Spiced Apple Cider

This is SO sweet.

Cinnamon candy. A little hibiscus/chicory/orange peel aftertaste.

But mostly cinnamon.

I don’t hate it, and it only cost me something like $1.50 for the 50g, so I consider it worth a try.

But… apple? Nope. No apple here.

Edit: Oh. Weird. Oh gross weird omg whyyyyyy. I pulled some Kale Chips out of the oven and gently salted them with Magic Mushroom Powder (ha!) and then sipped this tea. Sooooo gross! But I can taste the apple like this. :/

I’ve been drinking this all week and I finished the 2oz (semi-sipdown since I have more). I don’t think I’ve ever finished that amount of tea in such a short amount of time – though this is rather heavy! I’ve been loving this mixed with pretty much any kind of vanilla or nutty rooibos. It’s great on its own, but when you add a teaspoon of a creamy rooibos, you get the cream taste at the end of the sip which is lovely.

At the rate I’m going, I’m going to finish the 8oz in less than a month… so I might have ordered more. Oops.

Looks super pretty, but kind of like potpourri.

Tastes exactly like you might imagine steeped potpourri water would taste.

So this is the fourth Teavana tea I am trying from my order and it is the third that I am highly unimpressed with. I mean for a tea called SPICED apple cider you would expect some spice but there is an overpowering sweetness from the cinnamon that is just so unpleasant. Maybe next time less steeping would correct that issue but for now I am seriously debating about pouring out the cup.

To celebrate our latest blizzard, I brewed up a big Bodum of Teavana Spiced Apple Cider. This was a sip-down since I used half the package to ensure a full apple cider experience.

This batch brought back memories of the hot spiced wine prepared by my dad at Christmastime. Warm and satisfying, like sitting in front of a crackling fire

Oh no, oh no,

oh no!

Today I learnt an important lesson: — check reviews before purchasing a tea that is seventy-five percent off at Teavana. This does that mean sale teas are inherently terrible, but this does not mean sale teas are inherently good. It is always worth asking for second opinion from non-employees.

Today makes the first time I have ever not finished a cup of tea and now I have little over two ounces of Spiced Apple Cider to figure out what to do with. I’m not happy.

:(

I want to hate Teavana. Really, I try. I want to go against the mainstream Starbucks hipsters and rub elbows with the underground tea snob hipsters. But the truth is, Teavana’s tea simply satisfies. So, shoot me.

I love cinnamon… Cinnamon sticks, cinnamon oil, ground cinnamon… It’s kinda my “thang.” I also love hibiscus and fruit in my tea. And I like my tea sweet (sometimes). This tea meets all of my criteria! Potpourri? Maybe. But it sure is some damn good potpourri. I’m in love.

So my taste buds must be completely different than everyone else. I picked this one up a while back I got roped into the fall blends. I’ve been really enjoying rooibos lately since I’ve dropped my daily caffeine intake by about 80%. I really like this one. I’m not sure if I would say that it tastes like spiced apple cider. There are hints of apple, citrus, and hibiscus. I’m not sure why when it comes to herbals there seems to be an abundance of hibiscus. That may very well be the tea blending question of the century. What this tea really reminds of is mulled wine. I find that rooibos reminds me a lot like wine. There is a comfort factor with this. Warming up next to a fire after a hayride or playing in the snow. I think this one is good, but not outstanding. 2 teaspoons 8oz cup is what I have found to be the best proportions.

This isn’t bad, and I’m sipping it right now. However, I notice that as it cools down, it’s really intensely sweet (yes, I did add a little cane sugar, but it tastes different from cane sugar).

It tastes like stevia, actually. Did they start adding stevia to this?

I like Teavana Tea. I just think it tends to be overpriced and I always get someone at the store who tries to sell me something I don’t want, even after I tell them that 3 times! When I walk by a store, I can not resist stopping however, and like I said, I do like their tea. I go in and buy this tea, and the salesman puts 4ounces in a bag. I tell him I only want 2ounces, and he takes a little out and asks if that is good, no I say, 2 ounces still-3.4, 2.8, 2.4-REALLY I say! I get the tea home, look inside, I realize that I have an unusually large # of cinnamon sticks in my mix. REALLY, I say again. This tea was good. I can get good tea for about half of what I paid for this however. Would I buy it again, I am not sure, if the sales experience was the same, probably not. I am not going to lie, I know I will buy more Teavana Tea, this one will just not be on the top of my list. I can buy cinnamon sticks and add them to things when I brew, just like they do. Sorry, but it is true.