Moonlight Spice Orange Spice White Tea

I was digging through my home cupboard, which has only about 5% of my teas in it, when I stumbled upon a tin of Bangkok that had a bunch of tea bags in it… that weren’t Bangkok. I got several Numi teas a few years ago but at the time I wasn’t really fond of white tea so I left them alone (though I gave them a fancy new house). They’re old (probably 3 years?) so I was a bit suspect, but upon opening one I smelled clove heaven so I decided to give it a shot.

I love cloves. I mean, I really love them—whenever I bake anything with them I need to hold back because most people don’t seem to have the same fondness for them. Me? I could have a pumpkin pie spiced only with cloves and be in heaven. Clove pie, mmmmm. Since that was pretty much the only smell I could discern here I was pretty optimistic. And indeed, it tastes like cloves! There’s a bit of cinnamon and ginger and some faint citrus, not nearly as in-your-face orange-y as other reviews point out. Probably because this bag is 3 years old, and age has changed the flavors to a different profile. There’s a teeny hint of sour (from the hibiscus I presume) that balances the clove well. I actually really enjoyed this cup and will definitely be drinking the rest of it—it’s quite good for a bagged tea, though I’m not sure if a fresh batch would be at all the same.

Thanks to Michelle, I am having my first taste of something with schizandra berries in it. (Schizandra—sounds like a sneeze.)

Lots of spice in this one, cloves especially. I think I have more or less permanently burned off, from my love of heavy black Assams & breakfast teas, the taste buds that can actually pick up the subtleties of white tea—so if there’s some white tea character in here, I’m not registering it.

This is still OK, and would likely please a chai lover.

This is one of the Numi teas that I picked up at my conference earlier this month. I had several cups of this during it, and really enjoyed it.

It’s very nicely spiced; I can taste the cinnamon and the cloves primarily, and the orange is absolutely delicious. Not much of a white tea taste, but I don’t mind that in this blend. This is a blend that is very forgiving on time/temp, as I had no control over either at the conference and it still turned out delicious. This is a blend that I would definitely invest in…and will keep drinking at conferences.

Second to last of the original bagged tea splurge left to write about. Woo hoo!

I wanted to drink this after the White Nectar Osmanthus Spring because the Moonlight Spice is, as the name suggests, heavily spiced and I feared it would influence my palate if I tasted in the other direction.

The white tea in this one is identified on the packaging as Pai Mu Tan (aka white peony). In my admittedly v. limited knowledge obtained from reading books about tea, I would suspect this is the base for the White Nectar as well as it seems to be less costly than other white teas that contain only buds.

When I sniff the bags, the dominant smell is the cinnamon/orange/clove “Constant Comment” combo, followed by ginger, followed by nonspecific citrus. The liquor’s color is quite dark and orange/brown, almost like that of a standard black tea. Its aroma is mostly cinnamon and some clove. It reminds me of the smell of a spiced “tea” my mother used to make for my father when he had colds. I am fairly sure there was no tea in it at all, just cinnamon, clove and perhaps some other spices.

The tea has a slightly tart taste, probably from the combination of the citrus and hibiscus. I note that it contains dried lime, which may be the same lime from the Dry Desert Lime tisane and which is quite tart. The Moonlight Spice is much less tart than that. I can taste cinnamon and orange, and a little ginger. I can taste the tea only slightly, and I may only be able to taste it because I have the taste of the White Nectar still resident in my personal RAM from the earlier tasting.

It’s not bad, but it isn’t something I think I’d choose if I were going to choose a flavored white tea. The flavors are pretty strong for the delicacy of white tea to stand up to. And if I were going to choose tea with this spice profile, I would likely choose one with a black tea base, a tisane or chai. I wouldn’t cast that in stone, though. This could be a good medicinal choice for when a small amount of caffeine would provide a boost and when black tea is too strong or rich.

Inspired by the iced tea chatter over here, I made a liter of this and chilled it. It’s pretty good. It actually reminds me of iced Constant Comment… which I think is mostly due to the cloves. I’m certain I wouldn’t want this to be a summer staple, but it’s nice tea to drink iced.

This is okay. I don’t love the orange flavor – I think it’s a bit overpowering. And the cloves are very strong here – a bit too much for me, as I much prefer floral teas to spicy ones.
That being said, I got a box of this from a friend and it’s definitely drinkable. It’s warm and aromatic, and I think it’ll be great iced with a little bit of honey or sugar – just needs a bit of experimentation to get it right. And I’m glad that, even though it’s a teabag, it’s a Bai MuDan base so I don’t have to worry too much about oversteeping, which always worries me with bags.

