Spiced Ruby Cider Herbal Tea

A friend who travels a lot was apparently thinking of me when she visited the Spice and Tea Exchange in St. Augustine, Florida, before Christmas, as she gifted me with several new teas from there, including this Spiced Ruby Cider Herbal Tea.

I was at a local coffee shop this week and was in the mood to order hot apple cider rather than more tea, which I've been consuming in copious quantities since it's been so cold and rainy here in Georgia lately. I enjoyed it so much, I decided it was time to try this cider-flavored herbal tea with the ingredients of the traditional mulling mix, hibiscus, and apple pieces.

It gave me that rich cider flavor I was hoping for, and only after I'd tried it straight from the bag did I follow their instructions to steep some in hot apple juice. Ah, even better! And now I'm wondering why I haven't ever thought of steeping some of my spicy teas in juice before now. If you've tried this tea-and-juice combo and have any recommendations, I'd love to hear them!

Oliver Pluff & Co. Gunpowder Green Tea

I received a number of new teas as gifts over Christmas, so this week, I tried this gunpowder tea from Oliver Pluff & Co. This tea company is based in Charleston, S.C., which always makes me think of Theodosia Browning's tea shop in the Laura Childs cozy mysteries.

I'm pretty sure I could pick gunpowder tea out of a lineup because of its tight little balls of tea that resemble gunpowder pellets.

 I always think, "What if the tea leaves don't expand?" And yet they always do.

I had sipped a lot of flavored tea this week, so this nice green tea (which doesn't look like green tea in the cup) was a most welcome change. I liked the slightly roasted flavor I detected in this tea, and I got multiple steepings of it. I'm hoping to try a new tea each week of January since it's National Hot Tea Month, and this one was a winner!

Candy Cane Herbal Tea from Plum Deluxe

Plum Deluxe recently offered to send me some tea samples to try, and I was delighted to find this Candy Cane Herbal Tea among the offerings! This caffeine-free herbal would be a great holiday blend for those of you who are avoiding caffeine.

It's available only through January, and it's a blend of green rooibos and peppermint with "some of those creamy and sweet mint notes of candy canes but without all the sugar." I found it naturally quite sweet, and the taste (and scent!) are lovely. It's the perfect treat after an evening of Christmas decorating. (For those of us who still aren't quite finished.)

I loved the bright, minty taste of this new tea blend, and I think many of you would enjoy it as well!

A new green tea to love: Thé du Louvre from Palais des Thés

Paris has been on lots of minds around the world recently following that horrible fire at Notre Dame on April 15, and now everyone is hopeful that one of the world's great historic sites will be restored in a timely manner. This week, I'm thinking of another Paris landmark since Palais des Thés was kind enough to send me a sample of their new Thé du Louvre Garden Tea to sample.

I'm mesmerized by the design on the pretty tin.

When I opened it, I thought, "Cool! A plastic liner to keep the tea from spilling out." Oh, how many times I've lost a few ounces of tea during an overly enthusiastic tin opening.

And see that tab on the right? It means that I will never accidentally spill this tea upon first opening it, and I think this new packaging is simply brilliant.

Brilliant is also a good word to describe this gourmet green tea blend featuring notes of apple, plum, and quince, which Palais des Thés aims to make us recall "a stroll through the Tuileries Garden." This is one of two new blends that pay tribute to the Louvre (I'll also be trying the other one soon), and they're being released just as the museum celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Louvre Pyramid.

This is the tea I've been sipping all week in my new green teacup, and oh, is Thé du Louvre delicious! The scent and taste of the tea are so light and fruity that I find myself pausing just to inhale the steeped tea before I sip it—it's that good. Are you looking for a new green tea to try, one that evokes memories of Paris in springtime and that will get you drinking more green tea? Then I heartily recommend this one, and you can find it here.

Teavivre's Keemun Aromatic Snail Black Tea

My friends at Teavivre recently sent along some fresh new teas to try, and the first one I sampled was this intriguingly named Keemun Aromatic Snail Black Tea.

No, there are no snails in this tea, but as you can see from this detail photo, the leaves are rolled into tight little curly shapes that do indeed resemble a snail. As I scooped out some of this tea for sampling, I couldn't help noticing the fine texture. Those spiral shapes have a lot of air in between them, and the dry leaf very much reminded me of pencil shavings, especially since I've been coloring so much lately that I've had to sharpen my coloring pencils quite a few times!

And here is what the steeped tea leaves looked like in my infuser basket. I haven't had a Keemun in some time, and I think that made me enjoy this delicious tea all the more! It had that rich, sweet, grape-like flavor I associate with Keemuns, and I greatly enjoyed it. If you'd like to learn more about this tea yourself, click here.

Coconut Mango Wuyi Oolong from Stash Tea

It's National Hot Tea Month, and I suppose I've been celebrating every day since I seem to be sipping lots more hot tea so far this year! Now that Christmas has passed, I've put away my treasured Christmas teacups for another year and am enjoying using this winter white creamware teacup and saucer.

This Stash tea is a new one to me, the Coconut Mango Wuyi Oolong I received from my sister for Christmas. It wasn't too many years ago that oolong seemed like a pretty exotic tea, so I love the fact it's now so mainstream!

When I first opened a teabag, I caught a nice citrus scent. Steeped, the tea had the pleasantly fruity taste of mango, a hint of coconut, and a citrus flavor from the orange peel. After all the spice teas and peppermint teas I've had lately, it was rather nice to have something fruit-flavored for a change. Stash teabags always come individually packaged, and they're one of my favorite brands to tuck into a card for a friend. So what are you sipping to celebrate National Hot Tea Month?