Hot Lips (Organic)

This tea was just too hot for me, I found it unpleasant to drink something this spicy. If you are a spice lover, I imagine it would be fantastic…

I wasn’t expecting too much of this tea because I thought it was like Cinnamon Heart. I thought Cinnamon Heart was ok…the smell was there, but got an earthly taste.

From the dry leaf, I got a similar smell to Cinnamon Heart: Cinnamon heart candies!

Steeped tea: At first it was very light. It had a nutty grassy flavour and I could barely taste the kick. Once the tea started to cool to room temperature, I began tasting the nice sweet cinnamon and finally felt the kick! I feel as though one tasting does not do it justice, so I have to try it again.

Alright so I’m two sips in…and I decided to write a note. The kettle was almost boiling, not sure what water temperature it was at – didn’t check. I took the note from a few people about steeping a little longer and waited about 5-6 minutes and wow does it have some kick to it. Definitely tastes like hot lips or if you stuffed your mouth with cinnamon hearts. Absolutely delightful tea, I’m going to have to stock up before this one runs out! Doesn’t have the same heady smell when steeped that it does when you open the bag with the dried leaves, however it tastes wonderful. As far as smells go I suppose I’m used to my two chocolate teas that I’ve been drinking all week. This is definitely one of my favourites and is starting to nudge Cinnamon Heart into second place for my cinnamon teas. I still need to try the Cinnamon Rooibus that Davids has.

They aren’t kidding when they say this is a spicy tea! When I purchased it the girl told me that it was a both a spicy and sweet tea, if you steeped it long enough. So I brought it home and after making a cup I can tell you she was definitely right. This tea is basically the beverage equivalent of throwing more than a few cinnamon hearts into your mouth. That’s honestly the best way to describe the taste and sensation of drinking the tea. That being said, if you like spicy teas, you will LOVE this. I’m a big fan and I’m just polishing off the first cup.

I had to get some of this tea – I love spicy food! This tea seemed pretty cool idea.

Dry, this tea is 100% smell of those cinnamon heart candies sold during Valentines day. I was tempted to just reach in and chomp on the leaves (I had a hard time finding those cinnamon heart candies in stores this year).
Seeing the little peppercorns floating the in the steeper was a sign of spicy things to come!

Taste wise – well… cinnamon! As it goes down, you can feel the heat going down. For a 3 minute steep, you get a warm blast of cinnamon and heat. The more I drink this cup, the more cinnamon I taste.

For you cinnamon/spicy masochistic folk try steeping the tea longer, or what I did at work, just add the leaves to a travel tea glass and leave them there. As time went on, the cinnamon came out a bit more and the heat came out TONS more! By the end it was like my mouth and throat were on fire! HELL YEAH – I was awake all day at work, not sure from the green tea caffeine or the heat of this tea. It scared my coworkers.

So – if you love cinnamon and those cinnamon hearts, give this one a try.

Me? I find this tea not really multi-dimensional. It’s just cinnamon and heat. It’s cool, but I wish there was more to it. I don’t think I’ll buy more – but I will try it as a latte or boil it down for awhile to make concentrated chai syrup and see how that goes (I’ll review it again if I do).
I’m thinking this tea would make a crazy Spicy chai latte.

OMG. I am so glad I stopped at David’s today. We were doing some flower deliveries for my BIL (they are short couriers so we fill in sometimes) and between deliveries we were driving by David’s in Westboro in Ottawa and I decided to take a few minutes and stop. Wow. This was the tea of the day and I loved it. When it was hot the cinnamon heart candy flavour was so great. After it cooled some it was really cinnamony (is that a word?) and I still enjoyed it but it was really hot. Almost made me reach for my Zantac. I am looking forward to making this one at home. Hope they make it permanent.

I threw this in with my David’s order, as it contained all my favorite things – namely cinnamon and peppercorns. I love cinnamon, and I love the bite of peppercorns. I failed to notice that this was a green, so I was slightly disappointed when it arrived. I like the option of milk in spicy teas, but I don’t put milk in green tea.

I’ve had it twice now. The first time I let it go 6 minutes and it was probably a bit oversteeped. The second, at 4.5 minutes, was just right. The tea is strongly cinnamon – that is certainly the strongest element! With no sugar, the tea has a bit of a dry, bitter edge (I think that’s the peppercorns.) It disappears with sugar. This tea lacks the natural sweetness of some cinnamon teas (Harney’s hot cinnamon spice, for example.) I don’t taste the tea at all. The base could have been anything, because all I get is cinnamon!

This tea is just ok for me. I loooove cinnamon, and I think I expected something more like the Harney tea. I do like that it has less caffeine than black tea. I took it with me to class today, where it kept me awake through a friday, but I was still able to nap later.

On the other hand, if you want to drink more green tea this might be a way to start! I’m not a huge green fan, mostly because I like strong flavors, and this one satisfies me. A great valentine’s tea, very pretty to look at, and it’s different from all the chocolate flavors.

Ok, here goes my second shot at Hot Lips. Steeping parameters pretty much exactly what is recommended, so I shouldn’t have done anything wrong there.

The smell is still nearly exactly like cinnamon hearts. SO delicious.

And… yay! Much better this time around! Sweet and cinnamony with a bit of heat at the end. No cardboard taste this time. I still prefer Glitter & Gold, but am no longer dreading finishing off the 20g of this I purchased.

Thank the sweet lord this is out and now I can talk about it.

It went from strange new tea to Top 10. Easily.

If you like Cinnamon Heart, you will like this (although you’ll get less of a kick from the caffeine, as this is a green), and if you like actual cinnamon hearts OR Hot Lips (for my American viewers, they’re like cinnamon hearts except gummi and lip-shaped) you will like this.

Spicy! Good for what ails you, if you need help with chest or sinus issues.

Add a bit of agave and it’s like eating a damn candy.

If you like a cinnamon taste, then you would like this tea…too straight forward of a tea, not a complex taste, just plain cinnamon.