Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our version of Indian Spiced Chai Tea surpasses any other available. We blended our magical recipe of anise, cardamom, cloves, whole red peppercorn, ginger, vanilla and cinnamon together with our finest Ceylon OP to create this delightful Chai.
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
Autumn has officially begun! Well, at least for me it has. I know that the official first day of autumn was a month ago, but, for me, it isn’t really autumn until I need to start putting on sweaters when I go outside. When it’s cold and wet and grey … when drinking a hot, spiced chai blend is so comforting!
This Indian Spiced Chai from Tealicious Tea Company is indeed comforting … and oh-so-good!
The spices are really delightful. They are warm and soothing. I like that the cinnamon and ginger do not seem to be overwhelming the flavors – I can taste each of the spices. The cloves are strong, the cardamom gives a warm, exotic note to the cup, and I can even taste a hint of snappy licorice from the anise and I’m really loving that. For those of you who tend to not like licorice flavor, don’t worry, the licorice-y note isn’t strong, and the anise really melds together nicely with the other spices to create a more unified flavor. It doesn’t really taste “licorice-y” … or even “cinnamon-y” or “clove-y” for that matter. It just tastes warmly spiced.
The vanilla is my favorite element of this chai. It adds a very pleasing creamy touch to the cup; eliminating the need to add milk. It tastes so sweet and creamy, almost latte-ish without the milk!
Which is good because the black tea base is a Ceylon tea, and it’s a fine black tea base but I think that this chai could definitely benefit from the bold, malty flavor of a rich Assam. The Ceylon tea is smooth and tasty in this blend, but it just feels and tastes a little weak. The background doesn’t seem as “solid” as I like from a chai. As a result, adding milk to this chai may end up muting the flavors more than enhancing them.
But as I said, adding milk really isn’t necessary, because the vanilla really gives this tea a deliciously sweet, creamy taste without the milk. This is really delicious served without milk, with only about a half a teaspoon of turbinado sugar to enhance the spices a little bit.
A really delightful cup of chai to help kick off the start of my favorite season of the year!
White Pear Tea from Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our White Pear Tea is our best seller, it is a sweet and aromatic tea with the delicate flavors of roses and chunks of pears gently blended with Pai Mu Dan. It offers the perfect flavor and taste in every cup.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea smells incredible. I’d never think of combining the aromas of pear and rose together to create something so pleasing to the nose, but, it really is delightful … inspiring me to imagine walking through a pear orchard that is “fenced in” by rows of rose bushes, with the breeze gently picking up the fragrance of the rose and the pear and swirling them around in the air as I stroll.
What I really like, though, is the fact that I not only smell the pear, but I taste it too. It seems that pear is a difficult flavor to nail for some tea artists, because more often than not, it seems, when I encounter a pear flavored tea, I taste tea but I don’t a lot of pear. Pear is one of those delicate, sumptuous fruits that need to be expressed “just so” … and all too often, tea artists aren’t able to capture the flavor.
But I taste the pear here. And I taste the rose! And what an interesting flavor these two ingredients create together. The rose tastes sweet and floral and exotic, while the pear has a deliciously sweet taste – a distinct pear taste!
And amidst all this excitement over the flavors, you might think that the Pai Mu Dan has been forgotten, or worse, not even noticed because its flavor had been obscured by the pear and rose … but that certainly is not the case. The white tea is fresh, light and delicately vegetative. It melds beautifully with the pear and the rose to create a very lush, relaxing cup of tea … this is a lovely tea, indeed.
Lady Grey Tea from Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our Lady Grey tea is an afternoon tea classic. It offers a delightful taste with our French lavender flowers, gently blended with bergamot and blue cornflowers.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
There are several different variations of “Lady Grey” teas, most (including this one) are Earl Grey teas blended with lavender. Nothing wrong with that, because I LOVE lavender, and I love Earl Grey.
I was a little worried, though, when I first opened the package and saw that there weren’t very many lavender blossoms in the blend. There were a few, but I could smell the lavender more than I could see it. I worried that maybe there really wouldn’t be enough lavender in this to satisfy me.
But, after I brewed the tea, the aroma of lavender filled the kitchen! YES! It smelled so amazing.
And this tea TASTES amazing too! It is perfectly blended. The black tea is robust and flavorful, and provides a solid background of flavor. It tastes very rich and smooth, and it doesn’t attempt to overpower the bergamot and lavender notes.
I like a lot of bergamot flavor in my Earl Grey, but, I do recognize that too much bergamot can come off as kind of soapy tasting, and I don’t like to drink soap. And with the addition of lavender, which can also come off as tasting soap-ish, it is important to capture the right balance of flavor between these two ingredients so that both can be tasted without tasting like it had been blended in a soap factory.
And Tealicious Tea Company did just that, and they did it with flourish! This tastes remarkable! The bergamot is the strongest note, with the lavender coming in softly, sweetly and offering just the right feminine touch to make this a very memorable Lady Grey tea.
Another big WIN for Tealicious Tea Company!
French Canadian Maple Tea from Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tealicious Tea Company
Tea Description:
Our French Canadian Maple Black Tea is a classic blend of Ceylon and maple flavor resulting in a premium taste.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea had me with the very first sip. It is SO incredibly yummy.
The maple flavoring is perfect – it is sweet and a strong flavor but, I can also taste the black tea. It is a Ceylon black tea, so it is fairly mellow. With the addition of the maple flavoring what might otherwise be considered a medium-bodied tea becomes a rich, full-bodied tea.
That being said, this isn’t what I’d call an energizing type of tea. Instead, it is a cozy, comforting cup… a very pleasant tasting tea, it isn’t overly invigorating so it isn’t exactly the kind of tea you’d want to drink on the mornings when you need to get up and go.
Instead, I’d recommend this tea for the days you want to linger and curl up with a deliciously cozy cup of tea. Perfect for weekend mornings when you can take your time and savor this delicious maple flavor: It has that classic maple flavor that reminds me of maple sugar candy! There are complex nutty tones (chestnuts!) and a gentle warm spice note in the distance. YUM!
This is sweet without additions, but if you want something sweeter – a little bit of turbinado sugar will turn this into a delicious dessert-y treat in no time. This tea would also make a fantastic latte – just brew it a little stronger by adding a little extra leaf, and then add steamed, frothed milk to the brewed cup: it’s a creamy and indulgent way to satisfy your sweet tooth. Of course, if you want to amplify the maple flavor, you can also sweeten it with a drizzle of maple syrup.
As for me, I love this straight up – nothing added. It has an enjoyable sweetness to it that makes my sweet tooth happy without me needing to add calories to the cup. While this would be tasty as an iced tea, I prefer it hot, because the flavors have a very autumnal taste to them, and hot tea really plays to that cozy autumn-ness of the tea.
This is my first tea that I’ve sampled from this company, and I’m thrilled with it. I can definitely see a Tealicious Tea Company order in my future!