The Spice & Tea Exchange

I love unintentional surprises!
I forgot I bought this tea last fall during a camping trip to the Smokies. Detoured for a shopping trip in Gatlinburg, TN. I just found it under a bunch of bags of dried beans.
The dry leaf has a nice cinnamon and fruity aroma.
The tea liquor is a deep dark magenta, like pickled beet juice.
The aroma is complex and spicy, mmmmmmmm really lovely.
I was expecting a lot of sour due to the hue and hibiscus but no, it’s rather sweet with a nice spicy background from the cinnamon. I do taste plum and it really goes well with cinnamon. I think that this tea was a great find and I am happy to have a nice rich herbal tea for an evening cup.
I see that several tea companies offer a cinnamon plum blend that I might try as well.
I really like this flavor!

First smell (dry) was awesomely chocolatey. On a second sniff, I noticed something a little smokey. Glance at package “Ah, it’s Keemun.”

Did a 2 1/2 min steep in boiling water. Color is red-brown, smell seems more leathery than chocolatey now. Tastes complex, lots of layered flavors. Malty chocolate with a kind of leathery, scotch-like background.

I dig it, but it’s probably not going to be a repurchase for me.

The dry leaf aroma of this tea is AWESOME! It smells like creamy, lemon-y goodness. Like lemon meringue pie! There were huge chunks of dried lemon in the blend and lots of yellow calendula petals too (which look exactly like marigold petals by the way).

The brewed tea aroma is mostly woodsy green rooibos with a hint of lemon zest. That’s sad. I hope the lemon creaminess returns in the flavor! I really dislike red rooibos, but flavored green rooibos is usually okay. This brewed aroma is making me second guess myself. Time to try it and find out!

Mmm, lucky for me, that lovely lemon creaminess has returned! The green rooibos base is still pretty strong though. But the added flavorings are nice. It’s worth noting that the lemon in this is very natural and zest-like. It doesn’t taste incredibly tart or citrus-y like lemon pulp or juice. It’s definitely more akin to zest.

I’m going to add a tiny bit of Truvia to see if I can make the flavors really pop. Well, it kind of worked. There’s just no way past that rooibos base. :P This is just okay in my book. But I can see how this would be the perfect late night treat for rooibos lovers. At least it won’t keep me up past bedtime. :)

This is one of those teas that gets pushed towards the back of my tea stash and as a result I don’t pick it too often. I think part of this is because I’m not a huge fan of The Spice and Tea Exchange. I LOVE going into their store and I love the little sample teas that they have, but more often than not I get home and steep those cute little samples and I find them lacking in some way, or often with an odd flavor. (Wondering is this could be because they are in a store with so many other prominent scents from the other spices, etc.?) Anyway, I wasn’t too picky this morning and just randomly chose a tea from my drawer and this was the lucky winner. I didn’t have much hope while steeping it, and even made a second container of my old standby tea to take along with me to school just in case I didn’t like this one. I’m happy to say that I was surprised! This isn’t a tea that is bursting with flavor or that has a lot of fun undertones that you want to keep sipping just to figure it out – it’s more of just an all-around pleasant tea. It may be one that I turn to a little more frequently after my unexpected experience with it this morning.

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with a few pieces of dried pears.
-Dry leaves smell faintly of fresh pears. Tea liquor aroma is of strong black tea with a hint of sweet caramel and fruit.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium golden brown color.
-Earthy and malty flavor with a subtle caramel finish. Very light pear aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Fair tea. Faint flavor of sweet pear and caramel with a light maltiness.

Cold-brewed this one overnight and enjoyed it this morning. Delicious! Sweet, buttery and tastes like wonderful, lovely coconut. No complaints.

This was good, but I found that it had a very mild flavor, which was surprising for something containing cloves! It tasted more like a spice cake (which could be a carrot spice cake, I suppose) than a cupcake to me. Nothing in there to simulate cream cheese or sweet frosting.

