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To be honest, I was afraid of this tea at first. I had a bad experience with Hot Cinnamon Spice (too sweet) and was afraid this would be HCS 2.0. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case.

This tea is good, but not amazing. There are strong notes of clove, cinnamon, and orange, like the Hot Cinnamon Spice, but their arrangement is different. Clove is the dominant spice in the mix, which gives it a chai-like flavor profile. Even so, you wouldn’t mistake this tea for chai. The sweet orange rounds out the flavor, eliminating the spicy “kick” that chai often has.

Overall, I was a little disappointed by how weak the tea was. When I think holiday spice tea, I expect strong and bold flavor. This tea was light, but not in a good way. I feel like Hot Cinnamon Spice would have been nicer if it were less sweet and lighter; this tea would have been better if it were more bold. I might try a longer steep time and see if that remedies the problem. I don’t think this would stand up to milk either. I wanted to be warmed and woken up, but this put me to sleep. This might work as chai for people that don’t like chai, if that makes any sense.

This is still too sweet for me and tastes too much like gum. Where is the black tea? I can’t even taste it.

Left a bitter taste on my tongue so that all sips afterward (even with milk and sugar) tasted strange. Very astringent and not as good as Twinings. Can’t even imagine drinking this unadulerated.

This tea is amazing. The cream flavor is well matched with the Ceylon. Although this tea is not sweet, it has an impression of sweetness (uh…) and it is so comforting with milk and sugar. I’m impressed by how it’s not overpowered by the milk and sweetener, and how well the tea and cream flavor comes through. I think I’m going to have to steal this from my Mom!

This is an excellent white tea. The blueberry flavor is light—fruity, but not sickeningly sweet.

The mango flavor was really prominent in the tea. This tea was about as bitter as most teas are, but I’m very sensitive to bitterness, so I didn’t finish this cup. (AKA, I think most people would like this tea, and I just prepared it badly.) I think 30 seconds less brew time might work better next time.

Mixed this 50-50 with Cream black tea from Adagio. Tasted like strawberries and cream, or maybe peaches and cream—but definitely delicious!

Mixed this 50-50 with Decaf Strawberry black from Adagio. Tasted like strawberries and cream, or maybe peaches and cream—but definitely delicious!

Yum! This is strong (well, just right) if you brew it for 7 minutes, so if you want a lighter taste I would go for 5 minutes. It is tart, and I couldn’t detect any sweetness (although it was quite hot at the time so that could have affected my ability to taste it). I added a packet of Splenda and it was like kool aid for grown ups! I think it’s much better cooled, and will try it sans sweetener and chilled next time.