Jade Oolong Chai (Organic)

The concept of an oolong chai intrigues me, but I’m a bit apprehensive of whether or not I’ll enjoy it. I love straight tieguanyins, and I love chai (craving 52teas Mayan Chocolate Chai right now), but together? I’m not so sure. And the first sip does nothing to figure that out. It’s sweet, sweeter than I anticipated, and I think there’s a bit of oolong aftertaste. The smell is quite strongly of cinnamon/ginger, and it carries over into the flavour. But, something doesn’t seem quite right. The chai spicing isn’t quite right for me, I don’t think, and the oolong isn’t giving the tea enough body. Maybe I should have steeped it longer? The sweetness is also throwing me a bit – it’s a little too close to the sweet aftertaste of licorice, which I dislike. Maybe if I added some milk it would turn into something tastier?’

Bleh, worth the experiment for curiousity’s sake, but not a tea I really want to drink again. There are many, many other chais out there (a bunch of which are in my cupboard) that I greatly prefer, and although an oolong instead of black base sounded kind of neat, it ended up being so weak in the background that it’s almost like spiced water, if you understand what I’m saying, which is… weird.

Another tea that’s gonna be up for swapsies as soon as I get my act together and compile a list. I’m sure someone’s curious to try it :D And hey – they may even like it!

This tea is stuck in some bizarre liminal, separated state; it’s not a full chai but isn’t 100% green oolong either. Both of these things are delicious separately (for me) but I can’t help but think they sell each other short when together, although this may be a more successful oolong then it is a chai.

The chai component, which is very similar to David’s Saigon Chai, may have worked better if this was a darker, roasted oolong. As it is the floral, buttery jade tie guan yin is too light to add milk, which for me is a key factor when drinking chai. The flavour is that of a cardamom and cinnamon sweetened green oolong, with a good dose of stevia, and a smidgen of peppercorn.

It’s a bit watery, and the flavours do not taste as if they always mingle, but it can also be a nice cuppa buttery spices. My main issue with this one is I really don’t like stevia. I didn’t like it in banana oolong and don’t care for it here. Freeze-dried bananas and cardamom have enough sweetness to them for me. I wish David’s Tea gave you the option to add stevia instead of assuming everyone wants a sweetener boost and dumping it right in the dry blend.

Tried this in store. I love our local DT. The associates all recognise us, call us by name, almost know our tea stash by its name (Stashy, Devourer of Worlds), etc. I just wish they wore nametags so we could stop calling them Really Hipster Girl, Less Hipster Girl, That Nice One, Hipster Asian Boy, Hipster White Boy, and the manager.

Anyway.

I liked this tea to start, very sweet and spicy, but there was a cloying aftertaste that snuck up on me and stuck in the back of my throat. Actually made me a little ill. I think it might be the stevia? I’m not sure. Anyway, won’t be repeating the experience.

So I found myself in the mood for an AUTUMN TEA! I have NONE in my cupboard :( And I can’t afford to buy any for a while. So I chose this out of one of the MANY samples Janelle sent me. I was quite intrigued with the idea of a GREEN OOLONG and CHAI in one? It smelled decadent dry. The cardamom and cinnamon very apparent. Unfortunately steeped, it was quite light. I was afraid to add anything to this because the little flavor it did have would disappear. This definitely would have been a hit with a darker base oolong. I even over leafed to make sure the chai came through:( However this oolong I love. Very delicate and my tastebuds loved it. I usually love to add milk or cream to my chai to get that full flavor. I decided, HECK why not, after I was halfway finished with this I added some milk. As I suspected, all flavor disappeared. Thank you janelle for giving me this to sample.
On another note, since I was feeling in a super duper fall craving mood I made these for dessert tonight:)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20741867@N05/10029951044/
However, the sprinkled ones turned into a fail:(
Also after work I stopped by a local cafe that we sell our pastries too and stumbled upon a scoop of heaven in a cup! Oatmeal chocolate chip ice cream! I love oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Eating this made me instantly want Della Terra’s Oatmeal Raisin cookie tea!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/20741867@N05/10030092323/
I also got a scoop of Pistachio Almond, making me also crave Butiki’s Pistachio Ice Cream Tea. HAHA can’t you tell I am having major withdrawals. Oh LAWRD!

Anyways, I will have to take another stab at this tea eventually.

