Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Tea Description:
Our Apple Spice Tea takes our apple tea and add a dollop of cinnamon – excellent fireside tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
What a lovely autumnal tea, this Apple Spice tea from Culinary Teas. It’s got a rich and flavorful black tea base, deliciously sweet apple notes and warm cinnamon tones. Culinary Teas has captured the essence of autumn in a teacup!
To brew this tea, I used 1 bamboo scoop to 12 ounces of boiling water and I let it steep for 3 minutes. This produced a coppery colored liquid that smells as good as it tastes. The aroma of cinnamon is so cozy and delicious and just beneath the cinnamon I can pick up on notes of apple. Mmm!
The sip starts out sweet and immediately I start picking up on the cinnamon notes. It’s a warm cinnamon. This tastes like the kind of cinnamon that’s in your spice cabinet, not the kind of cinnamon that you’ll find in the candy aisle. You know, those spicy cinnamon gummy bears? Yeah, this doesn’t taste like that kind of cinnamon.
This cinnamon warmly accents the apple, bringing the sweet, juicy flavors of the fruit forward. There are hints of tart to the apple too. It’s more sweet than tart, but there is just enough tartness to offer contrast.
The black Ceylon base is bright and brisk. It’s got a smooth, crisp character. It’s moderately astringent. The aftertaste is clean with mere traces of the cinnamon that had been there during the sip.
This is delicious served hot – it’s a comforting, soothing drink. I drank it straight up, but I think it would take the additions of honey well, and it might be quite delightful with a splash of milk. (A La Mode!) But, I found this tea to be quite nice served iced as well. It would make a refreshing alternative for your holiday beverage.
Apple Cider Flavored Iced Green Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
Premium Organic green tea with organic flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about how to subscribe to Southern Boy Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
This Apple Cider Iced Green Tea from SBT is really tasty! The flavor is distinctly apple cider. Lovely notes of apple and cinnamon!
The green tea is light, sweet and buttery. It has a very fresh taste without tasting grassy or overly vegetative. I really love the light taste of it … it’s very refreshing on these hot summer days!
I also like that the apple cider flavors do not overpower the lighter green tea base. I can taste the apple, the warm spice and the green tea, and my palate isn’t overwhelmed with any one flavor. All the flavors are present but my taste buds aren’t burdened with heavy flavors.
With these “new” green teas from Southern Boy Teas, I’m discovering that the best way to get the most out of the teas is to hot brew the sachet in 1 quart of 170°F water for 1 1/2 minutes, and then resteep the sachet in another quart of water (same temperature) for 2 minutes to fill my half gallon iced tea pitcher.
And here’s the best part, with the green teas, you can resteep the sachet for another half gallon of iced tea! Simply stash the sachet in a airtight container and store in the refrigerator, and then when you’re ready to start steeping again, using the same temperature water, steep for 2 1/2 minutes for the first quart and 3 minutes for the second quart. The second pitcher of iced is almost nearly as flavorful as the first.
When I received my order with this tea in it, I hadn’t realized that I actually ordered 2 pouches of this tea (I had meant to only order 1 pouch), but now I’m glad that I have two of this one, because I really like it!
With the second pouch, I decided to experiment a little bit and try it as a cold-brew! I tossed the pouch into my iced tea pitcher and then filled it with freshly drawn and filtered water and put the lid on it. Then I stashed it in my refrigerator overnight. In the morning, I removed the pouch and put it in an airtight container and put it in the fridge (to resteep again later) and I enjoyed the cold-brewed Apple Cider iced tea!
The verdict: this is even better cold-brewed! The apple notes are crisper and better defined with the cold-steep process.
Oh yeah, I’ll be getting more of this!
Apple Jack’s Apple Harvest Shou Mei from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
YEE HAW! Listen up, everypony: this tea is a delicious blend of hay-like shou mei white tea, freeze-dried red-delicious- and granny smith- apples and organic flavors. This tea tastes like heaven and is great hot or iced. Don’t be surprised if drinking it leaves you uttering strange phrases like, “What in the hay is going on?”
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
OK, when I first saw “Apple Jack’s” in the name, my thoughts weren’t of ponies but of breakfast cereal. I love Apple Jacks. And that would be a really good tea flavor … don’t you think? Maybe a green tea, apple, cinnamon, some barley or malt for the grain-y/cereal-y flavor. Yum.
But this tea isn’t that tea. This is a apple flavored white tea. No cinnamon or grain flavors. And it’s been named after one of those ponies. My daughter used to be into those, but, she’s outgrown them. We recently took a bunch of them to the thrift store as a donation. Hopefully someone will love them as much as she did.
Moving on to the tea that is in my teacup at the moment, eagerly awaiting me to take a sip…
The dry leaf smells delicious – like apples! The aroma of the brewed tea is much softer but I’m still able to pick up some delicate apple notes.
To brew this, I brewed the tea in my Kati tumbler. I put about 1 1/2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket and poured 12 ounces of 170°F water into the tumbler. Then I let it steep for about 3 1/2 minutes.
The flavor is very apple-y! It is definitely like an apple harvest in a teacup. There are both sweet and tart apple notes and I appreciate that there seem to be more sweet notes than tart. Just enough tartness to offer contrast without making me pucker.