I do have to say that it’s an improvement on David’s Tea Carrot Cake, which stunk of artificial perfume. This one actually smelled of the ingredients – mostly cinnamon & clove. It would make a good autumnal tea, with its harvest spices, so it’s interesting that they did a limited release of it during the spring months.

As a side note, what is up with calendula petals in all in my tea?! I was curious about it yesterday, so I did a little research, and apparently, calendula petal is “the poor man’s saffron.” It’s supposed to have a slightly bitter, peppery flavor that can be either tangy or salty, and it’s commonly used in soup stock. Seems like an odd choice for tea, to me! (Not that I think I’m tasting any of those flavors, but that’s the flavor it’s supposed to impart.)

This really does taste like an orange creamsicle. It’s uncanny. The rooibos isn’t too strong, because I hate that, but it is quite strong so it’s borderline. But the orange and cream is very strong and quite lovely. I added a big splash of milk and 1.3 tsp of sugar to my 14 oz mug. Then I added more tea after I drank it because I shared the pot and the pot fills my cup twice exactly but my neighbour who I shared it with has a much smaller mug so I had some left over.

Anyway, this is pretty good. Not something I’d buy though, because of the strong-ish rooibos, but I like it enough to drink the rest of it. Thanks to Pia M for this sample.

we were drudging through historic Williamsburg. my sister and i had run out of things to say to my dad and his wife a few hours ago. we all had a beer to ease the tension. then my sis and i spotted this place! tired of looking at old buildings? go shopping for tea! the tea wasn’t super top notch or anything, but we could purchase small bags of a nice variety and it was super fun to smell all the tea.

this was a sweet little treat tea. thanks oddree for sharing as ALWAYS!

i love tea! i’m so grateful to have it in my life! i know i sound crazy! but seriously. what other simple things are this easy to enjoy?!

now don’t get angry but i did dump out a tiny little tea tin this morning. it was a tiny cup’s worth of root beer tea. my sister wouldn’t drink it and i was tired of looking at it. this Berry White tea was also in the orphan box. (box of teas my sister said she wasn’t gonna drink and mostly they were samples i’d given her cuz i wasn’t gonna drink it either hah) i drank this one again because i had never reviewed it.

[side note: i have a ‘tea purgatory’ and a ‘tea orphan box’. ‘tea purgatory is where i keep teas i don’t have room for in my cupboard yet, and ‘tea orphan box’ is where i keep the last bits of tea that i didn’t really like and don’t wanna try again but there’s just that little tad left] [oh the science of tea organization systems]

it’s very red red pink liquor. and it tastes just like that. it tastes pink. and by that i mean it tastes like it’s hibiscus trying to be a larger variety of berries. but it’s not awful. it tastes kinda festive i guess.

now off off off to mail some swaps! (and then a lame subcommittee meeting zzzz) (but don’t worry i have some watson tea for the meeting so it will be alright i bet)

i drank this yesterday for breakfast. it smells of the most relaxing and loving rose bouquet. it’s currently the only caffinated tea i have in my collection, so i suspect i’ll be drinking a lot more of it until my deliveries arrive.

I am very much in the mood for this kind of tea right now… something milky and creamy. I am really trying to drink more of the tea I have in my collection before buying any more. I’m making progress, but it’s slow progress. I always find that I crave other teas than the ones on my shelves. Anyway, about this cup…

The scent of the brewed cup is wonderful! I detect whipped cream, coconut (of course), a bit of buttery oolong and something like vanilla ice cream. I’m hoping that the scent translates into the taste because I would rate this tea a 95 based on scent alone!
Sipping… not really tasting whipped cream or vanilla.. but more of a green oolong with coconut. I suppose that I expected this, but the scent fooled me into believing that there would be something in addition to the coconut. The first part of the sip is of a very green oolong and then the coconut notes come out. As the cup cools, more of the oolong’s buttery notes appear and the cup becomes more silky.

