The Good: Nothing terrible in it, Easy to make, Tastes like the fruit is it supposed to!
The Bad: Caffeine free, A lot of extra waste
The Basics: A surprisingly weak apple flavor defines this Bigelow tea that could have been so much more! (It's good, though).
There is something reassuring about apple and cinnamon, especially in autumn, as far as I am concerned. It might seem odd, me writing that at the beginning of a review for a Bigelow tea when I usually spend the opening paragraph reminding my readers that I am a Celestial Seasonings loyalist. I figure I took care of that when I reviewed Bigelow's Cranberry Apple tea. And this Bigelow tea, Cinnamon Apple, is just good enough to recommend, despite all of the extra waste from Bigelow.
While traveling on my yearly cross country adventure, I found myself at a Quality Inn near the Mall Of America in Minnesota that had a twenty-four hour tea service. Well, with so many options just sitting there, I ended up with a good sized stash of a diverse array of Bigelow teas. One of them was Cinnamon Apple by Bigelow and I have to admit that Bigelow does seem to be able to pull off a decent apple-flavored tea..
Basics
Cinnamon Apple is an all natural tea from Bigelow. It is a hibiscus-based tea that lacks caffeine and has a fair apple scent when steaming. Cinnamon Apple comes in Bigelow's standard individually-wrapped tea bags, means that each tea bag has a wax papery envelope it is sealed in for freshness. Each tea bag has a five-inch string with a little paper tab at the end, which is quite a bit more waste than I like from a tea bag. When I make pots of tea, I tend to use two bags and making a steeping pot of Cinnamon Apple reminds me of why I like the easy environmentalism of Celestial Seasonings' stringless bags. A box of Cinnamon Apple comes with 20 individually-wrapped tea bags.
Cinnamon Apple is marketed as an apple and cinnamon flavored tea and it lives up to that though it is a bit weaker than other brands of apple cinnamon tea I have tried.
Ease Of Preparation
Cinnamon Apple is a tea, which means preparation is as easy as boiling a pot of water! A single tea bag will make the standard 8 oz. coffee mug worth of tea, though reusing the tea bags yields little more than hot water. I tend to make my tea using a 32 oz. steeping tea pot and that works well, though a second pot is pretty bad. Indeed, Cinnamon Apple is not a great tea to reuse with a second pot coming out about 1/2 to 3/8 as strong as the original pot!
To prepare Cinnamon Apple, simply boil some water, and pour it over the tea bags in a cup, mug or steeping pot. This tea is recommended to take three to five minutes to steep and after a couple cups and pots, I've found that with truly boiling water, the tea is ready at the three or four minute mark, but it reaches its full flavor at five minutes. However, letting the tea steep more than five minutes does not net any additional flavor, nor does it denature the flavor of the tea.
Taste
Cinnamon Apple has a surprisingly weak apple scent, which is odd because usually this is a flavor most tea manufacturers try to capitalize on from the scent forward. It is not even particularly cinnamon scented, either. The instant taste is sour and fruity, with the sourness accented by the flavor of apples. Indeed, the apple taste in this tea is more of a tart apple than one might expect. It almost tastes like a green apple tea, as opposed to autumn reds. Hot this is not unpleasant, but as the tea cools, it becomes more and more sour, as if the apple only puts up a fight with heat. There is a slight aftertaste, lasting only about a minute or two that is sour and slightly dry.
With a teaspoon of sugar, however, the apple flavor sweetens and the beverage takes on more of the anticipated taste one might figure coming out of a Cinnamon Apple drink. The cinnamon remains poorly represented, but with even just a little bit of sugar, this tea takes on more of a cider demeanor that is absolutely delicious. It is fruity and refreshing, more than just good or tolerable with the sugar. Instead, it becomes a richly flavored fruity drink with actual distinct flavor of apples, as opposed to just that fruit's sourness.
Cold, though, or iced, the tea is not wonderful, though with sugar in its iced form at least it is not wickedly sour.
Nutrition
It is not surprising that the dominant flavor of Cinnamon Apple is apples, considering that the primary ingredients are: apples, cinnamon and hibiscus! Having actual chunks of fruit in the tea bags makes for a very fruity drink. In fact, this tastes like a hot fruit drink more than a tea.
Were it not for the sugar I add whenever I make pots of Cinnamon Apple, this tea would be devoid of any nutritional value. It contains no calories, fat, sodium, carbohydrates, protein or caffeine.
Storage/Clean-up
Cinnamon Apple is easy to clean up after - the tea bags may be disposed in the garbage, or composted if you have a good garden and/or compost pile. If composting, though, one needs to remove the string and staple in order to insure that everything being put in your garden is actually biodegradable. This tea is surprisingly light, especially at full strength, though it will probably stain light-colored fabrics. However, mugs that hold the tea rinse clean. Spills ought to be cleaned up quickly to prevent this tea from staining fabrics, though that's a pretty good general rule not just limited to the Cinnamon Apple tea.
Overall
Cinnamon Apple is decent and offers a good alternative for me when I stray from my regular brand. With a little bit of sugar, it becomes so much more than its lightly-scented body insinuates and that is good. Outside the extra packaging and being very sour without sugar, this is a very good fruit tea drink!
For other Bigelow tea reviews, please check out:
Cranberry Apple
Orange & Spice
Vanilla Chai
6/10
For other food and drink reviews, please visit my index page!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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