Winter is no longer coming, it’s already here; and each morning, there is a cold sparkle in the air, that definitely makes me want to go back to sleep. To wake myself up, I tried this seasonal special tea blend from TeaBox, the Winter Spice Chai. This tea blend is an inspired deconstruction of the vanilla nut pudding, and is a perfect tea for winter mornings. The aroma of toasted almonds and spicy ginger fills up the air as one brews a cup of this decadent chai. This tea blend has a mellow sweetness of almonds, with notable spice accents making for a superb astringent cup of chai tea. It contains almonds, red pepper, ginger and cinnamon.

The moment you open the packet of this tea, you can feel the warm notes of toasted nut with hints of ginger and citrus. The dry black tea leaves with golden roasted almonds, red pepper and specks of dry ginger.

I take a cup of cold filtered water, heat it up to about 90-100F, and add about 1/25 tsp of the tea leaves, allowing it to infuse for about 5 minutes. This is the prescribed method by TeaBox. The infusion has shades of brown, beige and red with an aroma of toasted almonds and ginger.

The tea liquor for this blend is tawny, has a warming aroma with opening notes of toasted nuts, followed by cinnamon. from the very first sip, this tea gives the experience of indulging in a spoonful of fresh vanilla-nut pudding. A racy hit of cinnamon accentuates the sweetness while ginger bathes the tea with its warmth. I add some honey to it, no milk. It has medium levels of caffeine in it.

Teabox prescribes it as a good accompaniment to red meat. I being a vegetarian do not find it doable. But I find this a good to have tea on its own. It is a good sweet almond spice chai, with a nutty taste along with the chai spices. It has a smooth body and a unique flavor profile. Have it with some upma or poha, or toast and butter, I like it with everything and nothing.