Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White and Black Tea
Where to Buy: UniqTeas
Tea Description:
Started with a White Chai Base added a hint of Caramel & Raspberry. Aromatic, Spicy, Sweet, fruit and vegetal notes underneath with a overall medium strength flavor. A Sororitea Sisters White/Black Tea Blend.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Sororitea’s Tri Pi Chai from UniqTeas is really something different when it comes to a chai tea. Generally, but not always, I add a little honey to my chai teas. I prefer them sweeter with some cream, or made into a latte. Most teas I always prefer straight but chai for me is different. I think it is because I was drinking chai long before I was drinking loose leaf tea on a regular basis. Chai was most always what I preferred to get at a Starbucks. I would also buy it in the store already prepared in the container – you know the Tazo brand. I was about to go grab my honey and add it to my cup when I took a sip. I wanted to try the tea straight before hand. Its a good thing that I did because this tea needs absolutely no sweetening. The sweet in this tea is balanced perfectly with the spices which are not too strong. I rather like that as I am not a huge fan of anise which in some chai tends to take over depending on how it is blended. I would say of all the spices in this blend the ginger.
The raspberry and caramel seem to give more of a sweet, yet fresh backdrop and do not drown out the tea leaf itself. I seem to taste the raspberry’s fresh tartness and liveliness more than the caramel which to me just seems to make the cup creamy more than flavored, yet adds to the sweetness which is nice. On that note, the black tea does not over take the delicate flavors of the white tea either.
It is a really good chai, and so different than most as it seems to capture the idea of fresh and lively along with rich and creamy, and spicy, all at the same time.
This would make a wonderful latte!
Mint Masala Chai from Blue Lotus Chai
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Blue Lotus Chai
Tea Description:
Our new variety is a taste sensation! Exhilarating and surprising, it rises to the same standard of excellence that defines Blue Lotus Chai, and that our fans have come to expect.
Ingredients: Naturally brewed and flash-dried black tea powder; 100% Certified Organic powdered spices: ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, peppermint from extract.
Learn more about this chai here.
Taster’s Review:
I was thrilled when I found this Mint Masala Chai from Blue Lotus Chai (as well as their other varieties) available at my local Chuck’s Produce Market! I just love Blue Lotus Chai!
And this Mint Masala Chai is awesome. It tastes very much like the Original Masala Chai, but with a big burst of refreshing mint flavor! The mint adds such a nice dimension of flavor – it’s so cool and crisp and invigorating!
I prepared this according to package directions, using 4 ounces of freshly boiled water, 4 ounces of milk, and a heaping scoop (the bamboo scoop that is included with the package of chai is just the right size!) of powdered chai. Remembering last time that I like this to be a little spicier, I added another half a scoop, and this produces the perfect cup of chai for me.
The mint adds a nice sweetness to the cup, so no additional sweetener is needed, but, I did find that if I added a little less than half a teaspoon of turbinado sugar, this brought out the spices a little more, and when I drink chai, it’s usually all about the spice for me! But I love that Blue Lotus Chai lets you decide whether or not to add sweetener rather than going ahead and adding it to the mix. I find that too often with these types of chai mixes, the sugar is just too overwhelming … I like that I control the amount of sweetener I put in … not to mention that I can control whether I add milk and how much strong I want the chai to be!
The smooth flavor of black tea hits the palate first, and then the spices come on strong! I taste pepper and ginger almost immediately, and these flavors linger, but they aren’t so strong that I need to search for the other spices. I taste cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and the delicious taste of nutmeg too. I love that Blue Lotus Chai includes nutmeg in their chai blends!
And then the mint comes forward and it is so fresh tasting – ZESTY! I love the way the mint adds such a cool, bright flavor to the cup. It’s a really nice change from the usual chai blends!
Even if you can’t find Blue Lotus Chai in your local retail store, if you like chai … YOU’VE got to try this! I highly recommend visiting their online store and getting yourself some of this amazing chai – you won’t regret it!
Pumpkin Spice Tea from Adagio Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to buy: Adagio Teas
Tea Description:
Premium black tea from Sri Lanka flavored with pumpkin and exotic spices. Autumn festivities just wouldn’t be the same without the comforting, smooth sweetness of spiced pumpkin – and neither would your tea time. Warm and rich flavor, with lingering cozy aromatics.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love handmade soap, and my favorite soap artisan is Rebecca, from Rebecca’s Soap Delicatessen. With my most recent order, she was nice enough to send me a sachet of this tea! Because I had not yet tried this particular flavor from Adagio Teas, I was happy to receive it, and especially thrilled because Rebecca was once one of my best tea customers (back when I sold my own blends), and it’s kind of cool that she’s now sending me tea!
Adagio Teas has a very … weird … black tea base. The first time I tried it, I wrote to them to find out what type of tea they use, and they told me a Ceylon. Well, their Ceylon is quite unlike any Ceylon I can ever remember tasting … except for in Adagio Teas’ flavored teas. It is rather harsh, to put it mildly. However, after having had some experience with Adagio Teas’ black tea base, I’ve learned a thing or two about brewing their flavored black teas so that it does not taste so abrasive.
First, don’t use boiling water. Just under boiling – between 195° and 200° F – will do the trick. Then, do not steep the tea for the five minutes that Adagio suggests. I find that a brewing time of 2 1/2 minutes – 3 minutes produces a much more favorable cup. Finally, allow the tea to cool slightly after it’s brewed. I find that letting it sit for three to four minutes before I take a sip and the cup is far less astringent than if I take a sip immediately. In this case, patience is definitely rewarded.
