Cinnamon Rooibos Chai

Oh, Oh this is “wicked-awesome” (to steal a phrase from a co-worker)

I loved everything about this, from the fact that I was able to steep 1.5 tsp twice and still was strong enough to pour over ice and not loose flavour!

I offered my hubby a sip and without telling him what kind of tea it was he sniffed and said: “I smell cinnamon, something citusy, cardamon? No, but defiantly cinnamon” and I will say that after that sip I was done sharing. I sip, savoured and drunk the entire cup to myself and was excited enough about this one to put it on my MUST buy list!

This is SPECTACULAR! Very sweetly cinnamon-y, spicy (but not peppery), round and robust! With honey and a splash of milk, I feel like I’m having black tea! This is my new favorite herbal chai. I’m a cinnamon fanatic, so this is pretty much heaven in a cup to me. I don’t do number ratings, but pssssst – this is a 100!

So I didn’t mean to purchase this tea yesterday. In my excitement over buying new teas, I mistook this one for Coco Chai rooibos, as they smell pretty similar, but this one is stronger. So I ended up with 25 g of this tea, and I’m not the biggest fan of cinnamon. Score. I found out that I can take it back, but as it’s only 25 g, I might as well try it out, and I can always share it with my mom, who likes cinnamon quite a lot.

Anyways, onto the review for this tea. The dry smell is SUPER CINNAMON and spice. It smells ok, but I am a bit worried. I didn’t really know how to prepare it, as I didn’t want a crazy cinnamon hit, so I attempted to do my chai way that I use for making Pumpkin Chai. Steep the tea in a tiny bit of boiling water to concentrate it for 2 mins, add some hot milk to it and sweetener, steep for another 5 mins or so, strain. I added honey on a whim instead of brown sugar just to see how it would taste.

And the verdict is – it’s actually not too bad! I ended up with a smooth cinnamon chai flavor, quite spicy actually, maybe a bit more spice in total than Pumpkin Chai. It’s warming and cozy and very smooth. The rooibos is very nicely blended in this, it’s not overwhelming at all! I don’t get a huge amount of orange brewing in this method, but I’m sure it’s in there adding to the nice spice blend. It is slightly reminiscent of cinnamon hearts, yes, but (thankfully) not as strong as them in this method of brewing. The honey was a pretty nice sweetener for this too, just a hint of sweet to balance the spice. I was a bit worried about it not being able to stand up to the milk because there’s no black tea in it, but it is doing quite an excellent job!

Overall, this is actually pretty good, and for me not being a huge fan of cinnamon, that is a huge win for this tea. I will get through most of my bag, I will share some with my mom though because she will LOVE IT. I will also try brewing it with just water and see how that goes in the future. As I continue to sip this, it grows on me because it’s just so cozy! So, yay for my tea mistake panning out to be ok! :)

David’s is terrible! They’ve given me another rooibos to love! I don’t like the flavor of red rooibos. It tastes too red and rooibos-y. Nevertheless, this tea is amazing. The cinnamon is the most prominent flavor, with just hints of something else…something magic and mysterious. This tea is magically delicious! Much more magically than those nasty Lucky Charms!

Wow! I was very much in doubt that this tea would be as amazing as the reviews suggest. It sounded good, but not particularly special… rooibos with cinnamon, I could blend that on my own, right? Well, definitely not like this!
The smell is good, pretty much cinnamon with a bit of cloves, but not very strong as I would’ve expected. But the taste… whoa! It’s soooo rich! Cinnamon-y indeed, but also sweet, very sweet! The citrus oil also adds a really nice light note of tartness, just in the back of the mouth, to make the blend even more complex. I often forget how rich rooibos makes blends, but when used right, like here, it really is quite amazing.
Now, I understand the hype!

Sipping this one as a latte tonight. Added some extra cinnamon to the milk before heating and frothing and it’s just the perfect tea for snuggling up and watching some horrid reality tv. Delicious in all the best ways! The cinnamon blends really well with the chai and rooibos flavours to make a sweeter chai than most standard ones are. I love this, especially at night, since I can just sip my tea rather than dig into my secret leftover chocolate stores!

Dry Leaf Nose: Sweet cinnamon with a hint of citrus and lightly scented clove.

Liquor: Deep reddish-brown and clear, with a strong aroma of cinnamon.

Flavour: Very sweet, with a bit of spice. The cinnamon notes prevail, with the rooibos smoothing and sweetening the cup. The orange peel adds a refreshing mouthfeel

1 rounded TB for 450 mL water, 1/2 packet stevia, no milk.

A bit o’ heat! Yessssss, this is what I’m looking for in anything labelled ‘chai’. The cloves and citrus oil make the very pungent cinnamon stand out all the more. The red rooibos gets a bit lost, but that’s okay. While Cinnamon Rooibos Chai is caffeine-free, it’s still quite stimulating — the scent alone can knock you silly, in a good way — and yes, it does help concentration. Sharp and sweet with some pleasant heat. Perhaps quite sweet enough on its own without my added stevia, but I find a stevia or sugar coaxes out spice-heat. (Not so much the artificial sweeteners; they just dominate the cup with their chem lab mace and chain.) I may blend this one with some ginger rooibos and then spontaneously combust.

I really just don’t care for rooibos. Not going to rate this yet, because I think it’s probably good… it just tastes like cinnamon medicine to me, honestly. I usually prefer the second steep of rooibos teas, so I’m going to give that a try right away.

Courtney sent me this one, too, and there is plenty more for another day. It is nice to have a cinnamon-y tea that isn’t black.

