Holiday Tea

A sample bag of this was included with my last Harney and Sons order which came shortly before Christmas. Shame on me for not drinking it then!

But it isn’t surprising that I put it off. When I was a kid, everyone made “Russian Tea” at Christmas. I doubt the Russians have anything to do with it. It was instant black tea mixed with Tang and cinnamon, possibly some other spices. It was incredibly sweet.

Now I am a little put off by your typical orange/cinnamon/clove blends, especially since I don’t want to add sugar anymore, yet I associate these flavors with sweet, sweet tea.

Fortunately, Harney and Sons has added ALMOND to this blend. Almond makes most anything better! It is so warm and smooth, even cozy. I can easily drink this without sugar, although cinnamon teas are not a favorite and I don’t seek them out. As a cinnamony Christmas tea, this one is do-able.

The main reason for drinking tea tonight is that we are having an unusual cold weather event and snow, which is fairly rare here, and youngest wanted tea and a late night snack. Hubby is emergency personnel at the base so I won’t see him for a couple of days and we are keeping the woodstove going round the clock to save on the heating bill. We only got a half inch of snow, yet there are wrecks everywhere as the roads are slick. Fifteen minutes to our south has three inches, twenty minutes north has three inches, a little further still and it goes up, so we are really fortunate.

Please don’t laugh, Canadian friends! We know this would be like spring to you! But we are not used to it, and it took me three days to remember that temps in the teens mean it isnt a good idea to feed the chickens in your pj’s!

I have this in the bagged version (not sure I said that in my last review), and as I’ve stated before it’s normally not my favourite blend. For some reason today, it tastes more smooth than usual. I did steep it for a fairly short time so maybe that helps take it down a notch. It’s actually pretty pleasant for my very chilly am first cup of the day. I think it’s the smoky clove note that usually stands out much more, but it’s not too bad today with the shorter brew time.

This tea really threw my brain for a loop. I think I was expecting it to taste like Celestial Seasoning’s Nutcracker Sweet. It couldn’t be further from that tea. The black tea base in this is really smooth (as always from Harneys). The flavor is truly like a fresh orange with cloves stuck in it. I really like it but I’m not a huge citrus in tea fan so I won’t order any more of this one. But it if you like oranges and mulling spices then you should definitely try it.

Tea #3 from Another TTB

I was really underwhelmed by this tea. After the yummy cinnamon spice tea from H&S, I thought that the addition of orange to a cinnamon and clove blend could only make it better! Apparently not. It sort of smells like a pomander, but the aroma doesn’t pop and say “hey, it’s the holidays!” It’s just sort of there, hanging out in a shady corner saying,
" ’sup." I hardly detect any orange in the flavor, which is unusual b/c orange usually stands out. The flavor as a whole is murky and even less exciting than the smell. Oh well.

I have to say I’m quite disappointed by this tea. The dry smell was wonderful, but it brewed rather weak. I steeped for seven minutes to see if it could get stronger. Unfortunately this was not the case. The flavors are nice, but light. I was in the mood for a full-bodied tea. At least I tried it! I’ll tinker around with it a bit to see whether or not I’ll offer it up for a swap.

I taste a hint of cinnamon, but I swear more than anything I taste nutmeg in this today. I’m not sure there actually is any in it though! I think my mind is playing tricks on me. Perhaps I’m craving eggnog?

Oh, hi. Remember me? I have been seriously neglecting Steepster! D’oh!

I was at Barnes & Noble today, and found this one lonely tin of tea on their 75% off table, and having always meant to try Harney & Sons at home where I can control the water temperature (instead of the Barnes & Noble cafe who always seem to keep their water at nuclear levels) I snatched it up and brought it home. $2.74 for 30 teabags is a pretty good deal, I think, especially since, thankfully, it’s pretty darn good!

Not overwhelming, very tasty, no bitterness. I like it!

And it came in a cute metal tin. Yeah, I’m always a sucker for that!

I think I like it better than Kusmi’s holiday tea. I might have to keep an eye out for it next year.

Oh this IS a great holiday tea. I can imagine that I’d have enjoyed this one while devouring Christmas cookies. I didn’t sweeten this at all, so the black tea could come through… hmm I think this one at least a partial relation to chai (cousins?). I also will add that I don’t think it’s particularly novel. I’ve had this taste before from other tea vendors. But, y’know, I LIKE it so that’s not a bad thing. I find this one soothing. My tummy is a mess today and this is helping. It’s also a dreary rainy day (if I weren’t in southern TX it’d be snow) so this was a good choice. Whine, whine.

I like the smell of this better than the taste; there’s a lot more creamy vanilla and fruit than you’d expect from the spicy description. The black tea taste (ceylon?) is fairly pronounced, and it’s… more sour than sweet? I’m not really a fan of sour teas, so the tart fruit undertone is putting me off a little, especially compared to the sweet aroma of the dry leaves and the liqueur.

I wouldn’t want to add anything to this, though; I think any sort of cream or sweetener would overwhelm it (unless perhaps you brew it stronger)
.5tsp/4oz
Edit: Wow, this is getting a lot softer as it cools, more what I expected from the scent. Less sour, more cream.

Backlogging I believe this is another extra from doulton thank you. This is a teabag it smells like cinnamon and black tea. I steeped it up and now can smell abit of clove. This tastes like black tea with cinnamon and abit of clove. This is a decently good cinnamon tea.