Esprit de Noël - Noël

I believe this was from OMGsrsly? Thanks! (And it was wrapped up in two cute little 2tsp-serving pouches. So cute!)

Anyhow, I rather enjoyed this. It reminded me of Caramel Spice from DavidsTea, although missing the mulberry sweetness. So basically, an orange spice tea, which was pretty good. I was a little distracted when I drank it, but oh well! The enjoyment was still there.

Still sick, but back at work.

Good tea is good. Nice and spicy today, to help cut through the crud.

Still like Chandernagor better, but this is good in its own right.

A sample from Ysaurella. I enjoy Christmas in general (not as much as Halloween, though!), so it comes as a surprise to me that I’ve not tried all that many teas which attempt to capture the spirit, or essence, of Christmas. I can think of one or two, but none that spring to mind as readily as this one! Finally, thanks to Ysaurella, I have the chance to try it.

I chose a cool autumn day for my first tasting — I’m just too impatient to wait for December, or Christmas itself. I gave 1 tsp of leaf 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I made no additions to my first cup, but I think milk would work here. The base tea and flavouring seem robust enough to carry that.

The main flavour I can detect is clove, followed by orange/mandarin, and then cinnamon. The base tea is pleasantly malty, and adds a delicate sweetness that really seems to help enhance the almost savoury flavours. It’s quite a heavy-tasting tea, and the aftertaste lingers long on the palate like a slow-fading memory of Christmases past. There’s a very slight dryness, but I’ve come to expect that from spice teas in general.

This one does capture the scents and flavours of a traditional Christmas well enough for me. Christmas isn’t always a happy time of year for me, though, so some of that is very bittersweet. This would be the perfect cosy tea for a cold winter day, though. It’s a spot-on evocation of winter, and traditional happy family Christmases.

Tea #6 from Pass the Stash box

I do not know what is wrong with me. I had such high hopes for this tea…it smelled like cinnamon and clove in the sample bag. I try it…and it just tastes blah! I get the cinnamon, maybe some slight orange or vanilla, and no clove. It smells like a Christmas candle, and just is not tasting like that to me.

We’ll see if it gets better as it cools…that’s been happening to me lately.

Ooooh my, it may be nearing the end of June, but when I put this in my mouth, I felt like it was Christmas time, oh yes. Adding a bit of sweetener really made it shine, and every sip was a glorious tribute to fruitcake. Without really knowing why, I would say this tea tastes glittery. There’s a very bright note in there that just totally makes it. Thank you SO much for sending this Miss B, you made my day.

This comes out of my MissB box of tea (I’ve kept all the samples she sent me in the original box, because it feels like a present each time I open it… haha). I wanted a full flavoured black this morning, and boy am I pleased.
Cinnamon is the predominant flavour to me, but followed right on its heels are toasted nuts, raisins, and baked apples….
It really reminds me of a yeasted breakfast bread, heavily spiced, with a drizzle of sweet glaze on top…. Maybe like a “King’s Cake”? The yeasted, woven type (I make one every year at the holidays…).
This is incredibly delicious and probably one of my favourite ‘cinnamon’ teas I’ve tasted so far. Thanks so much, MissB!

A holiday treat – best used sparingly. The cinnamon can overpower. Great for setting a holiday mood, and the fragrance is heavenly.

I very much wanted to like this tea. It was a special order based on a Teamailer’s recommendation, however, it seems that our tastes diverge on this blend. The smell is overpowering: the fragrance dominated my tea cabinet so badly that I had to seal it in extra Ziploc bags. The flavor is equally intense. I found it too perfume-like for my palate.