And this really isn’t such a bad tea after brewing it in the way I just described. The spices are nice and warm, and the black tea is rich tasting and only mildly astringent. My only real complaint about this tea would be with it’s pumpkin flavor – it tastes artificial. I’ve had quite a few pumpkin teas where the pumpkin tastes more natural than this. It just tastes kind of … off. However, it’s not so horrible that I cannot finish the cup and enjoy it!
Certainly not my favorite Adagio offering but I didn’t hate it either … and I loved that my dear friend sent it to me. That she thought of me … it meant a lot! Thank you, Rebecca!
Pumpkin Spice Autumn Spiced Tea from Bigelow
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Bigelow
Also available at Goodies Company
Tea Description:
Fall in love with Bigelow® Pumpkin Spice Tea. The harvest moon brings bountiful blessings for us to enjoy, not the least of which is Bigelow Pumpkin Spice Tea. Smooth and satisfying, its rich, round flavor is a masterful blend of the finest, mountain-grown teas. Pumpkin Spice Tea has no calories – just sweeten to taste for an Autumn treat that is sure to warm the hearts of family, friends and all who gather ’round.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I received this individually wrapped bagged tea in my November Goodies Box, and while I review most of the items that I receive in my tasting boxes on my foodie blog, since this is tea, I felt that I should review this right here.
While I’m not thrilled about bagged tea in general, I was happy to find tea in my Goodies box. (But hey, Goodies Co., how about some LOOSE LEAF tea?) I mean, whenever these kinds of boxes showcase tea, it feels like a win for tea lovers. Even if it is a bagged tea.
And for a bagged tea, this isn’t all that bad. The black tea base tastes strong and pleasant, with a slight astringency but no bitterness. It is smooth and has a nice earthy quality to it that offers a good background for the warm spices in this blend.
I can taste the pumpkin, which is always a plus when it comes to pumpkin flavored teas as I’ve come across a few where the pumpkin flavor was lacking. That is not the case here, it has a sweet, pumpkin-y flavor that is complemented very nicely with the cinnamon, clove and ginger. I also taste a hint of licorice in this, and at first I thought maybe my taste buds were playing tricks on me, but I checked the list of ingredients, and sure enough – there’s licorice in this! Nice!
Overall, this is a satisfying tea. I do wish it wasn’t bagged because perhaps I’m becoming even more snobbish these days, but I have gotten to the point where the taste of paper often accompanies these bagged teas, and I don’t like to drink paper flavored teas. Call me crazy. Fortunately, the intended flavors of spice, pumpkin and tea are strong enough here that the paper is not a dominating component in this cup, but I do taste faint paper-y notes and I’d really rather they not be there.
So, I’ll summarize by saying as a bagged tea this is alright. If it were a loose leaf tea, I think I would categorize it as better than alright … it would be very good!
Spiced Brandy Shou Mei from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This week’s tea is a spiced brandy flavored shou mei with cinnamon, cardamom, clove, black peppercorns and a little anise seed. It’s like a hard apple cider without the apple, or maybe you’d rather think of it as a brandy flavored white chai. However you think of it, it’s a spicy cup of warming goodness, guaranteed to take the chill out of your bones on a crisp autumn day.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
I categorized this as a Chai because it is indeed very chai-like.
The aroma of the dry leaf isn’t as chai-like as I expected it to be, though. (And by “chai-like,” I mean the spiced tea that we’ve come to recognize as “chai” here in the U.S.) Instead, it’s very brandy-ish. It almost smells like bubble gum … fruity and sweet, but there is a distinct fermentation to the aroma as well, the way that I’d imagine brandy to smell. Since I’m not big on alcohol or how it smells, I can only imagine that this is what brandy would smell like … but it does smell very appealing!
Brewed, this takes on a more chai-spice fragrance, with the aroma of cardamom, cinnamon and anise being the strongest scents I detect. I also smell the brandy, and the bouquet of the brandy combined with the aromatic spices is really very intoxicating! It’s soothing and relaxing … like something I’d want in a candle or air freshener! I wonder how well a Spiced Brandy air freshener would go over?
The flavor … well, imagine Shou Mei, flavored with brandy and masala spices. Yeah, that’s what it tastes like. The Shou Mei offers a little more body and flavor than a Bai Mu Dan would, and I think with the stronger flavors of spice and brandy that is just what was needed. It is a crisp, slightly vegetative (think freshly cut hay rather than grass here), and light, with a fair amount of astringency which I think is highlighted due to the presence of the brandy flavor. It gives this an almost “warm, mulled brandy” kind of finish.
The spices are delightful here, and I realize that the reason I’m so over the moon for this is the anise. It is in there! Not a hint of it either. It is a prominent spice, but at the same time, I find a nice balance. This isn’t overly cinnamon-y or clove-y. The pepper is a bit of a background note. The cardamom and cinnamon and clove are on equal footing with the anise shining through a little stronger than the others. And that’s just the way I like it. I love anise, and while it can be a polarizing spice, I am glad that 52Teas had the guts to include it in this blend. It really accents the brandy in a very flavorful way.
I’m really enjoying this, and it does, indeed, take the chill off a cold, autumn-y day like today!