#nut tea

Tea: Roasted Almond Delight from The Great Lakes Tea and Spice Co

Price: $7.95 got 1.6 oz 

Ingredients: Apple Pieces, planned and crushed almonds, cinnamon pieces, beetroot pieces, flavoring 

This is the first out of three (maybe four) reviews for teas from northern Michigan, because I had a lot of luck with tea shops, surprisingly, while on vacation. This little shop is located in Glen Arbor, a small town near the Sleeping Bear Dunes. I ended up choosing a tisane at this shop, because it smelled really good, and it was between this one and Northern Berries, which I'll probably get eventually and includes bilberries and elderberries which I thought is pretty unique. The almond tea seems more fitting for fall though, so I chose that one. 

The tisane's smell is very strong, and dominated by the nuts. It's sweet, and the cinnamon is a nice undertone. The apple and beetroot are less present in this tea, and are likely there to balance the strength of the almonds and cinnamon in the taste, and not to be a main part of the tea. I'm surprised, I think this is the second apple and nut tea with beetroot in it that I've reviewed. The pieces are large chunks, and look really great because you can see all the little pieces and nuances in the dry mixture. 

Steeped, this tea loses a lot of its smell, but makes up for it in taste. The apple flavor is a bit weak, but the almonds create a nice nutty aftertaste. The cinnamon is faint but present, and I can't really notice any of the beetroot. I like that the sweetness in the smell transfers over in the taste; this tea probably does not need added sugar (although brown sugar might be interesting). The liquid is a faint pale pink hue, but other than that the beetroot is almost invisible. 

A note: Looking back on another tea I reviewed in April, Forever Nuts, I realized that these teas have almost identical ingredient lists. However, they possess very different flavor profiles. The other tea was heavily cinnamon based and the beetroot dominated, whereas this one was much more mellow and the nuts shone more. I think this is the better tea of the two.