2nd up (also tested NE Harvest and going to test Tropical Chai Spice).

Well, compairing it to NE Harvest, the tea is more prominent in this one and the black tea is not bitter either (not sure if same one?). I was expecting this to be the strongest “chai” spiced one of the three, but it’s not much stronger than NE Harvest. The only difference is that NE Harvest is basically a cinnamon tea, and this one has more going on… I can detect the clove, for example (love clove, but it’s weak in here). Overall I’m not enjoying this one as much as NE Harvest. It’s “ok”, will probably finish sample, but not reorder.

This is a strange one! It’s labeled a chai, but is missing all the spices that make up a normal chai. It really is more a cinnamon black tea. Cinnamon tea is, of course, my absolute favorite thing, so I had to sample this tea! The smell is strongly cinnamon before brewing. After steeping (5 minutes at boiling) the smell is diminished a bit. I added milk and sugar, because I was thinking chai, and I don’t think that helped – where the milk often amps up the spices in a chai, here it dampens them.

The tea was a touch bitter, especially as the liquid cooled. Overall I was not impressed with this tea. The spice was weak, and I don’t think the tea base was especially good. With so many great cinnamon teas, this one just doesn’t make the cut!

Great Flavor. Strong on the cinnamon. Light on the Chai. But still great with some sugar and milk!