Thanks to the American Tea Room for sending me a sample of this to try! Since I don’t usually drink tisanes at work I waited until I had some time this weekend to brew this one up. Like some others I was impressed by the huge whole ingredients in the blend: a whole star anise, a big hunk of cinnamon stick, lots of halved cranberries.
Steeped, it is the promised pink color, really a dusty rose, and it smells pleasantly of spices with orange and cranberry notes. My boyfriend said, “it smells like Christmas.” (He also said, “That actually smells good!” … he is not a tea drinker, heh). I get a strong orange note from the flavor, followed by a tart burst of cranberry, and then a warm mix of spices. The star anise leaves a light anise flavor in my mouth, which has the unexpected result of making this tea seem even more like Christmas to me. My mom always makes Springerle cookies for Christmas because they’re my dad’s favorite cookie, and those are anise flavored. So this tea kind of makes me think I’ve been eating a springerle at Christmas.
There’s something about fruit infusions that always makes me want them to be sweet. This is very nice plain, but I think I will sweeten it a touch next time because my palate wants that. Overall a nice blend for the holidays!