EDIT: As predicted, the second infusion is more palatable for me. I also saw that several people suggested adding milk, so I’ve poured in a bit of almond milk. It’s much less medicinal, but still… rooibos isn’t so much for me.

I should be in bed but yet I find myself watching Lost Girl and drinking this delightfully tasty tea. Its got the nicest undercurrent of cinnamon and I definitely taste clove, rooibos and orange…YUM. Very sweet and that is just being drunk with no sweetener at all. I’m certainly glad I got this and cannot wait to add more to my cupboard AFTER I finish some more tea…

This tea rates up there with Bravissimo in happiness-inducing for me. I always forget I have it, or when I glance at it, I keep on looking because it doesn’t seem that spectacular to me. But when I do give it a go, I melt. The cinnamon is perfect, just a little burn without overwhelming everything else. Like others have said, it reminds me of little cinnamon candies. My grandma used to make sugar cookies for Christmas and decorate them with those little Red Hots…it was my favorite part! This tea brings up that memory and those good feelings for me. I definitely need to remember how much I love it.

This is my favourite tea so far at David’s Tea. The combination of chai and cinnamon makes it more interesting than just pure chai or a cinnamon tea, but the cinnamon sweetens the strong chai taste. I’ve discovered that steeping this tea for 7 minutes at 98 degrees Celcius produces the best end result. Add a single sugar cube to sweeten. I can reuse these leaves once, but the second attempt to resteep them has yet to go well. I’d give this tea a 95 out of 100, only because resteeping the leaves doesnt always work the same each time. I’d recommend letting the leaves dry out a bit before resteeping. That seems to hold the flavour in longer.

It’s cold out and my day started with an unsatisfying pumpkin spice tea paired with an equally unsatisfying chocolate danish, so now it’s time for a working treat while my baby is sleeping.
That treat is Cinnamon Rooibos Chai, easily my favourite spicy tea of all time.
The smell of the dry tea alone is enough to smack you out of any dozy funk you might be in. The cinnamon is like a marching band of sparkling brass and gifted percussionists.
I like to use a little bit too much and steep at the high end of the recommended time, because I like it SPICY.
Also, because I’m a milk-and-sugar kind of girl, I splash in a tiny bit of 1% and a little dab of lemon honey.
The smell of the steeped tea, after an agonizing 7 minute wait, is just as explosive as the tea in the little bag, and it makes my upper lip and palate go the tiniest bit numb. Pure childhood memories of sitting in the tree-named cabins at Camp Wannakumbac , seeing who could eat the most candy cinnamon hearts. (I always won. I suspect it may be the reason behind my inability to enjoy any synthetic cinnamon products without suffering a week’s worth of mouth lacerations.)
Just as you bring the cup to your mouth to sip, you can detect the lemon and orange, and then the satisfyingly heavy spicy treat washes over your tongue and warms your whole body.
Good times.
Good times.
I only have enough left for one more cup after this.
I think I’ll hoard it.

Had my first cup of this today, and wow, just like red hots! Didn’t think to add milk, but other reviewers say it’s good that way, so I’ll try that next time! Didn’t taste like rooibos, which was nice…just full-flavor cinnamon, and HOT!

Oh wow, I like this one…. A LOT! It tastes just like I am eating a piece of Big Red gum. True to its name it is pure cinnamon. There is some nice heat to it as well. This is how I thought Hot Lips would taste. It is also a great rooibos, not woody at all. I also love that it’s caffeine free so I can have it before bed without worrying about the caffeine.

I was a bit skeptical about this one to say the least, especially after having tried Cinnamon Hearts (Davids) and not being thrilled. boy was I judging this book by the wrong cover! Cinnamon Rooibos Chai is a wonderful tea, especially during the fall season when I always crave these spices. The cinnamon is quite strong so if you’re a fan of Cinnamon heart candy I’d say definitely give this tea a shot! I like mine clear with a little bit of honey to cut the acidity since I let mine steep quite a while. I also drop half a cinnamon stick into the teapot to make it even spicier. While there is not a ton of caffeine in this one, it does help to maintain focus and mental clarity if you’re up far too late working on an essay for instance… :)

I’d rather something without the orange oil, but it’s not bad.

A very pleasant surprise! I was looking for a caffeine free chai tea, and the clerk recommended this one to me. I smelt it – I hated it. I felt it was too orange-y and not chai-y enough. However, I was in a rush, decided to buy 25g of it and if I hated it, I could give it to a friend.

How wrong I was! Although the smell to me is still overpoweringly orange, the cup itself is not. It tastes like a typical chai aside from the black tea component (replaced with the rooibos) and the finish on it is quite orange. There is also a strong cinnamon flavour with this tea that may be off-putting to some.

EDIT:
I don’t know what it was, but I made a cup of this and it was dreadful. Given my initial impressions, I’m saddened by this! But even the smell of it now makes me gag. Will be trading.

What a fantastic cup of tea! It has to light zing of cinnamon but some how stays unbelievably sweet! I put nothing in this tea but it tastes so sweet, it is a beautiful, full and delightful tea. +It is organic to boot!

This tastes just like an herbal version of Harney & Sons’ Hot Cinnamon Spice (which they actually do make). Tasty, spicy, cinnamon-y, and a bit of citrus, with no pesky caffeine to get in the way. I didn’t realize this had citrus in it until it had shipped here and I smelled it—I was looking for something without citrus, and I was a little concerned I wouldn’t like it because I didn’t like the smell of the leaves. However, it’s quite yummy! Not what I’d call a chai, but maybe that’s because I haven’t tried it chai-style yet. I need to give it the chance. This is good!