Cinnamon and that’s all I could taste! When I think of Orange Spice, I think of Pike’s Place’s Orange Spice. I love that iced. I think I tasted a hint of citrus, but the cinnamon wouldn’t let me taste anything else! This wasn’t desirable iced, definitely more a hot tea. I couldn’t stomach how much cinnamon this tea has. I love chai, but I am not a fan of the flavors of this, which is weird since the ingredient list is everything I like or love.

I think if there was actually more tea in here, I could stomach this tea.

Exhausted and needing a tea fix, I waited in line (!) for tea this morning. The last white tea I had was really tasty, so I said “screw it” and picked this one. Kind of a mistake. There might be hibiscus or something in this, because it was pretty sour, more than I think the orange would account for, and not terribly nice. The smell was pleasant, spicy but not overpowering, but there was very little spice to taste in the cup…and yet, it still came through more clearly than the actual tea. This drink was much better smelled than drunk (drunk? don’t mind if I do! /whiskey).

These are individually packaged tea bags (environmentally bad but soooo convenient!), and when I rip one open I get a very strong sent of cloves…a hit of cinnamon…maybe a bit of ginger. I give another sniff looking for the orange peel smell but I can’t say I really find it. There might be a slight citrus tang sort of rounding out the spicy smells, either from the orange or the dried lime. Overall, a very yummy smelling tea!

No instructions on the box, but thanks to the informative people on this site I now know that white teas should be brewed with cooler water. Unfortunately I don’t have a thermometer, so I guess with the water temperature based on the noise my kettle is making (that lull between the louder sighing noise and the full-on boil).

Steep for ~9 minutes (oops, got distracted making breakfast), and I expected it to be very bitter. Nope, no bitterness, just a delicate spicy-tea taste. I figure the delicacy of the taste is because this is white tea, not the stronger-tasting black I’m used to.

The liquid tea smells like cinnamon and cloves, though I like to think I can catch a note of orange in there, a slightly different zing to the scent. First sip is…hmm a little bland? I try the slurp, that brings out the spice taste a bit more, and there’s a tingle on the front of my tongue. No spicy burn in my throat though. And not much tea flavour (maybe because of the white again?). I sip a bit more, but my taste buds aren’t really getting the flavour much. I know you’re typically not supposed to add things to white tea because it drowns out the flavour but…in goes a little squirt of honey and a tiny dab of cream. I like the result, but it may be because it now tastes like a faintly spicy creamy-sweet hot drink of indeterminate composition. Oops.

Thankfully I have a whole box of this to experiment with. I think next time I’ll try either hotter water or an even longer steep, just to see if that brings out more taste. And be a purist and resist the urge to sweeten-cream everything I drink…

Meh. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t live up to the name. It’s white tea, but I didn’t really get the flavour of white tea. It’s spiced, but all I could smell and taste were cinnamon and clove. It’s orange, but there’s hardly the hint of citrus. I think I’d like it a lot more with less clove, more ginger, and more orange. I might try breaking open a bag and mixing it with some other teas, see how that works out.

Got a whole box of this tea from an old roommate. Yay connections!

I knew once I opened the bag that what lay before me was a winding road of depression, anger, and a loooong healing process. The bag itself smelled like bitter gingerbread, which isn’t up my alley, but I can dig it. Both times I brewed this tea it came out extremely dusty. Sadly, I believe this dust is what led to the downfall of this “white” tea. This was not “delicate” nor “orange”…just “spice”. In fact, you could suck on cinnamon bark and get the same flavor profile that this tea expelled.

Much like any bad tea, though, you can make it better by setting it on fire!

Full review here: http://theteablag.blogspot.com/2011/02/i-think-i-just-got-tbagged.html

This one, like the Green Chai, confused me a bit. The spices are reminiscent of a Chai tea, but I have never added milk to a White tea before. The brewing suggestions on the back don’t even hint at how it would be best. It just tells you how long to steep the tea for. So I tried it with just sugar at first, which I did like. It was very spicy indeed! However, about half way through the cup, I decided it was too strong, and said “what the heck,” and added some milk. This was a good call! The milk took the spiciness and toned it right down to a nice, sweet, creamy flavor with just enough bite. No longer overwhelmingly spicy, I enjoyed the rest of the cup even more! It kind of made me think of the Ultra Spice Chai by Twinings (my favorite!), but lighter. I may have to keep my eye out for this one!

Side note: This tea bag was acquired for free from the cafe at my college when I was charged for the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich I ordered, and then it was discovered that they had no bacon, which meant I had been over charged for an egg and cheese sandwich instead. So, 60c overcharge for a sandwich = free tea bag with my meal. WIN!

Really nice on rainy days. The cloves aftertaste is very nice…

This is OK. I mean, I’ll drink it. I’m not the biggest fan of white teas or orange-flavored teas, so maybe if I like it, it must be pretty good.