Chai Spiced Apple

Yay! Steepster is back! And I can log in!
SO I received this teabag YEARS ago in the mail from Twinings and WOW – I actually like it. I can taste apple, like a pie apple, and definitely some spice. I had this days ago now, so I’m not exactly sure how the black tea was. But I really like this for the apple and the spice and I would definitely drink it again. Wouldn’t mind buying it if it was very cheap. I’m so sad for neglecting this lone teabag! I had this early in the morning before leaving town. I’m back taking care of my Gram for a couple months, so steepster notes might be sparse again anyway. I am probably 70+ pages behind in reading everyone’s notes.

Mmm, this is very spiced I must say. First thing I taste is the cinnamon. Then I get the apple flvaour and the other spices. I got a teabag of this with a small gift from my church. It’s a nice wintery tea.

Hoálatha supposedly sent me more of this in our last swap.

I might go to the store and pick some of this up. I really think it’d be a great tea for work. Especially when it gets cold in the office, I’d like to be drinking something so tasty as this. I rated it 75/100 the last time, but I might bump it up. I think what I must’ve done when steeping this last was brewing it for 3-5 minutes. However, I forgot about it today and unintentionally brewed it close to ten minutes; which resulted in creating a hot spice mead like beverage, rather than a tea.

As part of my mission to sip down my ancient samples, I thought I’d take advantage of what looks to be the last day of even remotely fall-like weather here for a while and try this one out. Despite its age, this is pretty pleasant—the apple is pretty faint (though that could be age-related), though, and spice-wise the cinnamon and cloves really dominate. The base is kind of eh, but you can’t really expect much more than that from US Twinings. I don’t think this is something I’ll purchase, though it has gotten me intrigued re: the possibility of a truly great apple cider chai.

I like this without milk and just a bit of sugar. Adding milk took away from the apple flavour, which isn’t very strong (cinnamon and cloves are the dominant flavors), but it held me over while Cider was out of season. Apple season is here though, so I’m putting this away and hitting the farmer’s market.

Bland and boring. Waste of tea.

This is a little like drinking a cup of warm cinnamon water. It’s not really the sweet, candy-like cinnamon flavor I like, either. More of like a cinnamon challenge dissolved in water kind of flavor.

A pinch of sweetener coaxes our some apple and it becomes more like drinking watery apple cider.

Overall, not terribly good, but not bad enough to not finish the cup.

Shame it smells so good but cannot drink black tea at all

I normally have this tea with milk, and it ends up somewhat muddled. On a whim, I’m trying it without this time. It turns out, that’s making all the difference. Without milk, it’s reminding me very much of the apple cinnamon oatmeal that I used to have as a child, and in all the good ways. There’s a hint of apple along with the spices, creating an overall flavour that… somehow seems broad rather than sharp. It smells deliciously apply too, especially as I go to take a sip. (Actually, breathing in the scent may be the best part of drinking this tea.) Definitely just what I needed right now. :)

My favourite winter tea! Goes so well with the snow. Will add more info later, as I’m currently sipping on this while waiting for class to begin.