Sugar Plum Spice

Homemade advent calender day #4

I think this tea is quite solid. I steeped just under 1 minute and then added some soy milk. If you steep longer it gets acidic. The first cup was quite tasty – fruity, sweet cinnamon, and it tastes like the holidays. The fruit isn’t exactly plum but more hibiscus combined with dried figs and berries. The chicory base is nice and tasty which actually goes well with the cinnamon and holiday spice theme. If you do very short steeps, you will have a much better time curbing the hibiscus sour.

Second cup was a long steep in cold water. I got much less acidity than the first short steep. Less distinctly cinnamon notes and more generic spices/blended spices. The roasted chicory comes through as well but is more present because the other flavours are subdued. One thing I enjoy about roasted chicory is its similarity to roasted nuts or toasted grains.

I’m sorry to say but when I first opened this box and caught the smell of the tea, I didn’t touch it for over a week. The smell was so strong, like a floral potpourri, that I couldn’t even imagine that it’d taste good.

I finally decided to try it though, expecting the worst. The smell is definitely lessened as it steeps, and the liqueur is a festive, deep reddish-purple.

The problem is the taste. It’s so strong that the first sip made my mouth tingle. The sweetness is the first thing you taste, followed by the slightly offensive taste of spices; most notably, the cinnamon. The aftertaste reminds me of cinnamon gum.

I was very generous in my rating of this tea, because I haven’t given up hope that there’s a way to improve the flavor. At the very least, I think it’d made a nice simmering potpourri for the holidays.

I definitely notice a lot of spice but no plum flavor. While this isn’t a terrible tea it’s not one I would buy again. Thankfully my husband really enjoys it so it won’t be going to waste. Spicey teas are easy to come by, I was really hoping for a nice plum flavor.

Love this one – my favorite fall and winter brew!

This tea is one of my favorite seasonal ones. It is so flavorful and delicious! So many teas smell amazing but taste weak, not this one. Sweet, spicy and festive!

I was surprised at how good this is. I am not sure why – I have found that when no actual tea leaves are involved, this brand has some interesting flavor combos to offer. It is very fruity and very cinnamony and if you let it steep long enough, it gets sweet too. No sugar needed. A good caffeine free, cheap option.

Hmm. I am reminded of why I don’t drink this one much. It could be that my box is just old, but there’s an overtone to the taste that I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s metallic, kind of like the taste of a fork that’s had its polish worn down. X-P

Anyway, I kind of took an unanticipated hiatus, because of moving and all things related to it, but I’m back now! We have arrived and settled in to our new home in Colorado! It’s so nice to live somewhere with actual, real, bonafide autumn. It’s like stepping out your front doorstep into a puzzle picture. :3

Oh, and another fun but unrelated thing that happened while I was MIA: my daughter has started saying a few words now, and she now asks for tea by name. I normally share with her if I’m not drinking something caffeinated, and she loves it (‘cause what’s not to love?). :)

So I totally meant to drink Sugar Cookie and not Sugar Plum, as I rummaged through the tea bags that VariaTEA was nice enough to send me, but whoops?

This was actually ok. I was worried it’d be a little too tart so I added a little bit of sugar and it was pretty great. I drank a mason jar of! Awesome. :D

Before steeping, the scent out of the box is very intense. The strongest notes upon smelling the unsteeped bags is strong with cinnamon and ginger, with an overtone similar to maple syrup. Imagine a sweetened, fruity chai.

The body is somewhat binary: The first hit is wrought with cinnamon, the second hit is a tart plum flavor. In between is a very slight floral taste — this tea is not at all on the flowery nor planty side, despite containing chamomile and rosehips, perhaps because the floral taste is flooded out by spice. Due to the combination of cinnamon and high tanginess, there is a slightly grainy and light mouthfeel, which leaves the tongue rough after the sip.

There is a lingering spicy aftertaste, which leaves the tongue feeling somewhat “prickly”.

Due to the intensity of this tea, DO NOT for more than a minute; else, the taste gets rather extreme, sure to overwhelm most taste buds. Even when steeped shortly, it ends up being a very rich, nearly wine-like cool red color with slight clouding from particulate spices.

Tis the season for Sugar Plum Spice…
Yum