This is a very solid cup and I think it would be very tasty iced. When it gets warmer, I’ll try an iced version. Thank you, Lindsey for a sample of this tea!

Thanks to Pia M for this sample. I made a pot and shared it with a coworker.

This is an interesting tea. I can definitely taste the hazelnut although as it cooled down, it got somewhat bitter. Much better while hot.

Very nice strong coconut flavour without any chemically aftertaste…Mmmm. It is nicely balanced with a green oolong base. Tropics…or at least as close as I am going to get to being in the tropics :)

Sipdown! That’s really all I have to say, haha.

That and… I tried half of my cup iced. I may have made it a little weak, but it was still pleasant. Though for some reason, it seems to have made the bitterness come out a bit more.

I’m having a very blueberry morning today; oatmeal sweetened with TSTE Blueberry sugar and a hot cup of Blueberry Black (also sweetened with said sugar). Delicious. And the smell… I could huff my pouch of this tea all day long. It’s better than a scented candle.

See previous tasting note for details.

Finally getting back to Steepster after a week away… Blueberry Black makes for a nice morning cuppa. A medium flavored tea, that – as long as you’re careful not to over steep – doesn’t have any bitterness.

See previous tasting note for review.

The dry leaf smells heavenly. Lots and lots of blueberry notes bursting out of the package. The blueberries in this blend are small pieces, unlike the big, full blueberries in DavidsTea Blueberry Jam (the DT version is still my favorite blueberry tea, to date.)

The steeped smell is different, however. There’s almost something…perfumy? about it. Maybe a little floral? I’m not sure what it is, but it doesn’t make me think “blueberry” like the dry aroma did.

Without additions, the taste is certainly Blueberry Black, with the emphasis on black. It does taste like blueberry, buts it’s not like the IN YOUR FACE blueberry of Blueberry Jam. But, I also picked-up some blueberry sugar (it’s sugar mixed with dehydrated blueberry puree) when I was at the TSTE, so it’s time to try it out!

Now that it’s sweetened, the blueberry really pops. Each sip is awash with the taste of juicy blueberries. Much better. And it’s even better as it cools. My cup’s lukewarm at this point, and blueberry is now at the forefront.

The base tea is good; no bitterness detected at a 2.5 min steep (and I’m especially sensitive to bitterness) and it sits nicely with the blueberry flavors.

ETA: Wow, I used the word “blueberry” a lot in this note. Blueberry.

A lovely blend of Asian greens with strawberry and Rhubarb plus an unexpected addition of the Mallow flower, which I didn’t know about until I tried this tea. The dry smell of the tea is sweet and relaxing. It’s quite a smooth tea with the plant, berry, and flower combo. One must be careful to not let it over steep or the green tea will overpower the rest and as usual become bitter.

We went out to dinner tonight, so I decided mint tea would be just the thing right now. This tea is probably a little older, I can’t remember exactly when I got it but it has to have been a while, since we don’t have a Spice & Tea Exchange in our town. I was surprised to see when I was making this tea that it has gunpowder green tea and mint in it – not just mint. It smells really strongly of fresh mint, but the tea itself has a nice green tea and mint aroma. This is a nice balance of flavors. It’s not too overwhelmingly mint, and it’s a heavier sort of tea. There is a nice little cooling mint aftertaste, but again, it’s not in-your-face mintiness. The label says that it’s great as an iced tea too, and I can believe it. I think it would also be good to have on hand for when you’re not feeling well. It’s a nicely refreshing cup.

-Dry blend has a mixture of small pieces of green tea and mint leaves.
-Dry leaves smell strongly of fresh mint. Tea liquor aroma is of green tea and mint.
-Tea liquor is a clear dark yellow color.
-Heavy vegetal and mint flavor and finish. Light cooling mint aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. A nice refreshing balance of mint and green tea.