Cinnamon Apple Spice

Someone said the smell-assault of this one made it like drinking potpouri.
That’s a bad thing?
I don’t really think it is. And I always know with CS teas, I can have this in my mega huge cup and not worry about a ‘failure to perform’ (yea, I am looking at you Stash Pumpkin Spice) or even better somedays (when the nurses don’t steal my cup as dead & dusted) when I can have 2 cups with the same bag.

In regards to this one, I admit its hardcore cinnamon stylin’ with an apple twist. Fab for a cold night, better with a fire in the fireplace. Think apple cider with a tea who isn’t afraid to let everyone know what you are having.

I’ve been looking for non-caffeinated teas, so I bought on impulse at the grocery today. When I opened the box, I could smell a strong whiff of cinnamon, which kinda scared me. The tea definitely has a strong cinnamon taste, but I think it suits the cold weather today. The apple aftertaste is nice to round it out, too. It’s like a mix of cinnamon candies/gum, cider, and baked goods. I’m actually pleasantly pleased by this herbal tea, and I’m sure I’ll be reaching for it more often as the weather grows colder.

With half and half, this is good. The aroma over the cup is a fruity cinnamon, but not necessarily apple. The start of this sip is sweet, with apple and cinnamon next. The finish is a sweet, soft cinnamon, with a little cinnamon heat in the throat. Holding it in my mouth allows apple flavor to come out more. The sip leaves a strong drying sensation.

I’m only on my first few sips of my first cup…But I don’t feel like continuing. To be fair to the tea(which I so want to love), I am developing a bit of a cold which throws off all taste, but after a 5 minute steep this tea tastes like cinnamon and chemicals. Ordinarily, I leave the teabag in for the duration of a cup of tea, but this one might do best with a much shorter steep time, despite package directions of 4 to 6 minutes steeping. This cup, sadly, will do it’s best work down the drain as I just won’t make myself drink it.

And, as everyone has said, if strong tea smells (particularly of cinnamon) bother you, then don’t go here.

I really wanted to like this tea, because it smells pleasant, but I think it tastes too artifical and nothing like what I was hoping. The apple flavor isn’t too bad, but I found the cinnamon to be overpowering and the underlying flavors were weak and inconsistent. I definitely wouldn’t buy this again.

I was quite excited to find this on the shelf last Fall. I love apples, I love cinnamon, I love tea, so this should be great, right?! Opening the box was heaven, as well. I wanted that smell in my mouth immediately, which is why I was incredibly disappointed when I took one sip, dumped the rest of the mug in the sink, and made a cup of chamomile to get the taste of mutant cinnamon out of my mouth. This stuff is wayyyy too potent – were you guys trying to make some kind of love potion?? The cinnamon is really all that I could taste, when I was hoping for a tangy apple base with light cinnamon notes. In fact, if this blend was just cinnamon tea it would be too much cinnamon! I did end up using one of the bags in a crock pot to season some apple cider, and it worked pretty well, and I might save the bags to make a simmer pot recipe to scent my home this Fall, so it’s not completely useless.

Oh, and I did try to only steep this tea for a minute – because I’ll admit, I am terrible about oversteeping my teas, but it did nothing toward making this more palatable.

I tried this one a couple of times, hoping I’d end up liking it. I’ve been looking for a nice apple tea (although I think what I really want is Beaver Tails apple cider and trying to convince myself that tea will do) and bought this on sale. Unfortunately, the spice taste is waaay too strong. It barely tastes like apple It’s all the spices, with a ton of cinnamon and a slight tartness that I’m assuming is what little apple flavour there is coming through. Ugh. Now I have to find something to do with the rest of the box I bought.

I went tea shopping today and I saw this tea peaking out of one of the shelves! I bought it thinking it would taste really good. It turns out that I’m a fool of a took! This tea was a nightmare. When it was steeping it smelled like cinnamon bananas.. strange. Also it has a really weird after taste. I probably won’t be drinking this again.

Teas like these are the ones that have me going to more eccentric places such as Teavana, because I can barely consider this tea at all. Where’s the apple? All I smelled/tasted was… cinnamon. Not the nice rich kind of cinnamon, just the cheap hot tamale like flavour in hot water. Yuck.

So, I didn’t drink this one plain – I used 2 teabags of it, and 1 teabag of Bengal Spice, in a HUGE mug, and added a splash of milk to make kind of a cinnamon apple chai-type thing. I was prepared for the spice to potentially overwhelm the apple flavor, but it was pleasantly surprising when I took a sip and got both the cinnamon-spice and the apple flavor. Going to consider the experiment a success!