Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Just.Organic.Tea
Tea Description:
Spicy and full of flavor. Our premium black teas mingle with cinnamon, clove, cardamom, and orange peel for an intense full-bodied flavor. If you like your chai spicy and rich, pick this blend. Or, for more tea flavor and less spice, mix with our Oothu tea to fit your taste. Fair trade & organic certified.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Just.Organic.Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love a good, spicy chai, so when I read the description above, that’s exactly what I envisioned. Unfortunately, this isn’t quite as spicy as I hoped for.
Oh, it’s still very good! Don’t get me wrong.
It’s just not quite as boldly spiced as I thought it would be based upon the description above. The spices are nicely balanced, though, and I like that. I taste cinnamon, cardamom and clove. These three spices have been assembled in a way that no one spice overpowers the other. It’s a warm medley of spice. Very nice.
I also taste hints of orange from the orange peel. When I first read that this tea has orange peel, I thought that this might just be their Just Outstanding Orange Spice packaged under a different name. But they are two different teas. Here the orange is a very subtle touch of flavor, whereas the orange spice blend has a much more pronounced orange flavor.
This is really quite a tasty blend. I think that if they want to really go bold with the spice though, Just.Organic.Tea should consider adding some black pepper and ginger to the blend. That will give it a really nice, zesty kick. As it is, it’s a nice chai, on the mellower side of chai, but not quite as spicy as the above description would suggest.
This blend is one that I didn’t find on their website, perhaps it’s a blend that’s being rethought? I would love to see this company have a chai blend though, because I do love chai! In the meantime, I think their Outstanding Orange Spice blend is really good, and I also noticed that they have a Pumpkin Spice Chai – oh! I’d like to try that one!
Chai Cacao Tea from Tisano
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Tisano
Tea Description:
In India tea has it’s roots in Ayurveda, a wholestic approach to medicine focusing on food and lifestyle. From there, India’s most popular beverage – Masala Chai, “Spiced Tea,” was born. Tisano takes this 5,000 year old tradition into the 21st Century – we source estate grown Assam Black Tea leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and other spices to create a unique sweet and spicy chocolate Chai Cacao Tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I was so excited when this tea was offered on sale on the Tisano website recently, because I’ve been wanting to try it ever since I heard that it had been added to the Tisano line of teas and tisanes. I’m really fond of Tisano’s original cacao tea which I reviewed previously (and plan to review again for this site soon!) That moment when I first sampled the original was my first introduction to cacao shells (rather than nibs) as a source for chocolate-y infused drinks. And seriously, there’s nothing better to infuse than cacao shells to get a rich, true, chocolate-y flavor!
When I visited the Tisano website to start prepping for this review, I learned that this wasn’t just a simple blend of cacao shells with spices like I first thought it was! No! This is actually a tea with camellia sinensis leaves, as well as cacao shells and spices.
Mmm! This is so yummy! The chocolate note is rich and prominent. It’s the first note that I taste when I take a sip. Decadent, rich, delicious chocolate! Just beneath the chocolate-y surface is a satisfyingly smooth, malty note of Assam. Then I pick up on the spices.
The spices here are not strong or “spicy.” The spice notes are warm and I love the dimension that the spices add to this cup. There is a really nice balance of the spices. No one spice takes center stage, it is a well-rounded collection of spices that add warmth to the cup without overpowering the cacao. Instead, the spices elevate the earthy notes of the cacao.
The cacao shells are the perfect representation of chocolate. It’s rich and intensely flavorful. It tastes like true chocolate much more so than any chocolate flavoring that I’ve experienced with flavored teas, and it’s also a better chocolate-y representation than cacao nibs. This tastes like a deep, dark, rich chocolate with notes of bitter and sweet. It tastes amazing as a latte too. Perfect!
This is THE CHAI for chocolate lovers. If you love chocolate, you really must try this tea!
Masala Chai Blend from The Persimmon Tree
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!
Spicy Apple Tisane from Tea People
Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Fruit & Herbal Tisane
Where to Buy: Tea People
Tisane Description:
They say an apple a day keeps the doctor away. May we add our own to that ‘an appy a day keeps you happy all day’. The tea is made with luxury dried apple spiced with natural dried ginger, cardamom, pepper and cloves and sweetened with cinnamon and stevia. Add to that beautiful dried petals of cornflower and you have the tea of your dreams! A perfect drink for cold days to spice up your day, it also tastes heavenly as iced tea on a hot summer day.
Ingredients: Natural dried Apple, Hibiscus, Dried Ginger, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Cloves, Pepper, Stevia, Cornflower petals and Natural flavours
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
As I was reading through the ingredient list of this Spicy Apple Tisane from Tea People, I found myself wishing that they didn’t include stevia in this. This is my “usual” complaint when it comes to tea or tisane blends with stevia in it, I personally prefer the option to sweeten or not sweeten, and I prefer to choose my sweetener. Stevia isn’t my favorite sweetener, because it’s one of those things that when overdone … it’s just wrong. That said, I have tried several teas/tisanes that have had stevia in the blend and I liked them just fine, so I’m going to keep an open mind until I’ve tasted it!
Hey – this is pretty good! I do think that the stevia is a little too much, and that it would be better without the stevia, but, I really like the taste of the apple and the spices. It’s kind of like an apple cider with masala chai spices!
The hibiscus is on the lighter side here, and really all it seems to do to this particular blend is add a little color and texture to the brewed liquid. I’m not getting that hibiscus tart from this, and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.
The apple flavor is well-defined, as are the spicy notes. The spices are nicely balanced. I taste ginger, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, and there is just a hint of pepper to this that sort of tickles the back of the tongue in the aftertaste. I like that the spices are not competing with one another in this tisane and it’s spicy but it’s not overdone. I think that even those who are not generally too keen on spicy teas or tisanes could enjoy this because it’s warmly spiced, but not too spicy.
Overall, a nice tisane. If I were blending it, I would have omitted the stevia, because I think that there is just a little bit too much of it in this blend. It has a slightly “funky” sweetness to it, and while it doesn’t deter from my enjoyment of the drink, I think I’d enjoy it a lot more if the stevia wasn’t there.
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.