Orange and Spice Herb Tea

Last night we had a massive storm, with thunder and lightening crashing around us and shaking the house.
Lightening struck near us and started a fire that ended up burning over 30,000 acres within 6 hours.
Needless to say, I did not hardly sleep last night because I kept jumping up to see how close the fire was to us and waiting to grab my pets and run.
Unfortunately, this morning I had some stressful type meetings, so I met the day groggy, and grabbing whatever strong black tea I could find and making it twice as strong and drinking 3 thermos fulls before my appointments.
When I was done with the meetings,it was around noon-ish so I decided I should eat since I had not really done that yet today.
I went to a cute little all American Diner that was around the corner and had been in business since the early 1900’s.
It is the kind of Diner where the waitress always calls you ‘Hon’ and I think her hand is permanently attached to a coffee pot.
I asked for Tea and she said that they had a little basket of choices for me and she would bring that on over.
I ordered a cup of soup and was brought a hot teapot full of water, a mug and a basket of mainly herbal Bigelow teas and a couple of Lipton bags.
It wasn’t much of a selection, but to be fair, I was not expecting much of one.
I picked this tea, because I thought maybe I should slow down on the intense caffeine intake.
This tea probably is not something I would purchase a box of, but it was not terrible.
It was slightly cinnamon-y and comforting and after the soup and a half a pot of the this tea, I started to feel semi-human again.
So, I thought what would complete it all, would obviously be a homemade piece of peach pie.
I left the diner feeling like I could conquer the rest of the day…or at least make it home to make more tea:)
Thankfully, the fire is mostly under control today.

A review that starts with ‘I bought this tea at Walmart while I was shopping for a sturdy broom’ is bound to go nowhere fast. Nowhere, here we come.

So why, oh why did I get this? Last year, after Hurricane Sandy, the missus and I went on vacation, leaving our storm-addled home behind in favor of someplace where we could eat and shower. We traveled south to Williamsburg VA and stayed in an incredible B&B (Newport House). This B&B had a hot drink station set up outside our door. From the tea selection, I chose this one each night. And I really enjoyed it.

Location, location, location. Sitting in my cube in a windowless room on an army base it wasn’t nearly so delightful. It was sour. Hibiscusy. Not the orange delight I remembered. I liked the spices in this which is rare for me, and didn’t notice the chicory. I’ll finish the box, but I’m kind of sad.

What I need to do is take this tea on vacation.

(Epilogue: I did not find a broom.)

More of a fruity orange than a tart, citrusy orange. Which is fine by me. After a knot-in-the-neck morning at work, I crawled into one of my nobody-knows-where-to-find-me spots in the building and tried to make a pretense of relaxing with this. This would ice down well, I think.

Surprisingly very nice!!!!! I snagged a bag of this and Mint Medley (which Sick Husband is drinking and enjoying very much) when I had to go to a work function. The orange and cinnamon are delightful, and the chicory gives it some body. We each got a nice dollop of tupelo honey too :) I am going to pick up a box of this and the mint for late nights and colds. I left the bag in and there is no bitterness or overwhelming flavors.

How do you all rate on the supermarket herbal blends? Are you a Bigelow person or a Celestial Seasonings person or do you have favorites of each? I can’t abide by the supermarket black teas, but I’m finding the herbals a nice cost effective simple option!

Grabbed a bag of this from the breakroom, steeped, and iced for an afternoon, caffiene-free drink.

It’s all right iced, I’m not a big fan of it hot. Doesn’t need sweetening iced.

Nice spicey cup of caffeine free bliss. Good real orange flavor. Smells really nice almost Chai like, almost. I can see that this will be my before bedtime tea.

Meh – this was okay. It kind of tasted like watered down orange juice with a bit of spice. Maybe I needed to steep it a bit longer. It wasn’t horrible it was just – okay.

Providence Alaska Medical Center serves this tea in their cafeteria. I usually don’t like herb tea, since I like my black tea base (and adding milk to tea, which is difficult with some herbals). This really could have done with some black tea, in my opinion. It smells lovely, but the taste is a bit dull and bitter. I could drink this again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.

They only teas that my current workplace provides are Bigelow brand, so I’ve been revisiting the ones I’m familiar with and trying a couple new ones. Orange and Spice sounds like something I’d like, but the flavor if this is frankly, well… dreadful.

It smells odd. A bit like a craft store in October. Tastes spicy, but the orange fruitiness comes off as strangely medicinal. Now that I’m looking at the ingredients list again, I think I can safely say that I should probably stay away from any teas with chicory in them, and it’s probably unfair of me to go on here and rate any chicory tea. I’m hard pressed to describe the flavor of chicory because I hate it so much.

Oh, this is a nice spiced tisane! One of my favorites so far from the Hoppi Tea Swap. Some orange rind, some cassia bark (not cinnamon, but I am pretentious about that) and a just-right (to me) ammount of hibiscus to not overpower the all thing. I like it.

This tea is pretty good and tastes stronger than I expected. It has a nice orange flavor, but it isn’t too tart.

I think I like it better than Constant Comment. I like that it doesn’t have a clove-y taste. I don’t think my water was hot enough though. This one really needs to be cooked.

The only herbal tea I can drink to fool myself into thinking that I’m drinking something caffeinated. I combine it with a bag of black if I’m out of spiced chai, and it’s not bad.

This is a fragrant tea. It’s almost like I’m peeling an orange and the citrus is bursting into the air.

Overall, very tasty and easy to drink, even without sugar in it.

I am unable to provide the reader with any insights regarding this tea.

Steeped 4 minutes.

The orange flavor is well complemented by the rose hips, and gives it a taste similar to cinnamon at times.

Very solid orange flavor. I don’t drink this every day, but always keep some in my pantry. This is a good herbal orange tea for coming in a bag.

I like the orange and spice flavors. It is artificial tasting but I don’t mind it.

It smells like a pumpkin spice candle, but tastes like fruit punch.

I love this tea. It’s one of my favorite at the moment. I don’t usually like orange flavor, but I think this tea is excellent.