Christmas Tea - Mélange Noël (TE90)

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.

Sipdown no. 11 of February 2019 (no. 29 of 2019 total, no. 517 grand total). A sample.

I had a craving for some sort of black tea, and I randomly put my hand on this one.

I can’t improve on my earlier note except to say that it hit the spot today.

Smells a lot stronger than it tastes. While there is definitely cinnamon, it’s not overpowering the way it can be in many ‘holiday’ teas. Very pleasantly mellow but couldn’t hold up to cream or milk.

Enjoyable, exactly as expected. A little artificial, but it’s a flavored tea. Spicy, balanced.

There’s a lot going on here: cinnamon, clove, cardamom, rose, orange, almond, and vanilla. I don’t taste all of those, but I do taste a surprising number of them and they’re pretty well-balanced. I don’t tend to like orange peel, but it doesn’t take over. The spices are strong and the rose is surprisingly robust, with just a little vanilla at the end of the sip to mellow things out. I wish I got more of the almond and cardamom, but this is quite nice.