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This must be a revamp of an earlier reviewed tea as this one clearly includes natural flavors and not artificial ones. Needless to say I really enjoyed this tea. I was first struck by the luxurious smell of tropical fruit amongst the chai spices. A gander at the contents of the sample revealed nice long pieces of coconut amongst an almost potpourri of a chai - just what I like in a good chai.
One taste of the tea confirmed two things to me: I’d
1. I probably under-dosed the steeping basket (my husband had heard me puttering around the kitchen and asked if he could cadge a cup along with me- I quickly added more chai and water to the teapot). It could be stronger but that’s probably my fault and not the teas. Upton’s so good about giving exact directions/suggestions for steeping. Oh well, try again I guess.
2. I knew I wanted to order a full bag of this stuff. Even under-steeped I knew this was a really nice chai - a really nice departure from the usual chais. Our go-to chai, is the Bollywood Chai from Reluctant Traders (a tea I have yet to review here —my bad-) which I’d purchased because of raves and because RT does such powerful work sourcing direct from growers and working towards equity and real fair trade). It’s just a solid classical chai. But it’s nice to have a few chais to reach for and a tropical chai with fruit is the tea I didn’t know I needed (or wanted).

Got this as a sample from Upton Tea Imports. Made for a nice stiff cup of tea in the morning. Just what I was looking for. Managed to get a second steeping. Very fine with a little cream and honey. Now I just have to rustle up a good scone to go with it the next time. And yes, I will definitely be ordering this from them again.

A sample of this got included in a recent order from Stash. I’d seen it listed on their website and was a little put off from “gingerbread flavoring” listed among the ingredients. But I have to say the smell of this cup was pretty heady. It doesn’t make a very dark cup but the aroma is quite nice. I actually smelled some apple in my cup, sort of cidery. All in all a nice chai more on the spiced cider end of things. Nice with a little bit of basswood honey.

This one’s a treasure. All the right autumnal notes. Sort of a perfect stereotype in a cup. Heavy on the apple notes plus the requisite amount of spice notes: cloves cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Is that all there? Yessiree!!

Really surprised this hasn’t been reviewed more recently here on Steepster. I wonder if this doesn’t get as much interest because of the Christmas name. That would be too bad because there’s really not much about the cup that speaks treacly holidays. And wow, this makes a delicious cup of tea! Also makes me appreciate all the positive reviews for this tea here on Steepster — as they influenced me into adding it to my latest order from Stash. I was intrigued by the combination of ingredients as I’m always on the lookout for a good herbal departure from the usual suspects of the peppermint, ginger, chamomile variety. I’ve already brewed up a number of pots and it’s always delighted. Even my husband loves the blend! It has a lovely steeping color too. As it’s one of their annual seasonal tea blends I was especially grateful for the 7-year-old review that warned me to purchase more than one box as I look forward to enjoying this past the holidays. Everything seems very well balanced and quite pleasurable for the last night’s cup. I only wish they would offer this in loose leaf and change the name so they could offer it year round.

Sigh! I was really looking forward to this tea. New Mexico is one of my favorite places in the world and I was delighted to discover their website from which I ordered a number of samples. When it came to this tea I ordered a bit more solely based on the description and ingredient list. Biscochitos are the iconic New Mexico cookie. Hard to describe them, but if you’ve ever had one, you never forget the taste of it. I was pretty psyched to see someone had made a tea inspired by it. I will admit to have slightly been put off by roasted rice in the ingredients list, but I figured it was still worth the risk.
But the minute I poured the loose leaf tea into my steeper I knew something was off. The smell was strangely biscochitos adjacent. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I poured the water in and waited for it to finish enfusing. After all you never know with teas, sometimes they smell one way in the cup and taste different on the palate. I drank a cup and while it wasn’t a horrible tea, it didn’t taste as it had promised. Something was off. I made a second cup and as the tea bloomed in the steeper I noticed what at first I thought were pieces of dried fruit. On closer inspection I discovered the issue. What I had mistaken for dried fruit -which I should parenthetically add would have had nothing to do with the cookie in question-what I had mistaken for dried fruit was actually a chunk of star anise. I went back and read the ingredients list on the package and even pulled up the page on their website. Both stated this tea included “anise seed.” Not star anise. But what was unmistakably in my strainer was star anise. Somehow they’d blown the recipe. I don’t need to explain to anyone the profound difference between anise seed and star anise. They are not the same plant and really register in very different ways. Somehow whoever came up with this tea didn’t know what they were doing. Or weren’t familiar with the New Mexican cookie in question. Star anise is not a substitution for anise seed, any more than orange peel is the same as bergamot. These are very distinct flavors and it’s the whole point of making good tea blends.
So very disappointed in this tea. While in and of itself it’s not a horrible tea, it is most definitely not what it was aiming for.

SIDE POINT AS SILVER LINING: I need to add that in looking for this tea to rate it, I came across a different tea company a few miles up the road in northern New Mexico. I managed to reach them to ask if their take on this tea included star anise or anise seed. Fortunately they didn’t laugh me off the phone and offered to send me a sample which they most assuredly told me included anise seed. They shared my confusion as to why anyone would use star anise. So perhaps a silver lining for me and a new customer for them.