Autumn Harvest Cider

I’m amazed at how much this SMELLED like actual Cider! It was spot-on! Awesomely juicy, spicy, festive blend of flavors! Once infusion was complete – the aroma died down a bit – but it was still a gentle yet true cider aroma. The color of the tea-liquid was that of a weaker-black but the taste was great!

The apple flavors were PERFECT here! The spices were ‘just right’ and this cup was VERY true to it’s name and quite enjoyable. Very tasty! Satisfying! Natural tasting! I have to say…I really REALLY like this! Nice home-run!

My last sample from Nature’s Tea Leaf! Oddly enough this is the first black tea of theirs I’ve tried. The majority of the teas I drink are black but their other blends just caught my eye more. But when I saw this, I knew it had to be! Especially after their amazing cinnamon oolong which is a tea near and dear to my heart because the cinnamon is absolutely perfect. And I just noticed that I am writing up two cinnamon teas in a row—it really is that time of year!

In the bag this tea smells heavenly, like pure apple cider. And there are the big chunks of cinnamon bark like in the oolong blend! Often I don’t mind artificial flavors, but I am a staunch believer in natural cinnamon only. There are also chunks of orange peel, it’s a festive looking blend—or maybe I just have Christmas on the mind haha.

Sipping this is… wow. Apple cider! The apple is really strong with a nice hint of cinnamon, clove and something kind of caramel-y? That might be the black base, which has some nice malty tones that bring everything together. There’s a lot of flavoring going on here but you can definitely still taste the base! It’s an utterly perfect mix of apple cider and tea. It’s even better than the real deal (plus, of course, way less calories.).

I had to try this one! The yunnan base from Nature’s Tea Leaf is one of my favorites (though the flavor profile does seem like it would be a better match for their perfect Chocolate Midnight Black). The picture makes it look like there are only orange slices in this, but they are cinnamon chunks! I let the water cool too long when I noticed the cinnamon chunks when I was pouring this into my infuser. Cinnamon tastes best with boiling water. My bag didn’t have too many oranges, but I’m okay with that! Rather than have apple pieces, the tea is actually infused with apple flavor. After four minutes steeping, this certainly tastes like cider! I do wish the apple flavor was sweeter, otherwise the black tea itself would make it taste more like some kind of apple dessert — like one of those whole apples wrapped in a pastry and baked. I’d compare the apple flavoring to Della Terra’s Caramel Candy Apple, but not the other apple teas I’ve tried from DT — just that one. (I guess they use different apple flavors?) The yunnan wasn’t terribly pronounced here… as I suspected, it really fits with the chocolate blend. It’s still great though! The second steep was ALL cloves! No apple, no cinnamon, no black tea. It was very weird, and I had it at boiling this time. I don’t think I’ll steep this twice the next time. I can’t believe there is a black tea that doesn’t hold to two steeps…. unless you really really like cloves! I liked the first steep anyway. (I’ll just go for one steep longer than four minutes next time.) It’s a nice spicy apple blend that would be great on an autumn or winter day. However, I could drink their Chocolate Midnight black tea EVERY day of the year.