The Shou Mei base is ideal for these flavors, I think, because the flavor of apple is on the delicate side and the light flavor of the Shou Mei allows for a good balance of both white tea and apple flavors to shine through. I taste the sweet, hay-like notes of the Shou Mei and the natural fruit notes of the white tea elevate the apple notes.
A really delightful apple tea that will provide you with several delicious infusions. I infused the leaves three times. I got a nice apple flavor in all three, but I noticed that the flavor was starting to drop off a bit by the third cup so that’s why I stopped there. A really tasty tea that tastes great hot (cozy and autumnal!) or iced (sweet and refreshing!)
Caramel Apple Flavored Honeybush Iced Tea from Southern Boy Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Honeybush
Where to Buy: Southern Boy Teas
Learn more about this iced tea here.
Learn how to subscribe to SBT’s tea of the week here.
Taster’s Review:
Before I tasted this iced tea, I found myself wondering if honeybush was the right base for the flavors. But then I thought about those yummy caramel apples that always catch my eye when I pass the bakery in my grocery store. Those great big apples covered with caramel and then rolled in chopped nuts. The naturally nutty flavor of the honeybush just might work with the caramel and apple flavors!
To brew this, I used the hot brew method and steeped the teabag in a quart of 195°F water for 9 minutes for the first quart. For the second quart, I used the same temperature but steeped the bag for 11 minutes. Because this is a honeybush blend, I don’t have to worry about bitterness. The tannins in honeybush is low so it doesn’t get bitter when it’s brewed for an extended period. I do find though, that a lower temperature means that I don’t experience that “sour wood” sort of flavor that I used to taste with rooibos and honeybush that I would brew at boiling temperatures. A slight decrease in temperature made a vast improvement on the flavor of the tisane.
And this is a tasty iced tea. I’m tasting more honeybush than I am apple or caramel, and that’s alright. The top notes are a honeyed sweetness with a warm nutty flavor. Then I start to pick up on the caramel notes and the apple comes in just beneath the caramel notes. The sweet-tart apple notes linger in the aftertaste.
I don’t know if it’s my favorite iced tea from Southern Boy Teas, but I’m enjoying it and it is certainly a welcome flavor for the season!
Apple Embrace Black Tea from Monarch Tea Co.
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Monarch Tea Co. or Monarch Tea Co. on Etsy
Tea Description:
This warm and inviting blend brings memories of sitting fireside with a good book. Notes of apple, cinnamon and spice come together to warm and soothe. Ingredients: black tea, dried apple, cinnamon pieces, blackberry leaves, safflower petals, natural flavours.
Learn more about subscribing to Postal Teas here.
Taster’s Review:
I was very excited to receive my Postal Teas box today. This box is actually September’s subscription – which arrives in October. Kind of confusing. Maybe I should just call it October’s box?
Anyway, this month’s featured tea company is Monarch Tea Company. I was excited to see that this is the featured tea company this month, because I had noticed that this company was featured earlier this year, before I became a subscriber. I’m glad to have this opportunity to try some of their teas.
The first tea that I am trying is this Apple Spice Embrace. Perfect for this evening for two reasons: first, it’s a cold and wet day here in the Pacific Northwest and a warmly spiced tea suits me just fine on a day like this. Second, my daughter is visiting this evening and its a tea that I think she’ll also appreciate.
I notice the packaging right off the bat. The teas are in Kraft, foil-lined pouches and they are “sealed” with a bit of whimsical black polka dot fabric tape. The front of the package has a label with the name of the tea and the ingredients (all the important stuff to know), and the back of the pouch is marked with the elegant Monarch Tea logo. I like the combination of whimsy and elegance and simplicity.
When I opened the pouch, I inhaled deeply to take in the fragrance. I notice a “black tea” aroma with notes of cinnamon. The cinnamon isn’t overpowering and I kind of expected it to be (it seems that in blends like this, the cinnamon is the main event, and I like that it is a gentle presence here.) There is a light apple-y scent beneath the notes of cinnamon.
I brewed this tea in my Breville One-Touch, pouring 750ml of freshly filtered water into the jug and measuring 3 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket. Then I set the temperature for 212°F and the time for 2 1/2 minutes. When I poured my cup of tea, I enjoyed the scent: hints of apple mingling with notes of cinnamon and a front note of black tea – much like the dry leaf, although it isn’t quite as aromatic.
This is a tasty cup of tea. The black tea notes are prominent. A brisk tasting tea – I suspect a Ceylon – but there are some subtle malty notes to this as well. It’s smooth and moderately astringent. A sweet, honey undertone that complements the apple notes.
The apple note isn’t in your face. It’s a subtle taste of apple, offering a slightly sweet, delicately tart flavor that reminds me of the flavor of an apple pie filling, complete with a light touch of cinnamon. I think that the cinnamon is my favorite part of this tea because it is a rather light touch of the spice. All too often when it comes to cinnamon in a tea, it’s been added with such a heavy hand that it becomes all about the cinnamon. Here, the cinnamon softly accents the tea. It’s a gentle warmth. Lightly sweet, lightly spiced.
Overall, a really pleasant autumnal tea and as I eluded to at the start of this review, it’s just perfect on a day like today when it’s cold and wet. I like that I’m curling up to a warm cup of apple-y spiced goodness.