Preparing this tea brought back a fond childhood memory from about age 8. We were poor, but my mom had bought a box of "orange pekoe" tea as a rare indulgence, and I was excited to try some, thinking it literally was orange-flavored of whatever "pekoe" tea was. Imagine my disappointment, then, when it had no flavor at all but tea! She felt so bad for me that she spoon-scooped some concentrated orange juice from a cylinder of such in the freezer, and dropped it into my tea cup. All then was well in the world, for a few minutes anyway.

After that memory, this tea experience was a rather uninspiring letdown. It's not bad: in fact the best part is the opening, dry-bag smell—at least as vigorous as Bigelow's Constant Comment, the tea it intends to imitate, and very orange-rich. "Orange Spice" also brews up nicely dark, though the in-cup aroma is notably weaker, and portends the still-weaker taste. The base flavor is pleasant, orange-dominant with cloves apparent...just watered-down, as if it were the third steeping of a bag of Constant Comment.

Two or three bags of this might suffice, in practice, unless they substantially boost the in-bag volume of what appear to be decent-quality contents. If you find some in your hotel lobby or favorite truck-stop restaurant, grab more than one bag for your cup, or beg extras from the waiter/waitress.

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