Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tea People
Tea Description:
A robust, full flavoured malty Assam blended with traditional spices like cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and ginger.
When tea was first grown in India to break Chinese monopoly on tea, it was not a popular beverage among the locals. The usual practice was to drink ‘kadha’ instead which was water and milk boiled with spices (as was recommended according to the Ayurveda, an ancient alternative medicinal system based in India). The Indian Tea association (at that time under the British) promoted tea among them in the preferred British way by adding a little milk and sugar. However Indian vendors began adding tea to the kadha they drank already. Although the Tea association at that time frowned at this practice as this reduced the usage (and thus the purchase) of tea leaves, the practice stuck and Chai tea was born! A perfect morning tea or a tea for a busy day.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This Desi Masala Chai Blend from Tea People smells amazing! Even before I started brewing it … the dry leaf smells so spicy and enticing!
And it tastes even better than it smells!
The ingredients of this chai are the “usual” suspects:
Premium Assam black tea, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves .
But they are blended perfectly! The black tea base is an Assam, and it is rich and malty. It has a full, robust flavor that provides a perfect platform for the spices to express themselves. I love that I can taste notes of each spice in each sip and that it’s not all about one spice or the other. They aren’t competing with one another, they’re complementing each other.
The spices are strong and flavorful, but it isn’t TOO spicy. It’s spicy … but this cup isn’t all about the heat. I can taste the complexity of the spices. I’m getting the peppery tones … but I can even taste some of the sweeter notes of the ginger! The cinnamon is a sweeter cinnamon but I get some heat from it too. But this isn’t that red-hot candy cinnamon flavor. It tastes true to the spice. I’m tasting some of the eucalyptus notes of the cardamom and some of the warm, zesty flavor of the clove.
It’s a collective of all the spices, but even though I can taste the individual notes, there is a seamlessness about the flavor too. It is a very beautiful marriage of warm and sweet spices.
This chai tastes amazing served straight up with no additions, but it also makes an amazing latte. You can brew it stovetop in a 1:1 ratio of milk and water, or you can brew it at a concentrated strength in water and then add a splash of warmed milk after the brewing process is complete. I prefer the latter because it means less mess in the kitchen and I’m all for that!
I do recommend a little bit of sweetener to accentuate the spices. I recommend using either raw honey or turbinado sugar (I prefer the turbinado sugar because I love how the hints of molasses to the sugar meld with the sweeter tones of the spices!) You don’t NEED the sweetener to experience the spices, though, but, I find that sugar and spice is very nice!
A really great chai! I’m loving the teas from Tea People!
Also, please check out Tea People’s indiegogo fundraising campaign to help tea garden workers!
Spicy Anise Black Tea Blend from English Tea Shop
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: English Tea Shop
Tea Description:
Spicy Anise: Black tea, ginger pieces, cloves and star anise with ginger, mint and anise flavours.
Taster’s Review:
The ingredient list of this Spicy Anise Black Tea Blend from English Tea Shop shows a variety of spices that are reminiscent of a chai blend, however, the flavor is more like a warm, slightly spicy and minty tea rather than a chai. The anise is not as prevalent as I would like it to be, especially when considering the name of the tea. The name suggests to me that I’m going to have a strong anise-y tasting tea, but, the anise is not as dominant as the mint is in this blend.
The other spices – ginger and clove – are very subtle and offer a warm background note. The black tea base almost seems lost in the presence of the other flavors here. Oh, I can still taste the black tea, but it is a little too mellow in my opinion. I think a bold black tea base as well as a stronger presence of anise would make this a tea worthy of a name called “Spicy Anise.”
This is a bit disappointing, really. I was hoping for more from this blend.
White Tea Chai Blend from Tea of Life
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Learn more about Tea of Life and Amazon Teas here.
Tea Description:
White Tea with Chai (Cardamom, Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Cloves, Ginger and Nutmeg)
Taster’s Review:
When I opened the pouch that held the tea bag that brewed this cup of White Tea Chai Blend from Tea of Life, I lifted the tea bag to my nose to get a whiff of what I would soon be tasting. And … I was a little surprised and just a little dismayed that I couldn’t smell much in the way of spice. I mean, spices should be FRAGRANT, right? When I smell a chai, I like there to be no mistake of what I’m smelling. I like to smell those vibrant, warm spices.
But, I didn’t smell a whole lot of spice from this chai, at least, not in it’s dry form. However, now that the tea has been brewed, I can really smell those spices. What a lovely aroma! I smell (in order of most prevalent scent): pepper, clove, cinnamon and cardamom. I am picking up hints of nutmeg and ginger too.
And the main reason why I want to be able to smell the spices is because I want to taste them when I take a sip! I love chai: I love that spice! And I can taste those spices here! The black pepper is the most dominating flavor that I taste in this cup, but because I can also taste the other spices, this doesn’t taste like a black pepper white tea, this tastes like a white tea chai!
The white tea is soft and deliciously delicate, and now that I think about it, it’s probably good that the spices presented such a subtle fragrance because had the spices been stronger than they are now, they would have surely overpowered the sweet white tea and I am enjoying the way the white tea is represented in this blend. It is soft, sweet, and it evokes thoughts of the taste of rain on fresh spring leaves. Not that I go out and start licking the leaves after a rain … but if I did, this is how I would like that to taste. It’s only because I don’t know that this is what I would taste that I don’t go out and start drinking rain off of leaves.
