Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: AmiTea Organics
Tea Description:
Sensual and aromatic, this chai tea has it all, spices to warm you and exotic roses to add another level of interest.
Pure organic ingredients sourced from all over the world are brought together to delight your senses. Best served with a splash of milk, or see below for a fabulous iced latte recipe.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Be still my heart! This is a perfect chai tea for me!
This tea is such a subtle gorgeous version of a chai tea. The tea brewed up is a gorgeous light amber brew and has such a sweet cinnamon aroma. Brewed up like a black tea (212F-3 min), this tea produces an amazing flavor that I’m wowed by.
Organic Rose Chai Black Tea provides such a sweet floral version of a chai tea for those who aren’t huge fans of heavily spiced teas like myself. The floral notes contrast nicely with the cardamom, coriander, and cinnamon notes in each sip. The more the tea cools, the more the cloves are starting to become more prominent but still the rose petals are still the forefront flavor. I don’t really pick up the black tea but the tea does have that nice well rounded feel to it, so I’m thinking that is what the base is providing.
I did try this as an iced tea and still this amazing sweet floral chai flavor that I can’t seem to get enough of. Such a simple tea, but so well done!
Another fantastic tea from AmiTea Organics. If you haven’t taken a moment to check out AmiTea’s amazing selection, please do so now! You are missing out on some amazing flavored teas!
Elderberry Chai from Elderberry Herb Farm
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Herbal Chai
Where to Buy: Elderberry Herb Farm
Tea Description:
A delicious warming & fragrant blend of organically grown all-natural herbs & spices! Historically, elderberry & many of the ingredients were used to boost the immune system. Brew as herbal tea or Chai.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This tea is beautiful. There are nice sized elderberries, chai ingredients, herbs and spices in this blend. I’m pretty impressed with the quality of this blend.
Elderberry Herb Farm carries a few different herbal teas. I’ve tried a couple and they are really good. This one is good too, but I think it is my least favorite.
I am not a huge black licorice fan and this blend has a black licorice taste to it. There is also a strong clove flavor running through each sip. I could very easily drink this. The tea is good. This is just isn’t my favorite chai or would this be a tea I would reach for again.
On the other hand, one of my boyfriends’ twins tried this and adored it. He asked me to make him another cup of it. This kid loves chai, so the fact that he loves this tea is really no surprise. He asked if I would keep some aside for him for tomorrow and later in the week when he and I have our “tea parties”. It was really cute.
If you are a fan of black licorice, this blend is totally for you. If not, I say give it a try anyway. I am not a huge chai drinker and I could drink this if it was around.
With a touch of honey, sugar, and cream, I bet this tea would be fantastic!
Vanilla Mint Chai from Rishi Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Rishi Tea
Tea Description:
Creamy, rich textured and inviting, this pu-erh based chai is unlike any other. Its delicate balance of silky and luscious vanilla bean, bright and soothing peppermint and sweet cinnamon transform this chai into something magical.
Tasting Notes: Decadent vanilla bean and sweet Saigon Cinnamon complement smooth, rich Pu-erh tea
Ingredients: Organic and Fair Trade Certified™ pu-erh tea, organic peppermint, organic cinnamon, organic vanilla bean, organic licorice root.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have never had Rishi teas (at least not that I could remember) before nor have I had a lot of Pu-erh. So when I saw this the other day while I was online, I thought I’d give it a whirl.
Steeped this one up per the instructions on the box. 2 tbsp with 1 cup of boiling water on my stove top. Brought the mixture to a boil and then added a cup of almond milk and brought the mixture up to a simmer. Once I was at that point I removed the pot from the heat and let the tea do its thing and steeped for 3 minutes. After I steeped it for 3 minutes, I added some honey to my mug and strained the tea into the mug. Seems like a lot of steps for a simple cup of tea but this is anything but a simple cup of tea.
This chai mixture has pu-erh instead of black tea or green. I can’t say I’ve ever had a pu-erh chai blend before. I am a newbie when it comes to pu-erh so please bare with me.
First sip and I was immediately greeted with this beautiful blend of earth tones and sweet cinnamon spices. Sweet and savory at the same time. The vanilla just added to the sweetness/creaminess factor and the almond milk brought out more of the earthiness and gave the tea a well rounded balance. The mint gave the tea a refreshing after taste. It was very light and faint. I could barely pick it up.
