I could spend all day with my nose stuck in this custom blend from Phonecia’s Mediterranean grocery store. The scent is just heavenly.
Zorba’s Ceylon Tea Blend includes ceylon (black) tea and spices (allspice, red peppercorns, cinnamon bark). There were no suggestion as to brewing time, so I chose to bring water to a full roiling boil, then steep 2 level teaspoons for my teapot for 2 minutes. The brewed tea turned out a lovely, dark shade.
Even though this tea has a very rich and spicy scent, the actual brewed tea was quite a bit milder than I expected. Very light-bodied, the flavor was very subtle, with the cinnamon and allspice at the fore and nothing bitter at all. I think this worked best with quite a bit of milk and sugar – it felt almost like a chai tea then. I wouldn’t recommend a second or third steeping though – I could barely taste the flavor of the tea by then.
This would be a lovely tea for those days when you’re just not feeling your best. The scent and lightly spiced flavor are very comforting.