Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Tisane
Where to Buy: DAVIDsTEA
Tea Description:
What does comfort mean to you? It might be a favourite sweater, an old family recipe or a perfect cup of tea. For us, it’s all about capturing warm and cozy flavours – like this sweet and spicy blend of apple, figs and chai spices. Laced with cinnamon and star anise, it brings back memories of apple picking, piping hot cider and fresh-from-the-oven pies. Basically, it’s like a hug in a cup. And whether you pair it with a good book or some great company, we guarantee it’s as comforting as it gets.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Spiced Apple was DAVIDsTEA’s September Tea of The Month though from the looks of it this tisane could seamlessly blend in with the Fall Collection. As it stands, every season is seems like DT finds a way to incorporate yet another new apple tea into the mix (this season Honeycrisp Apple). Personally, I feel like that’s a played out idea and each new one that they come up with excites me less and less. This season in particular feels especially saturated; but nonetheless here I am trying this newest tea regardless so I suppose I can’t complain too much.
Dry; this tisane smells more like those little cinnamon heart Valentine’s candies to me more than anything else – but I get apple too; it’s like some kind of mulled cider but heavy on the cinnamon. I wish I could smell the clove more. I can tell it’s gonna be sweet; star anise kind of instantly does that to tea. Now to try the hot brew.
Oh! Instant cinnamon hearts. Now that I’ve gone there mentally it’s hard to taste something else. With the level of anise-y sweetness and concentrated cinnamon (but not hot or dry cinnamon) you’d expect the liquor to look as bright, vibrant red as those little candies leave your tongue looking. I can taste clove, but it’s secondary to cinnamon and by quite a lot. The more I’m drinking, the more I taste the other components of the tea: apple, anise, and sort of a cardamom note too. I’m not really getting and distinctly fig tasting notes, and lowkey that’s what sold me on this tea in the first place.
I have to say, it started out alright but the flavour of both the ‘cinnamon hearts’ and apple cider really builds as my mug gets emptier and by the time I was on the last few sips I was already sick of this tea: it gets very cloyingly sweet despite having spicy elements working against that. I could never justify adding sweetener to this. I’m wondering how to best finish off the sample I got – currently I’m leaning towards cold brewing because that’s just what I do. My theory is that cold brewing would balance the flavours a little better.
Not bad, though. Certainly worth a try and worth taking the time to tweak it.
Spiced Cider Black Tea from MarketSpice
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: MarketSpice
Product Description:
A tea version of a classic winter drink. Contains Chinese Hunan black tea, Apple black tea, Cinnamon flavoring and mulling spices.
Taster’s Review:
When I first opened the package of this tea, I got very excited. It smelled very much like the spicy, cinnamon-y, orange-y MarketSpice signature blend which I absolutely love. That tea is a bit on the extreme side, but I think that is one of the things that I love about it.
This tea … is different. The flavors are not quite as extreme as the MarketSpice signature blend, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less tasty. The cinnamon here is softer, and instead of orange, this has a distinct apple-y flavor to it. The apple seems to act as a softer presence, providing a mellow sweetness that seems to tame the strength of the cinnamon. The mulling spices are also not aggressive; I am finding them quite soothing actually.
What this tastes like is spiced apple cider and black tea. And based upon the above description from MarketSpice, I think that’s what they were going for. Well, they nailed it!
The tea and flavors seem to meet halfway here; they aren’t really competing for the spotlight. They are all working together very harmoniously. The black tea is strong. The apple is sweet with a barely-there hint of tartness in the background. That tartness presents itself more prominently in the aftertaste, but it is never a particularly strong note. The spices are deliciously warm and comforting with just a hint of spicy heat peeking its way through.
This is a tea that I would be happy to keep in my tea cupboard as autumn approaches. It is a perfect autumn tea!
