Thai Chai

Hot, last night – with some lemon infused honey that I purchased yesterday from the farmer’s market! Since there’s already some lemongrass in this, I thought the honey would play up the citrus in the blend while also sweetening it, and hopefully that would temper some of the spice.

It wasn’t a great mug though; I think I must have over steeped it because even with the honey it was pretty bitter with a very, very dark looking liquor. The ginger was also really, really strong and the degree to which it was “tickling” the back of my throat actually kind of felt a little more like scratching. The rest was ok though; I liked the bright lemon/citrus notes and the coconut undertones were good too. Just a few too many cons overall, despite some nice elements.

I think I’ve got one more cup of this left, so I’ll probably try to find the happy in between of my first cup of this and this one – with the lemon honey.

My word. This tea is a revelation. I never really liked Thai iced tea and was iffy on whether I would like this, but having loved almost everything I’ve gotten from Adagio in the last couple years, I caved. I had this with a bit of cream at work, steeped probably a bit longer than instructed. Didn’t harm things at all; the lemongrass complements this the way bergamot complements Earl Grey.

Chai day: Blend 3 of 6:
I chose this blend because it was the next least favorite smelling one. Though I enjoy coconut, this one had a very strong citrus scent, perhaps lemongrass? I can’t stand citrus.

The citrus smell is subdued in the brew, but still present. It is accompanied by a sort of creamy scent that reminds of me of Thai tea. Thai chai and Thai tea—coincidence? I’m mostly getting the lemongrass and coconut in the scent, and I’m wondering how spicy this is going to be.

The base is nice after the monstrosity that was the vanilla chai. It’s smooth with no astringency, no bitterness, and very little of the tannic flavor. It doesn’t, however, make a bold statement below the other flavors.

This is my first experience with lemongrass in a tea, and I have to say that I don’t like it. It makes for a citrusy, aromatic, woody kind of flavor that I don’t care for. It kind of reminds me of a furniture store for reasons I cannot explain. Or maybe a kind of bathing product. The coconut flavor sits below the lemongrass, which makes it a bit harder to detect and makes me a bit sadder.

As far as the chai part goes, I am getting a little of the cinnamon, maybe cardamom? It’s difficult to penetrate below the lemongrass flavor.

It’s not Adagio’s fault, but this tea is not for me.

This tea has me stuck in a rut. It has a slight flavor reminiscent more of thai cooking then it does of thai tea. Which I was kinda hoping for thai tea but I feel like I should be eating this with a thai dish. It needs a bit more of a kick for it to be considered a chai in my thoughts. Otherwise its good.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Tea Box

Not much about this was notable. I think I could detect a light lemongrass flavour. I added honey and almond milk and it was good enough. Nothing amazing. Just okay. I wouldn’t seek it out, but if offered I wouldn’t turn it away either.

I made an account just to complain about how bad this tea is (and remind myself to never buy it, ever again). This tea tastes like soup to me. Maybe some people are into that, IDK. I’m really not. It’s not appetizing at all. I’ll just pop over to the closest Thai restaurant and order some Tom Kha rather than drink a “tea” that tastes just like it.
Oh, and it has no chai taste whatsoever. None!!

I want to review this tea fairly, so I’ll update this note on my next go-round. Can’t be totally objective this morning, because I’m still reeling from my love affair with another chai, and wishing this was that one!

Trying out this tea for the first time. I opened the bag and the smell of the dry leaves was overwhelmingly coconut-y. Very tropical I guess. The taste is good. Chai, black tea, astringent, and lemony. I don’t really taste the coconut, but the smell stays. It’s okay. Probably wouldn’t get more after the sample is done though. Not to much my taste.

And with this, I will have at least tasted all of the sample chais in the set from Adagio. Some were sipped down long ago. Only three of the original six or seven have any small bits left.

I wasn’t sure what I’d think of this one because the flavors that make this Thai are also the flavors that make me a reluctant Thai food eater. My relationship with Thai food goes like this: ooooh, cool! Thai food! Yum! Want! and then when I’m leaving the restaurant, I’m inevitably disappointed in whatever it was I ate, unless what I ate was the old standby for people who don’t really eat Thai food, Pad Thai. It just sounds so much better to me in theory than it actually tastes to my palate.

One of the main ingredients that makes for that result is coconut. Which I like by itself, and with other forms of fruit. Or with chocolate. But with things like shrimp and chicken and fish it can be too sweet for me. I tend to prefer savory flavors in my meats; I’m not a big fan of sweet and sour, either.

Fortunately, there is no shrimp, chicken, or fish in this tea. I decided to try this for a first go according to the Adagio steeping directions for the most part. I steeped it a bit longer than recommended because that seemed to improve the Spiced Apple.

Straight up, its pretty meh. Kind of like the Spiced Apple was meh straight up, only there is more coconut in this than there was apple in that. Sweetened and with milk, it’s better. But it’s not the coconut that is making this weird for me, it’s the lemongrass. It sort of takes the sweetness I was expecting from the coconut and undercuts it so that it’s not really that sweet any more.

I’ll try it on the stovetop another time, maybe with some coconut tea as the extra black and see what that does. But at this point it’s my least favorite among all the Adagio chai samples.

I got chai’d out maybe a year ago. I think I got a bunch of Tazo chai that was pretty strongly flavored, and after that I started avoiding chai.

But later I was visiting Adagio Tea in Skokie, IL, and I was trying various coconut teas. Even though I wasn’t into chai at the time, I tried their Thai chai, and I have to say it’s tasty enough to get me back into chais. I usually drink it hot, but I also find it’s almost tastier cooled so if you’re looking for an iced tea this could be pretty good for that, too. Versatile!