And I like how the pepper POPS in this. It makes for a really interesting and different tasting chai. Normally, pepper is a accenting ingredient, here, it takes more of a central focus. I like pepper, and I like how it’s brought to life here.
Overall, a really enjoyable chai!
Spice Dragon Red Chai Herbal Tea from Stash Tea
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Stash Tea
Tisane Description:
Rooibos, an antioxidant-rich herb also known as red tea, combines with clove, ginger root and sweet cinnamon to create a unique, caffeine-free sweet and spicy chai.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
This Spice Dragon Red Chai Herbal Tea from Stash Tea is another gift that I received over the holidays. It was one that I hadn’t yet tried from Stash, so I was happy to have the opportunity to give it a try.
I steeped this the way I would usually steep a rooibos tisane: using 195°F water and steeping for 10 minutes. With rooibos, if I use boiling water and attempt to steep that long, I get a sort of sour wood like flavor that I don’t find agreeable. But I found by lowering the temperature slightly, I can steep the tisane for 10 minutes to get a whole lot of flavor out of the blend, and not get that weird sour wood taste.
And this isn’t too bad. It’s strongly spiced with cinnamon, and there is some ginger and clove to this too. I find myself missing cardamom here, because I think that it might offer a more well-rounded spice note, but, as it is, it’s tasty.
I taste mostly cinnamon, and it’s a sweet cinnamon – not that red-hot cinnamon candy type of cinnamon. This is a sweeter cinnamon taste. The clove adds a warmth to the cup, but I don’t taste a lot of ginger. Maybe a little more ginger would add a zesty, spicy edge to the cup.
I don’t taste a lot of rooibos flavor here. I do taste a nutty/earthy sort of flavor that I attribute to the rooibos. This nutty taste marries seamlessly with the cinnamon.
This is kind of a “one-note” type of tisane. I taste cinnamon, and a background of clove and hints of nutty rooibos. Every once in a while I detect the peppery note of ginger. But, it isn’t as complex as other rooibos chai blends I’ve tasted. It has less spicy kick to it than some rooibos blends out there. Tasty, but not the best rooibos chai I’ve ever tasted.
Bourbon Chai Blend from Vintage TeaWorks
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Vintage TeaWorks
Tea Description:
Inspired by the rich flavors of Kentucky Bourbon, this chai tea is blended using a beautiful Sri Lankan black tea, organic cinnamon and star anise. We then wrap our blend in honey creating sweet and spicy treat.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yeah, I know I’ve said it quite a few times: I’m not much of a drinker of alcohol. I prefer tea. (That might appear obvious!) So, I’m not sure what it was about this Bourbon Chai from Vintage TeaWorks that prompted me to order it as soon as I could when I heard about it. Maybe it was because I’ve tried the other blends from this company and I was very impressed with them, and so when this tea was announced, it was one that I added to my must try list immediately!
The first thing I noticed about this new blend from Vintage TeaWorks is that they’ve changed their packaging (or at least, they have different packaging for this chai). The wine-inspired teas from this company that I’ve tried came in tubes that resembled wine bottle tubes. This chai is packaged in a shiny gold tin that was wrapped with a removable paper label that has been wax sealed in place. Cool!
When I opened the tin and the inner cellophane packaging, I could see that the tea was kind of wet-looking and sticky, as though the tea had been marinated with soaked in honey! The tea smelled of bourbon and spice with a distinct sweet note. As the tea brewed, I could smell more of the spice notes developing. The brewed tea smells lightly of bourbon and strongly of spice.
This tastes amazing! It tastes spicy, but not in a hot sort of way. It’s more like a spicy-sweet kind of taste. It tastes warm and cozy, with a strong spice note. The spices offer a very harmonious flavor. I don’t notice one spice attempting to compete with others. I taste notes of each spice, but one note doesn’t attempt to overpower others. It’s a very congruous tasting tea.
The black tea is also easy to distinguish in the sip, and it tastes rich and satisfying. And what I like about these teas from Vintage TeaWorks is that they’re incredibly creative. They “recreate” the flavors by which they’re inspired, rather than being an ‘alcohol’ infused tea. Here, Vintage TeaWorks has recreated the flavor of bourbon using spice and honey, and this tastes what I’d imagine a bourbon that has been infused with a chai tea might taste like. This is a very comforting cuppa!
As I sip … I can feel the warmth of the bourbon and the spice tickling the back of my throat. It reminds me a bit of when I used to drink whisky (I liked Jack Daniels and Pepsi, although I usually went heavier on the Pepsi than the JD) – the warmth here reminds me of that slight “burn” that I’d feel at the back of my throat from the whisky, although this is a gentler heat than that burn ever was. I think I like this better than the JD and Pepsi … not just because of that gentle heat but because this IS tea and I can taste the tea and spices too.
A really wonderful cup of chai! I drank it with a half a teaspoon of turbinado sugar to accentuate the spices. I didn’t add milk or cream though … and I think that this tastes lovely as a non-latte chai. I think it would also be tasty as a chai, although the dairy might soften the bourbon-like flavors a bit.