Cardamom and toasted almond turn up first in this black tea, wrapped around a base of strawberry, raspberry, and cranberry. The berries bring the tang, the almond rounds things out with a nutty, faintly creamy note, and the cardamom sits underneath the whole cup like a low hum of spice. It is built for the cold months, a tea named after a very specific holiday and meant for sipping while everything outside has gone grey. Milk suits it well, since the almond and cream notes only get more pronounced with a splash added.
Black leaf tea forms the base, blended with strawberries, raspberries, cranberries, cardamom seeds, and toasted almonds. Because of the almonds, anyone with a nut allergy should steer clear. The dried fruit softens black tea's usual bite, so what lands in the cup reads more like mulled fruit with a spice edge than a straightforward cup of black, and the spice never overwhelms the fruit underneath it.
Steep a teaspoon of the blend in freshly boiled water for three to five minutes, tasting along the way if you prefer it lighter. It holds up over ice just as well as it does hot: strain it over a glass full of ice cubes for a cold version, and sweeten to taste either way. A cup made with milk carries around 47mg of caffeine.
Black tea has long been credited with a good dose of antioxidants, and it is traditionally used to ease inflammation, support digestion, and give a mild lift in energy and focus, mostly down to that caffeine. None of that is really the point of a tea like this one, though. The point is the cup itself: warm spice, tart berry, and a thread of toasted nut running through the whole thing, built for exactly the season it is named after and worth keeping around as part of a holiday routine.