I think I finished the cup in about 2 minutes flat. I really enjoyed this. My first voyage into pu-erh chai was a success. I think I may have to check out some pu-erh blends now.
Honey Vanilla Chai from theBeesTeas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black Tea & Honeybush
Where to Buy: theBeesTeas
Tea Description:
Black tea blended with the spiciness of cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, and the sweetness of honeybush vanilla. This tea is great hot and iced. Add a dab of honey and a splash of milk for a really tasty treat.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Chai and I really have a love hate relationship because I’m not the biggest ginger fan or a fan of overly spiced teas. I’m always looking at other peoples reviews in envy when they talk about the amazing chai blends that they are having, wishing I liked them. Kind of like red rooibos. I still haven’t found a blend I like that has red rooibos in it. I don’t get the rich dessert like quality out of those teas that everybody else gets. I always seem to get a medicinal weird flavor.
This tea though may change my out look on chai. This tea has a black tea base but also has a generous helping of honeybush vanilla to smooth out the flavor and bring a creamy factor to it. The ginger is there but isn’t the smack you in the face kind of ginger. The rest of the chai spices really mingle nicely together with the blend creating this beauty of a cuppa.
I did throw in some milk that I had froth and created myself a delicious latte out of this. I wasn’t adventourous enough to drink it without just yet. I plan to maybe later in the week. For me, I can’t see this being an everyday sort of drink but I can see this being the tea I grab for when I do want a chai blend.
Another home run from this company.
Product Review: Caramel Chai Tea Latte from International Delight
Product Information:
Where to Find: Where International Delight products are sold.
Tea Description:
Exotic flavors of cinnamon, clove & ginger blended with notes of sweet caramel & fragrant black tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Rarely do I go into the grocery store and think that I’ll find something tea-like in the dairy section. I find milk (of course) and half and half and I do use these products in my teas to make a latte on a rare occasion. Occasionally, I’ll see a ready-to-drink iced tea in the dairy section, but it’s my experience that most of these drinks taste more of sugar than they do of tea. So, I generally cast a disproving look toward those products and move along without giving them a second glance.
But this product earned a second glance from me because while I’ve seen many iced coffee latte drinks in the dairy section, I’ve not found a lot of chai latte drinks in the dairy section (except for in the high end grocery stores like Whole Foods).
My husband has become a fan of chai lattes lately so after checking the label to make sure that it was made with real milk and also to make sure it didn’t have any artificial sweetener (I’m allergic to aspartame), I decided to put it in the cart and give it a try. If nothing else, it would offer an affordable offering to my husband who wants to stop at Starbucks frequently to pick up a chai latte now.
Yes, I can make a chai latte, but, he doesn’t seem to like mine as much as he likes those horrible, sugar laden ones from the coffee shops.
The labeling shows serving this one iced but also suggests trying it hot which is how I prepared it for myself. I simply shook the carton vigorously for about 15 seconds or so to make sure that all the spices and stuff that no doubt have settled to the bottom of the carton are well incorporated and then poured about six ounces of the creamy beige liquid into my teacup. Then I zapped it for about a minute.
This is tasty. Now, granted, this is a very sugary drink. It’s very similar to what I’d get from one of those aforementioned coffee shops but without the frothy top.
If you want that frothy cap, you could probably achieve it with a frother. Mine is no longer functional so I just had to imagine that I had a frothy top.
But the lack of frothy cap aside, this tastes a lot like what I’d get if I ordered a Caramel Chai latte at one of the coffee shops. But the price for a whole carton of this costs about half of what a large chai latte would cost from that coffee shop.
It’s warmly spiced but not what I’d call spicy. I find myself missing the cardamom so the spices do leave a little to be desired. But I can taste the luscious caramel notes which are very nice and I can also taste the black tea and that’s something that I often don’t taste in those coffee shop chai lattes – so this might actually have an advantage over one of those concoctions.
Note: not all coffee shop chai lattes are created equal. Some are better than others.
Sugary, yes. But it’s also creamy and rich and has a pleasant flavor. And if you happen to have a mate who prefers a coffee shop latte over a superior chai brewed from loose leaf tea and spices like I do, this could present you an agreeable substitution for those pricey drinks at the coffee shop.
