21 Days of tea October 2025

I think the last time I enjoyed this tea was when we tested it to bring it into our teashop.  I really like chai because of the spices but had never really thought about mixing it with chocolate. Truth be told, I am not a fan of dark chocolate (give me white chocolate all day, and I don't eat milk chocolate anymore since I went plant-based).

Just like when I tried this tea initially, I am not fond of the chocolate taste.  While not too strong, I find that it overpowers any spice, and that chocolate flavor lasts a while on the pallet.  Not that it's a bad thing, but for me, it lasted just a little too long.  

I have never tried this tea with any additives, but I am sure it would be nice with milk or even a light creamer.   

Since today is my day off, I decided to stick with a tea that is in my tea cabinet at home, and that's my "go to" tea on a regular basis.  In all honesty, there was no way that I could go without this tea for thirty days, but I feel pretty good that I didn't cave until day 21. 

Downtown Afternoon is a tea I designed in response to traditional English Breakfast. Most people don't know this, but English Breakfast, to maintain flavor consistency throughout each harvest season, is actually a tea that is blended from three teas (all black teas).  These teas tend to consist of traditional black teas from the following regions: Assam (India), Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Kenyan (Kenya).  These distinct regions, when blended together, make a delicious and balances (and consistent) tea that you can count on year after year. 

I decided to blend this tea with three teas from different regions, making it a version of an "English Breakfast style" but not a true English Breakfast.  The teas I chose were grown and processed in China, Ceylon, and India. 

I also named the tea Downtown Afternoon

We have so many teas that we work with at our tea shop, but every now and then I get to blend or create something all our own.  Many times, when blending a new tea, it often requires time to sit and curate all the flavors together.  I'm usually so anxious about trying these newly blended teas, but sometimes, in my haste and busyness, I forget about them.  This is one such tea that I forgot about. 

One day, last fall, I was craving a cinnamon tea, but I was looking for something more like a cinnamon bun.  Not finding what I was looking for in our stash of extensive teas, I decided to take two of our existing teas, vanilla and cinnamon, and blend them together.  The first trial was too overpowering on the cinnamon side (cinnamon can be very strong when steeped) and it buried the vanilla flavor.  So, I tried again, and again, and again.  I went through three different versions of this tea until I found the right blend of creaminess and spice.  Then, I put it away and forgot about it. 

I really enjoyed this tea today.  It was exactly what I was looking for in a "fall inspired" tea.  I am going to plan to try it one more time after my 30-day adventure is over, and if I still feel the same way about it that I do today, you will probably find it on the shelf in our shop and online in the coming weeks.

I'll never forget the day Dawne came to me and asked about making a white chai blend.  I have been a fan of white tea since the day I tried it almost nine years ago.  In fact, in the early stages of my blending, I used it almost exclusively to make our tea blends.  The first was our Strawberry Dream white tea, then down the road, our award-winning Lavender Vanilla White Tea.  When I designed a tea for our local Hacienda Hotel, I used white tea as the base to carry the notes of hibiscus and lemon, which allowed the tea liquor to be pink like the exterior of the hotel.  I had never thought about creating a chai with white tea until Dawne asked to create one. 

Her interest in creating this tea came about when she came back from our annual July vacation a few years ago.  On her vacation, she had traveled up north and had stopped at a tea shop.  They had a white chai, and she fell in love with it. She came back with the mission to create her own version that we would sell as a part of our tea brand. We got to work laying out the spices she wanted to use, worked to balance them into a blend that would complement the tea, and them mixed it all together.  There are two keys to a good chai.  First, you must have the right spice mix for what you anticipate the flavor to be. Some people like a more ginger forward flavor, some like a more cardamom or cinnamon forward. Second, once you determine the spice mix, then it's time to pick the tea. We knew we wanted a white tea but one that isn't too floral, to blend with the spices.

We named this tea Gypsy Pearl because we love the thought of it being a free-spirited individual, and the strength of women who enjoy tea, along with the beauty of a string of pearls (being white).  While on a trip not long after we developed the slogan, "smooth as a strand of pearls and as spicy as the women who wear then."

This tea is created with a base of pai mu tan, and blended with cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, and black pepper.  My hint for the best tasting chai (loose leaf) is to make sure you shake the tea container first before scooping your tea out.  Spices are heavy and often fall to the bottom of the package.  To ensure even spices throughout, make sure you shake the container to blend it. 

I'm a born and raised Florida girl, so when I find anything with the word "orange" in it, my interest is instantly peaked.  That's what happened when I saw this tea at the Spice and Tea Exchange in Dunedin a few weeks ago.  The very name, including "orange" and "smoothie" made me want to give it a try. And, while I know the flavors of a blood orange are very different than the flavors of a traditional Florida orange, I was still curious. 

I thought this tea might be a good edition to my evening ritual, seeing as the base of the blend is caffeine-free rooibos. To me, rooibos can be floral and sometimes, depending on what it is blended with, it can take on an almost tobacco type flavor (not cigarette flavor, but like fresh dried tobacco leaves).  Knowing that my brain translates the flavor of rooibos this way, I was curious to see how the orange and vanilla notes would hold up to the rooibos.

The aroma of this tea is most definitely citrus forward, but once you taste it, the citrus flavors fade to the back, allowing the smoothness of the vanilla to dull some of the tartness, and ultimately leaving a pleasant and slightly full mouth feel. To me, the blood orange flavor isn't as sweet as a traditional orange, and that's ok because the vanilla brings just enough sweetness for the tea to be enjoyed just as it is, without any additions.

The blend of the blood orange and vanilla pair nicely together with rooibos, and I have to say that I found this drink to be quite enjoyable as an evening tea. I can see putting this tea in my evening tea rotation along with some of my other herbals that I enjoy from time to time. 

I also imagine that this tea would be nice iced if you wanted to enjoy it during the day (though me, I like hot tea any time of day). 

This is a standard tea for Spice and Tea Exchange, and it's also available online.  If you're looking for an enjoyable caffeine-free herbal to add to your tea rotation, you really can't go wrong with this one.