Ahh the smell of spiced tea on a brisk morning. The combination of tea and spices goes back thousands of years. See when blending first came to be, every ingredient had a purpose. The main reason for adding cloves with tea? Well that would be to cure bad breath. Fast forward and we are still loving a good spiced tea.
The most famous spiced tea in the world has to be Chai. See in parts of the world Chai just means tea, whereas what we call Chai in American culture is also called Masala around the world. This spiced blend can vary on what different herbs and spiced are included as well as the level of spiciness. Most Chai will have a black tea base although recently, using Red Tea or Rooibos as the base has caught on in popularity due the natural sweetness and being an herbal option. Different spices you might find in Chai Tea are Cinnamon, Peppercorn, All Spice, Cloves, and Ginger. You will also find Fennel or Star Anise for a licorice type taste and our Fresh Crafted Spiced Chai is finished with raw wild flower honey to make a "sticky chai".
Other spiced teas include an Orange Spice or Market Spice Blend adding orange peel or flavoring to the tea and selected spices. There are also fun Russian and Ethiopian spiced tea's that are cultural staples and sometimes drank more commonly around the holiday season. Even though a spiced tea is great to cozy up to on a cold morning, we also love them as a refreshing iced or sun tea in the summer. There are also fun ways to drink spiced tea from milk lattes, in a tea mocktail, or even on nitro as our Chai is found in our tasting room. However you take your tea its hard to argue that spiced tea doesn't have it's place in our world of tea.
Cheers,
Revival Tea Co.