Stash - Orange Spice Tea Review

A few days ago, someone gave me a box of Stash Orange Spice Tea manufactured by the Stash Tea Company (a/k/a Universal Tea Co., Inc.)  The box contained 20 attractive foil packets each protecting a single tea bag.  According to the information on the orange front label of each packet, this beverage is a combination of black teas, orange peel, cinnamon and natural flavors of clove and orange.  (A little discreet Internet research has revealed that a 20-packet box costs about $4 each with special deals available for those who want to buy six-packs of the boxes from Amazon.  The Stash Tea Company sells most of its merchandise through a catalog which can be obtained by writing to P.O. Box 610R, Portland, OR 97207 or accessing Stashtea.com.

NOT QUITE WHAT I EXPECTED:

Call me a dreamer, but I expected to be able to actually taste the orange and spice flavors.  If they are there at all, they are pretty darned SUBTLE.  That said, I must admit that this was a VERY nice cup of tea and the fact that I personally am not registering orange and spice flavors as much as I expected to doesn't necessarily mean that the beverage is lacking.  To someone who drinks tea every day and is more acclimated to the understated qualities of that libation, this might not have been a disappointment at all.

The Stash Tea Company takes its name from the days when shipping captains who brought home shipments of tea leaves from other parts of the world would pick out some of the best stuff for their personal use, their private stash.  The company sells more than 200 different blends of tea plus a wide variety of treats and tea-making accessories. I must admit that, while this flavor was not quite what I expected, the tea was so good that I would have cornered some for my own stash if I had been a captain.

TASTE TIP:

It took a little experimentation to do justice to Stash Orange Spice Tea.  Since I drink tea out of 10 oz. mugs (the way I suspect those long-ago captains did), one Stash Orange Spice Tea bag was not enough even though I let it steep five minutes.  Next I tried TWO tea bags but was distracted and accidentally let them steep TEN minutes.  WOO-HOO!  On the third try, I did two bags again and was careful to steep for only five minutes.  Letting the tea cool a bit enhanced the taste.  All this created a lovely flavor which would make it perfect with Oriental food or desserts but I'm sorry, it still doesn't taste much like orange to me.