Today, as you might know, is the day before Halloween, All Hallow’s Eve…Eve. It has been a perfectly stormy day complete with hail and a nicely flooded basement, a great sign for a good Halloween. I do have a special tea that I am reviewing tomorrow that is on theme, but I wanted to start off the festivities with a bit of pumpkin goodness (I did not carve one this year, tragic).
Presenting Pumpkin Pie Spice Black Tea by Republic of Tea, an Autumn themed tea made from a blend of Black teas, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger and Cloves. They advice adding a splash of cream but I am a completely out and there is no way I am using the much maligned skim milk that is in the fridge. The aroma is very spiced, and very evocative of pumpkin pie spice. There is of course absolutely no pumpkin and just spice, but the it said that on the tin so you won’t get me raging about being misled with squash. There is also a touch of buttered rum aroma which I always enjoy. The most prominent spice aroma is clove, definitely lots of clove!
Time to dunk the teabag! The aroma is super sweet and pie like, I can even detect a bit of crust but I am willing to chock that up to ghosts. The spices are well balanced after being steeped, no one spice sticks out unlike the un-drenched bag. The aroma is practically crying out ‘drink me on a chilly day! Enjoy me with mounds of Autumnal foods’ not to mention the desire for cream.
Drinking the tea the first thing I notice is the sweetness and balanced spices. I do love a spiced tea that is well balanced and nuanced, having one spice drown out all the others is sad. The taste is very much so pumpkin pie spice with a delightful mouth tingling from the cloves. As per my usual gripe, the tea tastes nothing like actual pumpkins, one day I will find a pumpkin spice tea that tastes like pumpkins, but as just spiced teas go this one is pretty good for a tea bag! Not that there is anything wrong with teabags, I just have gotten very spoiled with all my loose leaf. So far this has been my favorite bagged pumpkin themed tea that I have yet tried, so give it a try if you are part of the pumpkin craze!
For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2013/10/republic-of-tea-pumpkin-spice-black-tea.html
