It goes without saying that a big part of drinking tea is the smell and taste of a good brew, but sometimes the presentation and design of the product can be a nice diversion. This tea from Nunshen arrived in a sleek, modern, well-designed packet. The bilingual instructions come with plenty of stylish symbols alongside the English and French, describing the temperature, brew times, leaf type, and the mood of the tea (Chai du Kerala is marked as, “relaxing”). The muslin teabag adds a soft, handmade touch to the whole experience.
The dry tea and the brew both smell strongly of natural cinnamon sticks, warming up the whole room. It’s a chai tea, and it has the expected heat and spice without being too cluttered. This tea is deceptively fragrant, following me around the house from the kettle to my chair in wafting waves of cinnamon. There is not too much ginger, just enough to add dimension to the cinnamon flavor, and both spices meld well with the earthy, malty, black tea base.
The tea’s package even numbers the blend, like a perfume or a vintage. Chai du Kerala is no. 91 in the flavor listing from Nunshen. With a sleek design and quality tea, I can’t way to try all the other numbered flavors!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Nunshen
Description: Love, healing and happiness go hand in hand as you sip on this unique blend. Hints of citrus and earthy tones will recover peace of mind and restore your well being.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Muskoka Chai from Pluck Teas. . . . .
It’s a gloomy day in the city. Rain all day keeping everything wet. High winds keeping everyone cold. The threat of snow looming. Perfect day for snuggling up in bed with a good book and a hot cup of tea. Alas, I had to get my butt to work so I sat in traffic and and then under the florescent lights of the office for what felt like forever. When I finally returned home, I wanted something special and a chai latte just seemed right. I mean, when done properly, a good tea latte is like a nice hug for your tastebuds.
This particular chai is a little bit different. Sure it has the typical cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and ginger. It also has some sneaky star anise which I wasn’t pleased about and a dash of black pepper which I think I am okay with. However, among all those traditional chai elements, Pluck stuck in a little bit of Canadian goodness by adding Muskoka cranberries to the mix. Like I said, I wanted something special and in theory this fit the bill.
I brewed this up in water, and topped it off with frothed skim milk and the end result is nice. I think this would have done better done the non-lazy way of steeping the tea in the milk on the stove, low and slow to really let the flavors sink in or even with a richer milk (skim can get a bit watery in lattes). As it is now, it is a little harsh. You expect creaminess but the tea really takes over. The ginger is strong in flavor, though not in spice, and the cardamom lurks somewhere in the middle. The star anise is nowhere to be found, which makes me happy, but if I am being honest, the cranberry is missing too and that is the whole reason I was drawn to this tea in the first place. One nice element is actually the pepper. I find at times it jumps out and really makes the other flavors, like that of the cinnamon, cloves, and other chai spices pop.
It’s an alright chai and I can see it doing well in the right conditions. However, it fails to deliver on the one ingredient that is supposed to make this stand out and that makes this tea disappointing for me. I shouldn’t have to search for the very ingredient this is named for.
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type:
Where to Buy: Pluck Teas
Description
Dried Muskoka cranberries add an unexpected twist to this premium traditional Chai made with an organic Assam black tea, that also features whole cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and black pepper.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Country Chai Spice from Cozy Leaf. . . . .Artisan Blends Crafted with Love and Care!
Are you looking for a full, rich, Full-bodied black tea chai made with real chai spices of rich cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and sweet anise and clove for a healthy and delicious treat? Then you are in luck! We have a very tasty one to share with you today! Country Chai Spice from The Cozy Leaf!
Ingredients include: Organic black tea, organic cinnamon, organic ginger, organic cardamon, organic fennel, organic anise, organic clove. Pretty standard as far as chai spices go – right? I don’t know how Cozy Leaf did it tho – this one is OUTSTANDING! It’s still rich and full without being intensely spicy!
Perhaps it’s all in the amount of fennel that was used that you can clearly see. But the fennel isn’t too overpowering either. Everything seems to be JUST RIGHT when it comes to this Artisan Hand-Blended Loose Leaf Blend.
This is one of the best chai’s I have tried in a while! Can’t wait to try more offerings from Cozy Leaf! I’ve enjoyed everything thus far! Woot!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Cozy Leaf
Description
Full-bodied black tea chai made with real chai spices of rich cinnamon, cardamon, ginger, and sweet anise and clove for a healthy and delicious treat.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Spicy Honey Chai from Blue Hour Tea. . .A Different Take on Chai. . .
Waaaaaay back in the day, I was a barista. Not the cool, hipster baristas we all know and love now, but the nerdy high schooler kind who like making weird drink concoctions when the cafe is slow. I’m sure you can imagine it.
Anyways! Even back then, before I knew how much my love of tea would grow, I wasn’t a coffee drinker either, and was constantly looking for a new warm concoction that I could sip will slinging drinks to our customers. Enter: chai. I instantly fell in love with the creamy, warming spices and found myself finding new ways to brew it on the daily.
Ever since then, even if my tea tastes have expanded, chai remains my first tea love. So when I dug this sample out of my stash, I was SUPER pumped to go back to my roots and give it a chai (see what I did there? ;))! First things first– the dry leaf is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Blue Hour adds honey to this blend so that the leaves harden together a bit, to unfurl when steeped. I brewed as they recommended, warming a small pot of coconut milk on the stove and tossing the leaves into steep as it warms up.
The result is a creamy, slightly-sweet-but-not-saccharine (from the help of the honey), ginger and pepper spiced cup of goodness. This chai perfect tows the line between hitting all the traditional notes I love in chai while being like nothing I’ve ever had before. It was delicious, and brought me right back to the good old barista days. I’d definitely drink this one again!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: Blue Hour Tea
Description
Our Spicy Honey Chai is made using our unique blend of whole roasted spices, a Single Estate Assam black tea with a bit of heat from black pepper and ginger and it’s all finished off with a good portion of raw honey fromCoal Lake Honey Farm. This makes for a well balanced mug of chai, which is best when brewed in milk.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
Spiced Chai from LucidiTea Co. . . An Earthy Chai to Try!
Spiced Chai from LucidiTea Co was a tea and a tea company I discovered while attending the Erie VegFest in late September. They were one of the vendors at the festival and for that I am VERY grateful! I ended up buying 3 of their teas and this was one of them.
This chai is a great starter chai because the spices are not overly intense like some others I have tried. Don’t get me wrong I like both Chai’s…the ones that are more mellow and the ones that are intense. There is just a time and a place for everything and this time around I was looking for something on the quieter side. Enter Spiced Chai from LucidiTea Co. I really appreciate that they used a Darjeeling as the base for this chai. The vanilla seemed to smooth out the ending, too!
Spiced Chai from LucidiTea Co makes my mouth happy! It’s comforting and warm but not over the top spicy. Great for a fall day – or any day – really!
Here’s the scoop!
Leaf Type: Black Tea
Where to Buy: LucidiTea Co
Description
Our organic Spiced Chai blend is wonderfully aromatic, warm, and delightful. It has deep earthy tones as well as alluring accents from various warming spices making it our favorite tea to drink in the colder months. This blend produces an exotic flavor that is sure to comfort and please your taste buds. Not only does it smell and taste incredible, it proves a stable clean energy for hours while regulating metabolism.
Ingredients: organic darjeeling tea, organic ginger root, organic cinnamon bark, organic nutmeg, organic cardamom, organic cloves, and organic vanilla bean.
Ideal steep time is 3-5 minutes. Recommended serving size is 1-3 tsp depending on strength preference.
This blend contains caffeine.
Learn even more about this tea and tea company here!
