As the leaves turn golden and scarves emerge from summer storage, cravings tend to arise for a steaming mug full of warm, comforting tea. Luckily, there’s a bountiful array of blends ready for sampling this autumn. Read on for our thoughts on the best tea blends for fall and enjoy the art of discovering your next favorite cup.
FALL TEA BLENDS
It stands to reason that the best time to enjoy any food or drink is when it’s in season. That’s why we eat hearty soups, stews, and roasts made with winter vegetables in the colder months, and light summer fruits and salads when it’s warm out. The same can be said of fall tea flavors: while spring and summer call for bright iced tea and fruity, floral blends, the crisp fall weather calls for warm, soothing teas to ease us through the equinox. So, as we finish off the light herbal tisanes and bold fruit flavors we’ve been enjoying all summer, our attention turns to spicier flavor profiles with more complexity.
Some of the more popular ingredients in fall teas mirror the spices that spike in popularity at coffee shops around this time of year, like nutmeg, cinnamon, clove, and ginger. As the holiday season approaches, it’s fun to savor the contrast between the warmth in our cup and the cool air around us when we step outdoors. Tall glasses of iced tea are replaced by chai (the Hindi word for “tea”) lattes blended with masala (the Hindi word for “spices”) in golden hues that echo the colors of the season. Vanilla, cocoa, and even turmeric invite us to savor every sip as the year rounds the corner into its final season.
PUMPKIN SPICE
For those turning over a new leaf and incorporating tea into their daily rituals, indulging in seasonal favorites is a great place to start. In the fall, rich, comforting blends with a balance of sweetness and spice are an inviting way to begin the day or unwind as the clock ticks down.
Lattes made with espresso and pumpkin spice are synonymous with autumn, but Tea Forte's Pumpkin Spice blend, available only during the fall and winter seasons, is a perfect alternative to the nervous energy too much caffeine can cause. Made with elegant black tea and a trio of classic fall spices -- cinnamon, ginger, and clove -- this warming tea can transport the imagination to the cafe around the corner or a cabin in the woods as the leaves turn gold.
Pumpkin Spice is only available in the autumn & winter seasons in Petite Presentation Boxes of ten pyramid tea infusers.
TURMERIC TANTRA CHAI
Tea Forté's Turmeric Tantra Chai is an elegant herbal tisane quite unlike any other. Wildly popular in many Asian cuisines and widely used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine, turmeric brings a pungent dose of herbal flavor to this blend, pairing perfectly with its notes of licorice and lemongrass. In India, spiced chai (the Hindi word for "tea") has long been a tradition focused on black tea as its base, but chai's global evolution has broadened to include additional varieties of tea leaves and tisanes. As a result, delightfully unique blends like this have emerged. It's both difficult to describe and wonderful to enjoy.
Also infused with ginger root, cardamom pods, clove buds and just a hint of pepper, this tisane blend has a soothing effect on the throat and an almost soup-like consistency, slightly less transparent than most herbal elixirs. Smooth and sweet with a hypnotic finish, it delivers a level of comfort that leaves some tea enthusiasts craving a second cup as soon as they've finished the first. Thankfully, this blend is free of caffeine and calories, making it an indulgence free of consequences, too.
HARVEST APPLE SPICE
As the weather turns crisp and cravings kick in for cold-weather comforts like hot tea and apple pie, Tea Forte's Harvest Apple Spice blend is a cozy concoction of rooibos, juicy apple, and autumn spices with notes of rich berries and a hint of oak. This deep red herbal tisane is caffeine-free, making it a perfect bedtime blend to curl up with at night (or enjoy any time of day).
Harvest Apple Spice is available year-round in loose tea canisters.
BOMBAY CHAI
Chai is in many languages the word for tea and is believed to be derived from the Cantonese 'Cha' (for example Persian, Hindi, Korean, Russian, Mandarin, and Swahili). In the western world, Chai tea is mostly referred to as a full-flavor, spiced Indian black tea that is enjoyed from morning until night in India, where it is traditionally served with boiling whole milk and sugar for a unique infusion.
The wonderful yet delicately composed mélange of ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, star anise, black pepper, and flavoring gives Tea Forté Chai tea its character. Tea Forté's Chai contains very flavorful and aromatic spices. This black tea is known as a 'very forgiving black tea', meaning that it is almost impossible to 'over steep'. Our Bombay Chai combines black tea with the spices found in a traditional Indian masala chai. Chai recipes vary enormously, using different spices, sugars amounts, and types of milk. However, they are uniformly well-lightened and sweetened.
Whichever fall flavors you enjoy the most, they’re bound to be found among Tea Forte’s extensive selection of blends. Find your new favorite fall tea flavors here.
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