Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where To Buy: The Persimmon Tree
Tea Description:
Our Masala Chai tea combines premium organic Assam black tea leaves with warming cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and other fragrant spices. This tea is finely balanced to create the perfect aromatic blend for you to enjoy black, or as it has been traditionally enjoyed, with milk and sugar.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s Chai Latte time! Mmm! While chai teas tend to be my autumnal go-to cuppa, I enjoy a good masala spiced chai blend any time of the year, and I’m really enjoying this Masala Chai Blend from The Persimmon Tree. It’s warm and spicy and dee-lish!
While the spices are strong in this blend, I like that I am having no trouble tasting the bold flavor of the Assam black tea base with this tea. It is a rich, malty Assam and the sweetness of the Assam is a nice contrast to the zesty spices. The tea is a little on the astringent side, so I would recommend steeping this for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes. I steeped it for 4 minutes and I’m finding it to be a little astringent. Not too bad, but I think a little less time to steep would still produce a flavorful result with less astringency.
The spices are comprised of the “usual suspects” – cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and ginger. I think that they’re nicely balanced here. I taste a good amount of cinnamon and cloves, but the peppery taste of the ginger and the warmth of the cardamom also are detectable.
This is delicious served straight up, although I would recommend a little sugar or honey to accentuate the spices. I have always been one who thinks that spices need a little sweet to bring out the best flavors in the spice. (Sugar and Spice makes everything nice.) But for a real treat, add a splash of warmed milk (almond milk is really good in chai!) The spices aren’t diminished by the addition, and the creaminess of the milk seems to elevate the drink to a whole other level.
Or you can make an iced drink by brewing the chai extra strong and then blending the cooled tea in a blender with some milk, honey and ice. Yum!
Rooibos Spiced Chai Tisane from Davidson’s Organics
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Davidson’s Organics
Tisane Description:
Rooibos (“red tea”) is harvested from shrubs grown in the high elevations of the cape regions of South Africa. Rooibos has a full-bodied, rounded character, a slight sweetness, and blends well with green tea, black tea, other herbs and spices. Enjoy this red tea based chai with just the right hint of sweetness and spices. Delicious with milk and sweetener. High in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, Rooibos is well-known for its numerous health benefits and calming effects. And it’s completely caffeine-free!
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
As I’m writing this review, it’s rather late in the evening. A little too late to indulge in something caffeinated. Caffeine in tea doesn’t usually overstimulate me but, I am still cautious once it is past a certain hour, because I don’t want to take a chance that I’ll be kept up from drinking too much caffeine. So I decided to try one of my caffeine-free choices, and this Rooibos Spiced Chai is what I grabbed.
Hmm … it’s alright. Not the best rooibos chai blends that I’ve tried. I’m finding it to be just a wee bit thin, not just in body but also in spiced flavor. I taste cinnamon and cloves, but I didn’t taste any other spice notes, and I guess that’s because the ingredients only list cloves and cinnamon. I don’t really consider that to be a chai … but OK. For me to think “chai” I want some peppery spices, perhaps some black pepper or ginger. Some cardamom would be nice too.
But overall, it’s not a bad tasting rooibos chai. It has a nice, honey-esque flavor to it, and the nutty flavor of the rooibos seems to accentuate the warm spice notes of the cinnamon and the cloves. I like the way the earthiness of the spice plays with the natural earthiness of the rooibos. It’s a pleasant, warm and cozy type of blend, and I found it helped to calm and relax me, which is what I want this time of night.
I don’t know if I’d buy this again. It’s not something I’d put on my must have list nor would I make it a staple of my tea cupboard. But it’s tasty.
Autumn Chai Custom Blend from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
This blend combines candy apple tea with spiced apple chai and caramel tea for an autumn explosion! Add sugar for a Halloween treat too. I added a pinch of cinnamon black tea and this chai completely rocked! If you’ve got some cinnamon tea on hand, add it for an extra kick; or blend freshly ground cinnamon for an autumn adventure.
A Carolynne Keenan Custom Blend.
Learn more about this custom blend here.
Find more Carolynne Keenan blends here.
Taster’s Review:
As I was brewing this Autumn Chai Custom Blend (created by Carolynne Keenan) from Adagio Teas, I was surprised by the scent of apple! Yeah, it says in the description that there is Spiced Apple Chai in the blend, but, with the other ingredients, I didn’t expect the apple to offer such a prominent fragrance.
I could also smell notes of cinnamon, cloves and ginger, with the cinnamon being the most pronounced of those aromatic spices. The brewed tea smells strongly of spice with hints of apple in the background.
This is pretty good. As I’ve said more than once before, I’m not crazy about the black tea base that Adagio uses as it tends to come off tasting harsh. And even though the custom blends seem to be less harsh (and sometimes not very harsh at all), I’m getting some of that harshness here. Not as much as if I were drinking one of the single flavored teas from Adagio (as opposed to the custom blends), but, there is still some of that brash astringency to this cup.
