Steeping instructions:

Amount of water: 6 oz

Amount of Tea: 1 Flat teaspoon

Water Temperature: Boiling

Steeping Time: 3 - 5 minutes.

Red Leaf Tea’s website describes this tea as “wickedly zesty” and that’s about as spot on as I can figure. This tea is h-e-a-v-y on the spiciness due to the use of a nice spicy Chinese black tea base and what must be a wholesale-size serving of cinnamon. This tea should come with a warning that it is ‘not for the faint of heart or the weak of taste buds’. Holy Cinnamon, Batman! There is a LOT of cinnamon flavor in this tea. If you like cinnamon, then you will be quite pleased, but if you aren’t a huge fan of cinnamon, you may find this blend to be too potent for your likings. I suspect that adding a splash of milk or cream would smooth out the pungent spiciness. What really attracted me to this tea was that it was blended with marsala wine. But I have to say that because the cinnamon was so strong it was really difficult to get the wine contribution to come through. In all, this was certainly a memorable tea, and one that cinnamon aficionados will gulp down. Because this tea has such a potent and unique flavor profile that could elicit a love-or-hate response, I would recommend first purchasing a sample size of this to test it out before making a commitment to a larger size.

Vanessa -Teaviews.com -Reviewer

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After trying some of Red Leaf Tea's Wine Infused Teas and being rather impressed, I recently placed an order with them. When my order arrived they included some bonus(!!) samples of some new wine infused teas that aren't even offered on their website at the time of this review. Of the samples that they sent, this particular one commands your attention. It is has a VERY strong cinnamon aroma---to the extent that it's intense aroma made my entire mailbox smell like baked goods. I also had to separate it from the other samples so that it didn't cross-contaminate their flavor profiles with the strong cinnamon scent. I am not saying that is necessarily a bad thing because I happen to like cinnamon.

I prepared this using water brought to a full boil and allowed to cool a bit and infused this for approximately 4-5 min. Wow, this is an interesting cuppa. I can't say that the flavor profile truly reminds me of wine, but I think this is one that wine and tea drinkers alike will appreciate the complexity IF they can tolerate a fairly spicy tea. Wickedly zesty as indicated by Red Leaf Tea is a pretty good description. This is very cinnamony and the addition of that wine DOES, in fact, create a very peppery effect on the finish and in the aftertaste. It is so peppery that I actually checked my sample package several times looking for bits of black pepper, but found none. It reminds me of that peppery spiciness that you often find with Yunnans, but much more intense. However, I am pretty sure that this is not a Yunnan because I taste no maltiness---or maybe my tongue is a little fried from the spices and I can't detect it?? The black tea base is fairly full-bodied but is largely dominated by the strong flavor profile. I found the cup to be very warming (maybe too much) and this would be a great one to break out on cold winter days/nights. As the cup cooled, I did find a flavor profile changed just enough to remind me of red wine.

This blend gets some serious brownie points for uniqueness, but I am not too sure that this one will be added to my personal stash as I have a slight pepper aversion. That said, I do not believe that there is any pepper in here whatsoever. I would warn folks that if you don't like spicy blends then this one is probably not for you. However, if you like a spicy and zesty tea that is cinnamon dominated with a strong peppery finish, then you will probably love this. Don't buy this one thinking that it tastes like Marsala Red Wine flavored tea because even though it has a touch of wine flavor when it cools, you will likely be disappointed if you order it thinking that. Overall, a very unique and spicy cup. This might have scored slightly higher with me if my stomach was not so pepper adverse.

Laura -Teaviews.com -Reviewer

• Black Tea
• Process of growing and making tea