Granny's Cake

I had this again tonight since it’s an easy sipdown AND i want to go through my cupboard yet again this weekend to organise and clean things up. I desperately need to get things back in order since i have a ton of new teas from Dec/January that need other things to clear out so i can drink them haha.

Second time around this is a more tasty tea. I got more of the spicy flavour this time around, though i think i’ve figured out that it’s the chocolate i don’t like so much. I still feel there’s too much going on in this cup for me to REALLY enjoy it, but it’s a much tastier cup this time :)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this!!! I knew it was going to be amazing when I smelled the dry leaf last night, and it was so hard not to make a cup last night, but I knew I better wait on the caffeine. To me, this is a chocolate chai done right. There are so many chocolate chai’s where you don’t taste chocolate at all, or in the case of the Starbucks chocolate chai, taste like chocolate soap….ewwww! This one is perfect!

I also have a hard time with chocolate flavored teas, since most don’t taste right to me, but the chocolate in this tea goes perfectly with the spices. I have to admit, I made sure to include a chocolate chunk in the leaf I used for this cup. Hopefully the chocolate flavor translates even when you don’t get a chunk in your cup.

On the spices, they are delicious! I love star anise, as shown by my love for DavidsTea’s Ceylon Star, which I think they are getting rid of (nooooo!). Well, in that case, I think I just found a substitute in this tea!

Overall, I’m very impressed with RiverTea, and this is only the first one I’ve tried! On to the next!!

And this is the last cup of this! (215) The rest is going off to Terri so she can see what the fuss about RiverTea is all about!

I enjoy this, and I especially like the star anise, but I also have about… IDK… 6oz of Ceylon Star sitting in a tin at home, so I probably don’t need to restock this one soon. It was good though. Cake-like, and sweet, with a nice bit of baking spices.

Really enjoyed this tea today. I can see why Christina loves this tea. Thanks for the sample Christina.

I just brewed it up in a mug today. Dry it smells so good- like a cake , but I’ve had many flavoured teas that smell great and fall short in taste. Not this one. It reminded me of my aunt’s homemade spicy molasses cookies. It was a little bit like a date bread too. The anise brought a nice sweet dimension to it. Maybe the raisins added that too. All the spices blended together nicely but what stood out was the chocolate, vanilla, cardamom, & cloves.

I am pretty sensitive to any added flavourings but was able to enjoy the whole cup with no problem. It really took me back to my aunt’s great baking. What a great cup!

This really is like cake. Spicy cake, my favorite.

It is a tragedy that you can no longer get such a lovely tea.
The light chocolate flavour pairs so well with the spices including cardamon, anise, vanilla, and a bit of clove. Neither the spices, nor the chocolate, nor even the black tea base is overpowering. They blend together to form one concise, delicious, and memorable cup of tea.

In my humble opinion, this is one of those teas that really makes drinking tea an experience. I relish each sip of this tea. I am very grateful for the small amount I have left. I will be heartbroken when it is gone.

When I decide to indulge in this delightful tea I usually do 3 steeps. The first steep for about 4.5 minutes, the second for about 6.5, and the third for almost 10 minutes. The flavour holds up nicely through all 3. A tea blessing. :)

Was hoping that this one would be more cake-y. But it just tastes like a cinnamon tea. :S A mild cinnamon tea, which makes it more drinkable for me.
But…I had expected more. :/
Well, now I know at least.
Thanks for the sample, Christina! :D

I really need to go online and check ingredients before I brew. I had just sorted through several samples, passing up all the yummy chocolate teas, I chose this because it smelled like spice cake. Surprise… chocolate! But…. I really, really like it! The chocolate and the spices and the pastry-like flavors are wonderful. I love the dessert-y teas that are pastry like and this sure fits the bill.

I did add a little stevia and was very pleased with the results. I don’t know who I got this from but ‘Thank-you’ for sharing this with me. I hope to add this to my cupboard someday!

Backlog from yesterday:

Oh yeah. This is the stuff. I will totally restock this when I break my tea hiatus in September. It helps that I have a coupon code.

The first time I steeped this, there was a whole star anise seed in the leaf, and I think there were also a few chocolate chunks. This time I tried to get as much plain leaf as I could to see what difference it made, and I think it tasted BETTER than before.

I just love the spice blend in this. It’s sweet, eggy, vanilla-y, and it genuinely does smell like a warm cake fresh from the oven. You don’t even need sweetener, that’s how good this is.

EDIT: Bumped the rating up a bit. The more I think about it, the more this is definitely a winner according to my rubric.

Tea #8 from the Traveling Tea Box C Round 2
I actually had this last night, but I got caught up with playing Diablo so I didn’t remember to put up a tasting note. Honestly I shouldn’t’ve had any tea last night since it was really late (past midnight), but I really wanted a cup of tea. Lol!
This one smelled pretty good in the package and didn’t seem like one I would have to think on the flavors too much, so I figured it was a good one to just sip while distracted.
And it was. I was really surprised. It did have a cake-y sort of feel to it, lightly spiced and pretty good. Good enough that I’m considering ordering some from the company for myself. Lol. I did have to add quite a bit of sugar to it, though to be fair I was using brown rock sugar and I find that I always have to add more to that than my normal truvia. Without the sugar it was kinda just a hot, cinnamon tasting beverage. Lol. Sugar made it seem more like a cake-y tea.
But definitely a tea that I could consider drinking now and then.