Sep 13
Review: SpecialTeas Cinnamon Orange Spice
Black Tea, Cinnamon Tea, Clove Tea, Orange Peel Tea, SpecialTeas, Vanilla Tea Add commentsVanessa’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "The predominant flavor is of spices, particularly cloves, with very little, if any orange flavor."
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From the first whiff, Specialteas' Cinnamon Orange Spice black tea is one that evokes images of cool autumn evenings. Sitting in the middle of yet another hazy, hot and humid Miami summer makes me wonder if perhaps I should have deferred this review to a more seasonally appropriate time (although I would be hard-pressed to ever encounter a cool day in Miami, regardless of the time of year). Anyway, seeing as I have already steeped the tea, I will just have to pretend that it is October and I am somewhere in New England viewing brilliantly colored foliage and feeling a pleasant briskness to the air. Now, on to the tea. The dry blend is a visually attractive mix of black tea, orange peels, and cloves. The scent of orange peels and cloves was particularly striking. The other ingredients in the blend (cinnamon, "flavoring", and vanilla bits") are not really visible in the blend, and with the exception of the cinnamon, aren't really detectable in the aroma either (as I don't really know what "flavoring" is supposed to smell like). The brewed tea is a medium-bodied rich amber liquid with an aroma that is heavy on the spices yet light on the orange. True to its aroma, the predominant flavor is of spices, particularly cloves, with very little, if any orange flavor. I did not taste the vanilla bits, but since this should only be a background flavor anyway, I guess it really didn't bother me much. This wasn't a bad tea, per se, but I would have appreciated a better balance of the primary flavors (cinnamon, orange, and cloves). This blend would have been much better if the cinnamon and orange flavors were more pronounced in the brew. I have learned first-hand, that even the smallest amount of cloves can overpower every other ingredient in a recipe, and it appears to me that perhaps just a little too much clove is present here. The clove flavor gave it an almost "heavy" taste, which reinforced my opinion that this tea has a definite seasonality to it, and is probably best enjoyed in cooler seasons. Because of the strong and heavy spiciness, I don't see this tea working particularly well as iced tea, but I must also admit that I did not try an iced version of this blend. In all, while this tea didn't astound me, I did enjoy it, but would probably limit myself to drinking this tea during the cooler months.
— To purchase SpecialTeas Cinnamon Orange Spice, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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