Spiced Apple Chai

2009-11-23 2pm
Preparation Details:
Zarafina Tea Maker: Black, Loose, Medium, 2 cups water, 3 scoops
sweetened with rock sugar

I was feeling awful (migraine and stomach upset) so came home early from work to find my samples from Adagio had arrived. Hooray! I sniffed them all to find one that I felt like drinking and would go well with crackers, and selected this one.

I’m not tasting any apple (sad!), even though I did smell it in the dry leaves. In fact, the tea does smell a bit like apple cider… just doesn’t taste like apples at all.

It tastes like spice, but I"m not sure what. Perhaps when I’m feeling better I’ll have another cup and I’ll be able to identify them.

Apple and I are not the best of friends for eating. However for drinking, we’re close as can be. This is really lovely, though I think I was a bit stingy on the leaf for the size pot I made to share with my husband. Its delicious to drink though regardless. I’m actually a little bummed I only got a sample of this, but honestly, I’ve got apple tea. I don’t need more. I just wanted to check and see how Adagio did with it. I’d definitly buy this again.

It’s been a cold afternoon, so this evening I really felt like a warming, creamy chai latte. I’ve been curious to try my Spiced Apple Chai sample for a while now, so it’s this I selected.

Dry, this smells absolutely like apple pie. Apple, cinnamon and clove are the dominant scents, but I can also detect the ginger, and maybe a touch of orange. I gave it the recommended 5 minutes, and then heated up my milk.

While brewing, the spices definetly predominate. I can smell cloves and cinnamon in no small measure, and the apple has all but disappeared. All this changes once I add the milk, though, which seems to soften the spices and lets the apple come through again. It tastes just like apple pie and cream, only in liquid form, and it smells, as it does dry, primarily of apple and cinnamon. I found myself surprised that I could actually taste the apple under all of the milk and spices, but I can. It adds a very slight sharpness, and a little bite. Perfect! This is definetly one I’ll be drinking again. It’s apple pie — and autumn — in a cup!

I don’t care if it’s midnight, I want a chai. Actually, I just wanted to try this apple chai that Darby sent me in a trade (thanks!) It really has a delicious slightly bitter (in a good way) chai flavor. Very flavorful, nice & spicy. The spices really linger. Sadly, the most intriguing part of this blend seems to be absent: the apple. Maybe the other flavors are so strong they mask the apple, I don’t know. To be fair, my nose is a bit stuffy and I didn’t see any apple chunks actually going into my infuser. Actually, there seems to be a squashy flavor more than apple. I’m taking a few points off for not having a better apple flavor, but as a chai, it’s great. Now at least I know those Adagio chais that you can make some amazing blends with are tasty!

The first time I prepared this, I added milk and sugar and really did not like it. On a whim today, I decided to try it again, this time without milk. It was much better, but I’m still disappointed by the lack of apple flavor. I’ll finish my sample tin, but I probably won’t be ordering any more.

This is from my Adagio Fall Tea Sampler which I’m happy to revisit now that tea weather has officially hit Texas. Not my favorite chai, but a nice change of pace. I do love the spicy apple potpourri scent, but the actual taste is more watered down.

If you like apple cider, you will love this tea. That’s what I feel like I’m drinking whenever I have this. It’s not my favorite thing, but it’s interesting every once in a while. It’s kind of murky though. I like my tea to be clear.

When I took the cover off the tin I immediately smelled the apple. It kind of smelled like their sour apple (which tastes nothing like apple)… I wonder if they use granny smith apples?

I went against the directions and just used the common measurement of 1 teaspoon per 6oz of purified boiling water and steeped it for 5 min.

The liquour was quite dark, but not as dark as some black teas… probably because the spices took up some of the space that would have otherwise been occupied by tea leaves when I measured it.

The first thing I could smell was the apple, followed by the warm spices, then fainly followed by ceylon tea.

This tea is spot on given the title. The first thing that hits my tongue is the crispness of the apple, then the spice, but the spice doesn’t burn. I can even faintly taste the black tea.

The 2nd infusion (w/ an increase in steeping time of 1 min) is very close to the strength and flavor balance of the 1st infusion, but the 3rd one is mostly consumed by the spices. I personally probably wouldn’t do the 3rd infusion, it just tastes like a basic unflavored chai.

Serving suggestions: Unsweetened. Instead of milk like the traditional chai, I’d steep it in apple juice or apple cider (hard or not). Maybe blend it w/ a caramel black tea?

All work and no extracurricular tea activities makes me a dull, dry, liquids-depleted girl. Insert sad, weepy, pitiful emoticon of choice here.

Tonight, however, miracle of tea miracles, I found time to brew Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai. Yes, I keep drinking Adagio. Yes, it continues to be the most affordable pathway to my tea addiction. Yes, I monitor my pocket-money well. And yes, this tea tastes exactly like one would expect it to taste: light apple cider, mulled with chai spices. One can only imagine the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup situation which probably brought on the advent of its creation:

“Hey, you got apple cider in my chai!”
“Well, you got chai in my apple cider!”

In short, this tea is autumnal and late evening-appropriate, and it tastes good. So there. And I do b’lieve, gov’nah, that I used to write haikus about tea around these here parts, a.k.a. teakus. Let’s see if I’ve still got it:

Climb aboard the chai
tea train! Next stop: cider house.
G’night, tea princes.

Yes, I just made a teaku in which The Cider House Rules met The Darjeeling Limited. And yes, Michael Caine and Wes Anderson would certainly tell me to keep my day job.

Really, really caffeinated today. For some reason this reminded me of pine and cleaning solvent. I didn’t really focus on the tea as much as I would have liked to, but still didn’t really get the apple.