Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride

December 1st! Hard to believe eh? A colleague brought in treats and holiday teas today. This one really surprised me. It’s quite rich and buttery, and smells wonderful brewed up. Like seriously, warm fresh baked from the oven sugar cookie wafting aroma. It tastes pretty bang on too. Sugar cookies are a quintessential part of the holidays for me. I’m going to have to pick up a box of these! We also got a nice start to December choosing a picture to post by our desk that reminds us of Christmas. I chose the cranky mall elves and Santa from The Christmas Story movie – a holiday-must-watch each year for me!

Mom likes to randomly buy me teas when she’s out shopping. This time she went to Target and brought me back two tins of Harney’s coconut green, a box of Numi’s chocolate pu-erh, and this. I know the first two are good, but the last was something I was apprehensive about. I’m not really a big fan of Celestial Seasonings or herbal teas, but hey, there’s no hibiscus in it. I figured it couldn’t be all bad then.

For the most part it smells better than it tastes. The dry mix has a nice toasty, orangey smell. Too bad at a five-minute steep it’s weak and watery, in no way living up to its scent. However, if you steep this for ten minutes and add a spoonful of sugar, you’ll have a pretty tasty tea. It’ll actually bear a resemblance to sugar cookies. Even unsweetened it isn’t bad. Just make sure you steep it for ten minutes or double up on the bags if you don’t want to wait that long.

Finished off my last 2 boxes of this one that I had saved. Luckily the holiday season isn’t too far away and I can stock up again. The only downside to this tea is for a really good cup it seems to need two teabags. It’s sweet and herbal so you don’t have to worry about the caffeine. I like how they use milk thistle in this one and if you’ve ever tried plain milk thistle tea it’s quite a cloying flavor on it’s own.

I have read the reviews of this tea by K S for years now. Last year I finally went looking for it and it was all sold out. That happens with the better Christmas teas in this area. White Christmas by Stash is another one that you had better load into your basket as soon as you see it or else you won’t be having any.

Imagine my surprise when I was in the grocery store tonight and saw one box. ONE BOX. No label or tag on the shelf for it. Just the one. I looked around to see if they were putting out Christmas tea outlandishly early. (The heat index here is still over 100F most days.) I saw a pumpkin tea but no more Christmas tea. There was a box with peppermint sticks on the front but it didn’t say it was a Christmas blend. Since I had wanted to try it I had my daughter check the expiration date to make sure it wasn’t last year’s tea that turned up in a back room, but it looked brand new and had a nice long time until it expires.

I was going to have one cup tonight to try it, but as I took the sachet out of the box and the aroma hit me, I knew hubby had to try it. He is aptly nicknamed “The Cookie Monster” in our house. This smelled like really good sugar cookies, specifically the Queen Cake recipe from Colonial Williamsburg that we make at Christmas. So I made a whole pot, and we ended up making a very passable resteep.

Reviews said that it tastes best slightly cooled, so I waited to call him in until I had poured it. I used three sachets in a Stump teapot, boiling water, and five minutes steep time before pouring but we did not remove the bags.

I thought it was great! This is a wonderful, wind-down in the evening cup. I tried it plain first and then based on reviews added a little sugar and milk. I liked it best plain. The milk covered up the light orange notes. Hubby add sugar and more milk than I did, and he loved it best that way. He said milk always smooths black tea for him and he felt it did for this, too. I didn’t taste anything that needed to be smoothed and milk just made it “heavy” to me so my next cups we all plain.

As hubby said, this would be delicious with something to dip in it…a Rich Tea Biscuit, biscotti, graham crackers. I am definitely going to be aggressive about finding more of this during the limited time it is available. I could really use something caffeine free that feels like comfort food for evenings, especially this winter.

Thank you, K S, for singing the praises of this tea for all these years.

I wanted something sweet while watching my show Colony. It smells just like sugar cookies. It is sweet but kind of weak. I added almond milk and it definitely satisfied my sweet tooth.

Yeah, this is awesome with sweetener. Like a lemon sugar cookie with honey, if you add honey.

This smelled amazing… unfortunately I discovered that it had barley in it after I bought it. No gluten for this celiac.

I’ve been dying to try this tea for a few years now but could never find it anywhere. Lo and behold, I finally found it at my local Publix and grabbed a box.

The smell of this tea is to die for. It’s so sweet, buttery, and warm – just like a real sugar cookie! The liqueur was a pretty pale blonde, much like cookie dough. By itself, the flavor was lacking a little but it was improved by adding a little vanilla soymilk for a little extra sweetness and creaminess.

I was thoroughly impressed with this tea and will be buying a few more boxes to tide me over until next year. This is a great holiday tea, but works just as well to sip as a dessert tea.

LOVE this tea. It really tastes like a cup full of hot, buttery, sugar cookies. I got this tea mainly bc I wanted to curb my nighttime sweet snack. This satisfies my sweet tooth and is much better than anything I was snacking on.

I must admit this tea is really good. I kept seeing people talk about it and finally placed an order then made a cup. Very light almost floral in a way. A touch of lemon (which I am not a fan of any lemon coming near tea) and a bit of butter. Sounds so weird but on those nights where you want a sugar cookie but don’t want to make any or go to the store to have one, this is a great option.