Naturally Flavored Cinnamon Chai Tea - TE36

One of my new samples from Upton!

This tea is pretty much everything it says it is… a black chai with a heavy cinnamon flavor. The cinnamon is more of the red-hot style cinnamon flavoring, which I am perfectly okay with. It isn’t as overwhelming as the cinnamon in MarketSpice, or probably any of the ‘hot’ cinnamon teas. It’s the same style of cinnamon, just not the same intensity, if that makes any sense whatsoever.

The other chai spices are an afternote, at best. The clove is really the only one that’s still readily noticeable in the flavor, everything else is just kind of lost in the tea.

So, to recap:

Big cinnamon.
Small clove.
Smooth ceylon.

Not too shabby, really. I think I might keep this one around, as it would go really, really well with just about anything else where I wanted to kick up the cinnamon. Missy mentioned mixing it with SerendipiTea’s Colonille Vanilla, and I think I agree that would make a delightful little brew. Unless you happen to dislike both Vanilla and Cinnamon :P

My tea of the morning…. Happy Friday! :D
Edit to add: Wow! This is my 400th tasting note! (I wish I could show such dedication to other things in my life. Ha!)

This is a good cinnamon tea. I am not sure I would classify it as a chai, but it fits the flavor profile without the ginger and cardamom. I guess I am missing the bits…..or the spices that you can see in a chai mix. If I think of it as a cinnamon tea, it works better. This is not red hots in a cup, so for those of you who prefer a more subtle cinnamon tea, this is for you. I think if you wanted to blend this up into a traditional chai by adding some whole cloves, cardamom pods, and ginger, it would be fabulous.

Steeped by the usual parameters.

I made Dylan some of this today while I am drinking my Big Red Robe. I have to say it’s pretty good. I got a lot of the red hot cinnamon flavor and a very little masala. The tea base is malty goodness to support the masala and cinnamon. A nice blend for cinnamon lovers.

Testing 3 Upton “spice” samples tonight and this is 2nd up (also tested NE Harvest and going to test Tropical Chai Spice).

Well, compairing it to NE Harvest, the tea is more prominent in this one and the black tea is not bitter either (not sure if same one?). I was expecting this to be the strongest “chai” spiced one of the three, but it’s not much stronger than NE Harvest. The only difference is that NE Harvest is basically a cinnamon tea, and this one has more going on… I can detect the clove, for example (love clove, but it’s weak in here). Overall I’m not enjoying this one as much as NE Harvest. It’s “ok”, will probably finish sample, but not reorder.

This cinnamon tea is pretty good. I think I may have over-steeped it, as it’s a little more “black tea” tasting than I’d prefer. But the cinnamon comes through nicely, and doesn’t have the “Big Red chewing gum”, artificial taste that I’ve had with some other cinnamon based teas. Like I said, I think I may have to fiddle with the time a little to get the best taste from this tea. Future tastings will hopefully be even better and raise the rating from 79. This wasn’t bad at all, but I think it has more potential. I’ll update on the next pot I brew.

This is a strange one! It’s labeled a chai, but is missing all the spices that make up a normal chai. It really is more a cinnamon black tea. Cinnamon tea is, of course, my absolute favorite thing, so I had to sample this tea! The smell is strongly cinnamon before brewing. After steeping (5 minutes at boiling) the smell is diminished a bit. I added milk and sugar, because I was thinking chai, and I don’t think that helped – where the milk often amps up the spices in a chai, here it dampens them.

The tea was a touch bitter, especially as the liquid cooled. Overall I was not impressed with this tea. The spice was weak, and I don’t think the tea base was especially good. With so many great cinnamon teas, this one just doesn’t make the cut!