Fortunately, that harsh note isn’t too aggressive, and I am enjoying the other flavors that this drink has to offer. The cinnamon and other spices are fairly well-balanced. The cinnamon is the strongest flavor, but it doesn’t overwhelm the other spices. I taste notes of ginger, clove and cardamom. Then I get a smooth, silky sweet note of caramel. Mmm! The apple comes through shortly after I notice the caramel. In the distance, I notice a bright note of orange.
Overall, it’s an enjoyable chai. Not my favorite, because even though the harshness isn’t terribly assertive, the fact that I’m detecting it means that I’d rather it not be there. And the orange … while it does perk up the cup a little bit, it seems a little out of place. It is certainly tasty though and something I’d be willing to drink again.
Chai Americaine Blend from Doehi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Doehi
Tea Description:
China black tea with cinnamon, cloves and orange bits with added flavoring.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf aroma of this Chai Americaine Blend from Doehi smells very much like red-hot cinnamon heart candies! And hey, I love red hot cinnamon hearts, so I’m liking what I’m smelling here!
The flavor is sweet and hot. Yes, what I’m tasting is very much like the aforementioned red hot cinnamon hearts. The cinnamon is prominent (obviously, right?) and I can taste the clove. I don’t taste a lot of the orange in this blend, but there are hints here and there of a bright citrus-y note. The little bit of citrus seems to perk up the flavors a little bit, adding a hint of contrast to the strong spicy notes, and adding a sweet undertone to the zesty cinnamon and clove.
The black tea base is a smooth and pleasant tasting. It’s not an overpowering black tea that throws off the sweet-hot cinnamon taste, but it isn’t so docile that I can’t taste it, either. It’s playing its part in this cup, and I am enjoying it.
This is the kind of tea that I like to turn to on chilly mornings, and even though spring is in full-swing here in the Pacific Northwest, the mornings are still a little chilly and this tea is just the ticket for mornings like this, especially with it being allergy season … I like that the flavors here are full and robust.
I like this tea served hot and neat with no additions. If you like honey in your tea, this would take that addition nicely, but don’t add too much because this tea does have a bit of sweetness without the added sweetener. I wouldn’t add milk to this, I think that would really throw the whole thing off. This does taste pretty good iced too, but I prefer it hot.
An enjoyable offering from Doehi. I’m new to discovering this company, but I like what I’ve tasted thus far!
Winter White Chai from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Description:
A soft, delicate version of traditional Indian chai, Winter White Chai features our fine Shou Mei white tea amongst the backdrop of customary chai spices, with one surprising addition: coconut. Delicious served in the traditional chai manner with milk and sugar or untouched for a more simplistic and delicate cup.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s NEW Selection Club subscription program here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the aroma of the dry leaf of this Winter White Chai from Simple Loose Leaf. It smells so delightfully spicy with notes of cinnamon, clove and pepper with a high note of coconut. My mouth began to water when I smelled it.
The brewed tea doesn’t have an overpoweringly spicy fragrance, instead, it smells warm and mildly spiced, like spice cake baking in the oven. And that’s the first thing I thought of when I took my first sip: spice cake! The spices come together in a very pleasing way in this chai – they’re warm and comforting.
Of the spices represented in this blend, the cinnamon and cloves are the most prominent. I taste a light kick of pepper from the ginger and the pink peppercorns, and there is a very gentle cardamom flavor to this too. I think that these spices were very thoughtfully blended: it’s a well-balanced masala chai blend that pairs well with the light Shou Mei base.
And I do taste the Shou Mei. When it comes to white teas, I think that Shou Mei is the least delicate tasting, and I think that it was the right choice for this particular blend because it needed something that could be tasted beneath the spices and other components of this blend. It has a subtle earthy tone, but the biggest contribution that I’m getting from the tea base is a refreshingly crisp note that enlivens the palate.
The coconut and vanilla notes work in unison to offer a soft, creamy note. I don’t taste a really obvious “coconut” flavor, but I taste more coconut in the aftertaste than in the actual sip. I find my thoughts debating among themselves as I’m trying to decide if I’d want more distinct coconut flavor to this tea. On the one hand, I do like the creaminess from the coconut and vanilla; it sort of gives a “latte-ish” taste to the cup without adding milk or cream to the tea (milk in white tea? No, that just seems wrong!) and I think that a stronger coconut presence might shift the focus off the lovely spices of this blend. I really like the blend as it is … then again, I really like coconut and there’s that part of me thinking “more coconut might be nice.”
The lemongrass adds a very light citrus-y note to the cup. It isn’t a strong presence, but it brings a little brightness to the overall flavor.
I really liked this Chai. It’s light and crisp, but still pleasantly spiced.