Bengal Spice

Ahh, the scent of Zen!

At the Zendo where I sit on Tuesdays, this tea is always served after the zazen session, in small cups, while we sit in a circle for the informal part. To make it REALLY good, they steep it for well over an hour while we do our zazen, and THEN serve it to us. Unfortunately for me, I’m very sensitive to tannic acid, and it drives me bonkers. However, I also do really enjoy the flavour of it, so I can tolerate it quite well.

When Venerable Eshu (our abbot!) was explaining the steeping process, he mentioned that “And if you steep it for 12 hours, it makes your tongue go numb!” He seemed to think of this as a positive trait, but I"m not sure I’ve been meditating long enough to appreciate that.

YUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bought a box – what was I thinking??

Never again. It tasted like what would happen if you licked the shelf in a spice closet and chased it with hot water.

I used to love this tea, many years ago. Then I couldn’t find it any more, and knowing some of the ingredients were similar to Chai, that got me to try Chai, and it led me down the path of trying loose leaf teas. So this tea has a little tiny corner of fondness in my heart for pointing me to good teas.

So I was in a store one day, and had a gift certificate to use, and pretty much nothing in the store I wanted. So I picked up a box of this for old times sake.

I tried to brew some for drinking, and it was just completely awful. I dumped it down the sink.

I did find something useful to do with the rest of the box though. It’s simmering on the stove right now to scent the house. Smells nice. You won’t find me drinking it though.

The only tea I’ve ever had where black pepper was an ingredient. This is Super Chai and goes very well with dessert or Asian food, especailly curry. As noted before, it can be overpowering if you drink more than one cup a day because the mouth will start to burn.

I like this steeped strong and hot, then mixed 1/3 with 2/3 black tea and an ounce of half-and-half when I’m craving a sweet drink. I like it both hot and chilled. It’s sweet with no added sweetener.

A lucky find in the kitchen cabinet – mom bought some ages ago, and I ran across it in my wanderings. I don’t normally put milk and sugar in my tea, but this one just seemed to call for it, and I’m glad I did. I know there are more quality teas/chai out there, but this is tasty enough, and it was handy. It’s nice and spicy, and the milk makes it smooth and creamy. It only needed a LITTLE sugar to make it properly sweet. A nice accompaniment to an episode of Burn Notice and a sewing project :-)

This tea is basically a decaffeinated herbal version of a chai tea.

My low rating of this tea is because I do not like pepper in my tea and found the pepper in this to be overpowering. It does have a nice blend of sweet and spicy.

This tea is really, emphatically, sweet. Not just sweet as opposed to tart. Sweet. I used to drink it years ago and I swear the recipe has changed because I used to add both milk and sweetener to it. Now I use milk or fat-free half and half, but never sweetener.

I don’t detect the pepper as much, either. To me, this is a nice spicy dessert tea, very much like chai but not as cloying as the over-sweetened chai I have tried from time to time in restaurants.

For a bagged tea, this is pretty darn good in my opinion. It’s a go-to for me in the evening, when I tend to want something with no caffeine. And the scent & flavour of the cinnamon is wonderfully warming, especially in the winter (i.e. when you come in from -30 degree weather after shovelling the driveway).
EDIT: to be fair, it’s been an extremely mild winter where I live so far, but it’s still winter & I still like a nice warm cuppa when I get home from work..even if I don’t have to shovel the driveway :P

I love my spicy chai teas.. and this one is the bomb! And it’s exotic with the big kitty cat on the box.

Once I steeped 2 bags for one cup, it was a spicy punch in the face! I don’t think I’d do that again!

Pretty good, with honey and creamer. Definitely smells delicious, and very strongly of cinnamon while it’s steeping. Essentially, it’s just another kind of chai. I enjoyed it, though!

This is the best tea bag herbal I’ve ever found. The taste is of caramel and vanilla. They advertise cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves as the ingredients but there must be secret ingredients because this is outstanding. Profoundly exotic with a smile-inducing flavor and a powerful aroma. My mother smelled the aroma coming from the cup and said “ooooh what is that?”.

I like this tea… it’s a warming, comforting tea. It tastes purely like cinnamon hearts, so I wouldn’t say it’s complex, and I definitely am not aware of any carob, cardamom, pepper, etc. It fits the bill sometimes, but I doubt I will buy another box.

I should also note, I usually steep it a lot longer… I can definitely notice a difference. It’s a bit “weak”.

Really enjoyed this chai. It is heavy on the cinnamon but I like that. I think I paid about $2.50 for the box which is a steal. A big factor with chai to me is if its strong when you add the sugar and milk, the worst is if it gets a little thin once you add those. There was no issue with that with Bengal Spice. Enjoy.

A rather bitter, unpleasant experience, tasting sharply of cinnamon.

Tasty, but frighteningly sweet, and this from someone who typically adds sugar (lots and lots of sugar) to her tea. Spicy, but in an atypical sort of way. I expected something a bit more chai-like, I suppose. Ended up leaving the carton behind at my old workplace and probably wouldn’t buy this one again.

Smells amazing. Beautiful when brewed with loose leaf chai tea (or a black tea) – this balances the sweetness.

If you like cinnamon, you will probably love this. I am a fan of cinnamon myself though the taste is too overpowering. Actually the whole taste is overpowering even if I had milk to it.

A very pleasant blend of cinnamon, vanilla, and cardamom. This will be quite a treat in Winter. Fair warning, the cinnamon can be overpowering if left to steep for too long.

This is my go-to tea.
I think most of the reviewers are steeping it the wrong amount of time. There’s a very particular moment when it transitions between dishwater to WHOA CINNAMON, and if you catch it then, perfection.