Piacha: Apple Green Tea ... (with a soothing hint of cinnamon!)

For those of us in the UK it is pretty evident that autumn is here. We have chilly mornings and evenings, dew on the grass and frost on the car windows. After a balmy summer of high temperatures, cool breezes and heavy downpours, we are now entering into my favourite season of them all.

I love autumn because I can't quite deal with the high temperatures. I love the fresh crispness of the air, the low autumnal sun and the fact that we now see a huge collection of autumn (and in a few months, Christmas!) tea's in the shops and online. Sadly though, the most common autumn tea, Pumpkin Spice, isn't a real hit for me. There is something about it that I just don't like.  But, now, thanks to Piacha I have just tried a wonderful, warming tea that I think is perfect for the season. 

In my humble opinion, their Apple Green Tea is THE thing to drink this autumn. 

But, first a little bit about Piacha. 

I was contacted by a lovely lady called Francesca who kindly sent me some samples and a little bit of history on the company. Piacha is based in Islington, London. You can buy their tea and drink it in their cafe, order it to take away or, if you want to drink it at home, you can buy it in loose form and prepare it at home. Or, if you're reading this from a little further away you can buy the tea online, too!

Not only do Piacha use tea in drinks. They also add it to their food too! You can buy Lapsang infused ham sandwiches and muesli with added Rooibos! It certainly seems that this is a company that truly does love it's tea.

And it's proving a hit with customers too - in just eight months they are featured highly on Tripadvisor. They are number 6 out of 619 best coffee and tea places in London - a huge and impressive achievement.

I will be visiting Piacha in the near future (as soon as I find a job!) and will, naturally, put a review up as soon as I can! I'm excited and cannot wait to visit the shop and meet the team.

Anyway, back to the tea. I have kindly been sent a great selection of tea, but, as a apple tea lover I picked their Apple Green Tea to review first. 

I love apple flavoured tea. Whether it be added to black tea, as a fruit infusion or, as with the case of today's tea, added to green tea. But, it's a very hard tea to get right. A lot of the cheaper blends of tea add a flavouring to the tea and it can sometimes be very oily and uneasy to drink. This tea, however, is fantastically natural, thirst quenching, tasty and incredibly moreish.

This morning I was at a job interview and nerves took over. Unable to eat or drink anything, by the time I got home I was desperate for a drink and because of it's marvelous qualities this was the tea I decided to choose. I filled the tea maker tea basket with an ample amount of tea. As you can see it's a gorgeous looking tea. The tea is lovely and green, the pieces of apple bring a lovely contrasting colour and you can even see bits of cinnamon in there, too!

Naturally, with this being a green tea, I was careful to set the right temperature and infusion time and sat back and enjoyed the lovely apple scent as the tea infused. It just smells very fresh and it truly is a mouthwatering tea.

And now we get to why this tea is just so perfect for this time of year. It is incredibly warming and inviting and works well in the morning with a bowl of cereal, or, in the afternoon with a huge wedge of your favourite cake. It's a versatile tea and I'd be proud to serve this up to my friends for afternoon tea.

There is also something very comforting about it too. With it's juicy, sweet apple pieces and pieces of slightly spicy cinnamon it's very reminiscent of your nan's home made apple pie! The apple flavour is very sweet indeed (which is perfect for me as I'm on WeightWatchers as you all know and it really does the trick when you need that hit of something sweet - a very healthy treat!) and it's balanced out by the wonderful, spicy cinnamon.

This is the tea of choice for the first cup of the morning as it just warms your up from inside, leaving you feeling brilliant, comforted and warm. Just the other day it was pouring down with rain here, very dark and gloomy and I was curled on the sofa with a cup of this amazing tea just watching the world go by.

The base tea - which is a Chinese green tea - is absolutely lovely. It's green colour is bright and vivid and you get just a hint of slightly herbal flavour from the tea. It feels lovely to the touch and is a good, solid, strong base that takes the apple and cinnamon really well.

This isn't just a tea, it's an experience. They say that we all need ten minutes of the day where we can just sit and relax and this is the perfect partnership for your relaxing moments.

I was really impressed with this tea. It's amazing how soothing this tea is. And never more, after a nerve wracking interview, have I needed a cup of tea more! Within a few minutes of drinking this tea my tension headache had gone and I started to feel like myself again.

I have some great other tea's from Piacha that I cannot wait to try and review! Earl Grey Vanilla is one, Rhubarb Rooibos another. I simply cannot wait to see what other delights are currently sat in my cupboard!

If you are in Islington you can find Piacha at 280 Upper Street. Do check them out - I know I can't wait to! In the meantime, I'll be posting more reviews over the next few days.

But as far as the Apple Green Tea goes, I'm off to enjoy my third cup of the day!