Orange Spice (Organic) (formerly The Spice is Right)

Advent calendar [12/24]

Happy half-way!

I took one sip of this tea and wasn’t overly impressed. I thought that perhaps standing with my back to the kitchen sink wasn’t a great spot to enjoy tea. Maybe my mind wasn’t in the right place. I tried to imagine sipping this in a better, more Christmas-y location, like in front of the fireplace (we don’t have one) or with company on Christmas eve. It worked somewhat. One thing that was missing for me was the green tea. There was no green tea flavour. I started to like it a little better as it cooled and mellowed out.

The part that I didn’t like was how this tea had an overwhelming flavour of cinnamon or cinnamon hearts, followed by a hint of chili flakes and peppercorns. If I’d steeped it any longer, the spiciness would have been too strong.

I think this tea advent calendar is making me realize how much I dislike spice teas. I am still a fan of chai, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if these same few spices can go with every tea that David’s puts out.

Looking forward to the next twelve days. Here’s to hoping I’ll find another that really shines.

A liquid cinnamon heart, to pit it simply. The cinnamon in this tea hits you right in the face; there is nothing subtle about it. There’s a lighter tone of cloves and I found I couldn’t taste orange peel at all. The pepper hits you as an aftertaste and is also quite intense. If you steep this tea longer than 4 minutes you’ll be in for an extremely spicy, hot experience. Adding any type of sweetener to this makes it very unpleasant since it’s already quite sweet on its own.
Part of the DAVIDsTEA permanent collection.

I don’t know how I overlooked this spicy green tea in the past. It’s slightly sweet with a sharp hot chili pepper note, and I’m glad that I tried it.

I quite like this tea. In cold weather, it warms you up and makes you happy. The taste is also quite good (cinnamon, spicescloves, orange). It is spicy yet sweet. It does not taste at all like a green tea and at first I was disapointed because of this, but the more I drank this tea and the more it grew on me.

Mamma mía, hello there cinnamon! I expected this to be a green tea flavoured with orange peels and a hint of cinnamon but it’s more like a cinnamon infusion with a few green tea leaves and a little almost imperceptible hint of orange. I have to say that the name in French of this tea translates to “spicy orange” so that’s why I had such presumptions. The name in English is better. Actually, why are the tea leaves so dark? They look black. It’s a very intense tea and the taste of cinnamon heart candies stays in my mouth for hours. But I love that taste so whatever :)

I had this the other day in store. Quite different than what I had at home. Delish! Hmmm

Sipdown! (I’ve vowed to finish off the sweetheart collection this weekend and I’ll reward myself with a visit to DAVID’s on Monday)

This was a very orange-y cup of this. I made enough for two cups, had one, then had the other after a walk so it cooled pretty significantly which really brought out the orange. Cinnamon too, but no chili. I actually forgot there was supposed to be any chili in this until I came to its page. Slight hint of anise too, which I didn’t get before. Overall okay, but nothing special.

Zesty is right! Would you like some tea with your spice?! haha. But, joking aside, I enjoyed this tea. Planning to buy some more when I run out. Heavily spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and oranges. Didn’t really taste the chili pepper. Maybe it was just the heat that lingers after each sip. It reminds me of a local blend called “Market Spice” from the Pike Place Market in Seattle—only that tea has a black base.

When I first steeped this I could immediately smell the chili pepper and got nervous. As it turns out, that was silly of me. I quite like this. It’s very spicy, but I do love my spices, so I was quite all right with that. Perhaps not as much orange as some might expect/hope for, but it’s noticeable. Quiet, but noticeable. It’s creeping on -30 Celsius today and this feels like the perfect drink for it.

The more I drink it, the more I think about those yummy little candy cinnamon hearts.

This is about as close to a perfect tea as I can think of. I’ve been looking for a substitute to Teavana’s White Ayurvedic Chai for a while (due to high price, and being a white tea it was a hassle getting the temp right etc). I think I’ve finally found an amazing alternative in The Spice is Right!! It tastes like cinnamon hearts candy. I drank it with vanilla agave and some brown sugar, and it was suuuper sweet, so I think next time I’ll hold back on the sweetener a bit to see what it’s like straight. I’m thinking it’ll be perfect. LOVE.