"Okay," Mona grinned, she swirled the tea in her cup and looked at it, and then back at him. "Most cinnamon teas that you can buy commercially are made with an Assam or Darjeeling tea as a base, just because those are very easy to source, grow and ship. It keeps costs down. But I thought that a Keemun tea would work well. Take a sip, and you taste that almost smoky flavour that lingers with the chilli? And the aftertaste that is almost like unsweetened cocoa? That's the Keemun, and then it's mixed with a smaller amount of Nilgiri tea, which is southern Indian and the subtle fruity smell comes from that, and it partly offsets the smoke."
She refilled his cup and her own. "Keemun also makes a redder tea, which wasn't intentional but it's nice." She grinned at him. "I fussed around with difference balances between the chili and the cinnamon - the first batch I made felt like my tongue was on fire," she laughed, "so to start with it was a lot of toning it down."