Cinnamon Black Tea (50g)

The difference is easy to taste. Cinnamon flavouring sits on top of a tea and reads as sweet; real bark infuses into it and brings a woody, slightly hot note underneath the sweetness. It also means the strength builds with steeping time rather than arriving all at once.

• One heaped teaspoon per cup, water at a full boil.
• Steep 4–5 minutes — a minute longer than a plain black tea. Bark is dense and slow to give anything up.
• Takes milk well, unusually for a spiced blend. The cinnamon is warm rather than sharp, so nothing curdles the balance.

Morning or afternoon; there is a full black tea’s worth of caffeine here. It also makes a good base for an iced tea in summer — brew double strength, cool, and pour over ice with a slice of orange.