Christmas Tea (Mélange Noël)

There are two Upton Christmas Teas that are the same on Steepster so I have a note in to Ricky to merge them. Ricky is awesome!

This tea is pretty tasty, too!

It has a solid black tea base but all of the flavors are at bolder magnification, too! I can taste the rose and spice and citrus first and the the vanilla and nuts underneath.

I’m enjoying this one more than I anticipated.
On to the next :)

It’s pretty far from Christmas, but this smells so good and for some reason I am in a fireplace kind of mood. Maybe it’s the rain + having the AC on, but I wanted something soothing and warming. The ingredients in this fit perfectly!

The dominant flavor here is clove, and as I’ve mentioned before I loooove clove. It’s a complex flavor though, with hints of cinnamon and orange peeking through, and a bit of floralness from the rose petals. The black base is nice, though I’ve found that true of almost all of Upton’s blends. They’re very robust and stand up to bold flavors like the ones here, so while there’s a lot going on Melange Noel is still very tea-y if that makes any sense. I mean, I don’t feel like I am drinking mulled cider or a Christmas drink. It’s very wintery, yes, but a wintery tea, not a wintery drink. Err… I really am not sure if that makes sense, I’m a bit sleep-deprived! As “cold weather” as this is I made a second cup iced and it was just as good, maybe better!

Very tasty Tea first thing that I noticed is that when you take your first sip of this one you are not just flooded with all the flavorings, you taste black tea first off nice and strong and slightly astringent, next thing I notice is the clove and cardamom I may be wrong in describing this as a spicy flavor but that’s what it is to me I get spiciness of the cloves and such yet not too overpowering at all perhaps the roses and vanilla smooth those out and make them subtle. the last cup of the first pot was quite strong in the cloves and slightly more astringent most likely from the sediment in the bottom of the pot and the cup, after drinking it I can see the little particles in the bottom.
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2012/11/christmas-tea-melange-noel-by-upton-tea.html

I have a couple of “christmas blend teas” so I figured today would be a good time for me to try and compare the two of them. There are a few that pop up every year at christmas that i’m always tempted by – one of them being the blend from Murchie’s. I haven’t picked that one up yet but i did pick up a sample of this one and one from a local tea shop.

This one smells like cinnamon however once it’s steeped there is the taste of cloves, that doesn’t overpower and blends nicely with the black base. the hint of citrus is in the background, and weaves its way through the sip, trailing off in the end. Overall a nice cup of tea.

Waking up this morning to snow reminded me that this is still winter. This is one of only a few Upton samples left to sample, so good as time as any.

The dry aroma threw me at first. I can smell the spices, but I think the (unnamed “citrus” threw me). Potpourri? Maybe. After brewing, the tea became less fragrant.

Black tea, citrus peels, rose petals, chopped almonds, cloves, vanilla bits, cardamom, artificial flavor:
The black tea base is not obvious nor bitter (yay). The cloves and cardamom are well behaved and not overpowering. I can taste the almonds in the background, along with the vanilla … which makes this a very calming blend for my tastes. This is no where near being a “chai” (which cloves/cardamom conjur up). Having added a tbs. of honey, this is very sweet… might get by with less (almost too sweet). I do sense the rose in the aftertaste, which is ok (not something I’d seek out). Overall I’m really liking this tea (fears an Upton order in my future, since this is seasonal). Very mild yet flavorful.

Another awesome tea from Sil!!
I filled my 16 oz thermal cup with this & brought it along on my gig, so that I’d have something to drink on the way back home. That cup stays hot for SO long that the tea was STILL hot after I played!

This reminds me of Constant Comment, only way way better! It’s really a tasty blend! Thanks Sil!

This is another great tea. It’s spicy flavors are strong and true. Visually very appealing, the dry leaves conjure up aromas of hearty holiday good cheer. I need it because my default mode is grumpy, so it’s nice to have a transformative moment inhaling this tea.
The aroma reminds me of a strongly mulled red wine (good as far as I am concerned).

The taste does not disappoint at all. It tastes vibrant, spicy, and without having any piny odor at all, makes me feel as if I’m in an evergreen forest wassailing my heart out without irony.

This hearty, robust tea is great on its own; I added a bit of sugar and milk as I approached the bottom of the cup and the tea was still just fine—it does not really need the addition, however.

I’m tempted to use these tea leaves to experiment with adding them to heated red wine, to heated apple cider, to heated eggnog—I think that this tea is divine on its own but could be used to cook up some seriously December-y potent potations!

I buy this tea every year, for, you guessed it, Christmas. Over the past four years, the consistency has been a bit uneven. Two years ago, it was the best it’s ever been. Nice hints of orange and vanilla while the cloves and cardamon provided a nice touch to the back end. This year, it just hasn’t had the same punch and the black tea, the base of this blend, doesn’t seem as good as before, either. When it’s good, it’s a good cup. When it’s not at it’s best it’s drinkable, but not memorable.

It sounded so wonderful in the description but it is disappointing in person. The tea is harsh and, while the spices are fragrant in the bag, their flavor rapidly falls away once the hot water is poured upon the leaves.

I read several of the reviews of this tea when I first joined Steepster and was truly surprised by how many people disliked it. It is one of my favourite flavoured teas. I like the cinnamon-spiciness and the addition of the rose….maybe it kind of reminds me of rose congou which I also like. Anyway, it is a nice “gramma’s” kind of tea.

Good holiday tea; nicely rounded flavor and aroma with hints of cinnamon being predominant, although some secondary hints of vanilla and almonds coming through, also. Very nice with milk and sugar.

Nothing says Christmas like a cup of this tea and a Christmas show.

A little bitter without honey or milk. Very enjoyable, but very strong. The spices make it smell a bit like a floral arrangement, but it’s tolerable if not brewed for long. The spices do leave a strange aftertaste unless you add a lot of honey. It smells lovely though.

Mmmm. Despite Christmas being over I decided to open this sample today and boy is it nice. The tea was not as spicy as the leaves smelled, but there was still plenty to it. The sweetness was a little more subtle; I decided to add a bit of sugar after a few sips and that REALLY amped up the tastiness for me.

Not bad, just not great. A bit high in tannin, but a splash of milk smooths it out. Spicy but not overly so. Not picking up either the orange or almond notes.

I agree that this was somewhat dissapointing. It’s a spicy black tea that is just not as flavorful in the cup as it smells in the bag. Upton’s New England Harvest blend is a much better choice for a spicy, flavored black tea.