This was a free sample from a DAVID’s order a month or so ago.

I’d forgotten about it really, but I’ve had a lot of tea already today and figured I should stick to something not black this late in the day.

The dry leaf smelled like oatmeal to me. I think because it had a strong cinnamon note and then was kind of appley too? And when I think apple cinnamon, oatmeal tends to be the main food type thing with that flavoring. Smells kind of good, actually, but I’m ambivalent about apple cinnamon flavored anything so I’m not particularly riveted here.

I’ve never had stevia before and I’m kind of nervous because I HATE the taste of any sweetener that isn’t honey or sugar. Agave is too thin for my tastes, and even Splenda has something off about it that doesn’t work. So I’m assuming stevia will stick out like a sore thumb.

Now that it’s steeped something smells medicinal. Boo – I want the apple cinnamon back. I can’t taste any added sweetness from the stevia – but maybe it’s the culprit for the fakey taste? Blech. I’m only getting cinnamon flavored water – this doesn’t even have any oolong flavor to it. In fact, if I hadn’t seen the leaves I’d have though it was an herbal.

Nope, this doesn’t work for me at all – I’m pretty sure I won’t be able to finish this.

Oh boy, two very delicious worlds are colliding here!

I was so excited to see this one pop up on the David’s roster, that I immediately ordered a tin of it. Call it a premonition, because I knew this one would be a hit with me.

I love black-based chais, but since I like to add milk to them, sometimes I find them a bit thin on the body-side. Like if I were to add milk, they might dissolve into milky nothing. But having an oolong base changes this game entirely. No milk required or desired! The floral/ vegetal quality of the tea totally supports the spices, and the flavour is green and sweet and spicy. It doesn’t need anything added, naked is perfectly delicious.

It’s a great afternoon tea, when you don’t want anything too rich, but could use a bit of a perk up.

Yep, this one’s a keeper!

Mmmmmm chai!!! Okay so yeah I didnt get this tea mostly because I love a guy named Jade * cough cough * nope thats not the main reason at all… (;
I find that with any sort of chai tea, the dry leaves smell so weird. And yes this tea has that weird dry leaf smell too, but I got it anyways because I loooooove chai and Jade
Anyways, once it brews it has such a pretty floral-like smell to it. And the leaves, do they ever expand! Mmm this tea has such a nice taste, sweet and spicy. Really nice flavour! After I drank half of the cup I put milk in the rest to see how it tastes, everyone reccomends it with milk! Yeah no, I had to pour the rest down the sink, sad, what a waste. I am just not a milk in the tea kind of person, I just dont enjoy it. Anyways, I will be drinking this tea straight for now on, and will probably stalk up, I only bought 50g of it. Blue oolong tin, here I come!

I’ll give this the highest praise I’ve ever given any chai blend: Not disappointing.

Ever since warming up with “real” chai on a cold rainy day in Ithaca, NY during a road-trip to Albany, I’ve never found one that comes close to what I had at that Indian restaurant. I think it’s my preparation, I’m told that infusing the milk with the spices for a long time (~1 hour) before adding the tea is the secret to chai success. As soon as I can remember to buy all of the whole spices, I’ll try it ;-) I don’t think I’ll ever find a chai blend that can reproduce that taste without the extra hassle.

I tried this without milk, not my usual method for making chai. This tea tastes sweet and spicy, and the cinnamon is not overpowering (Like teavana’s chai…stay away, just trust me!). It needs to cool off a bit before everything levels out, it’s rather misleadingly musky out of the pot. The oolong is barely noticable to me on the first steep, but there is a solid base behind the sweetness and spice.

Maybe a second steep will tone down the spices and let more of the oolong through?

So following the lead of…someone, I forget who, I steeped this in apple juice on the stovetop. Well, I used some apple cider that I had picked up recently that was way too sweet. This cut down on the sweetness nicely, and added a whole new layer of flavors, it was very yummy! Definitely going to steep longer next time.

I think I am easy to please when it comes to Chai tea. And I really under appreciate/neglect them, so if anyone has any excellent chais they want to recommend I would be a happy panda :)

Got this one as a sample with my online order. I haven’t tried many of Davids chais outside of the seasonal ones. But this makes me want to try more, I just love the spice so much. It is a great thing to have on a winter’s night, and since it just snowed here I wish I had more.