New Delhi Delight

So I had a huge meal of perogies, onion and mushrooms tonight, and – comfort food or not – my stomach was protesting mightily. One of those situations where you accidentally made more food than you can comfortably eat, but it’s not going to keep well so you eat it anyway. I remembered that I have this one in my cupboard, so I ran for it.

I recall looking up the reviews for this ages back when I was considering getting it, and saw Tina S.’s review which described this tea as “watered down samosa.” And that’s a pretty good description of it – particularly when you don’t steep it long enough. Luckily, I love samosas! So I gave it a shot.

The first time I tried this, I had no idea what sort of parameters you’d need for kitchen spices(!), so I stuck to the minimum on the bag, which is 4 minutes. Yeah. Forget that, unless you like the taste of water that cuddled up to a microwaveable package of Indian curry. This one needs to steep long time. At least the 7 minute “maximum” suggested on the package.

I double the amount of sugar I normally use for this cup. Might sound strange, but I find that the sugar blends well with the natural sweetness to this tea, which I assume is mostly brought about by the fennel at the forefront…followed by the coriander, with cumin coming in at the back.

Most importantly though (because while it’s not unpleasant at all, this is hardly a tea I’d reach for under normal circumstances), it actually works. Really. Does exactly what it says on the tin – I started sipping it, and my stomach started to settle and stop aching almost immediately! Okay taste, but five stars for “benefits.”

I could really pick out the individual ingredients (coriander, fennel, with a little bit of cumin) – they all seemed to be very distinct and yelling out “Hey! I’m right here!” like they were little hot dog vendors at a baseball game or something :P
I wasn’t expecting to love this from the scent but I actually think it tastes nice. There is some kind of a sweet element here that tastes like black licorice (I guess that’s the fennel). Normally I’m not really a licorice person, but I really like that flavor in here.
It kind of strikes me like Moxie – either you like those flavors or you don’t. It is another one of those teas that seem like my grandmother would have liked. I think it’s good :)

Dry Leaf Nose: Fennel is the prominent aroma, with cumin and coriander seed following.

Liquor: Golden, light gold.

Flavour: The sweetness of the fennel is the dominant flavour. Very light and refreshing.

I dropped in today on my way home from the city. When I walked in, it was not busy at all but of course I took forever to pick a tea to try; I always try something new when I go in. Lets just say it’s pretty bad when you look up at the huge wall of tea and see the contents of your pantry! I decided to try this one as my mom told me she tried it last week and loved it. I really love Indian food and the spices they use in their cooking so I figured this would be good. I also love that it is based on Ayurvedic medicine. The smell is really complex and is truthful to the complex taste of this tea. The depth of flavour really allows each of the spices to come through individually and finish together. I had this tea before a heavy lunch and was pleased that I had no digestive issues (so I guess the tea worked!) overall, I think this was a nice cup of tea. It was really different from any of the teas I normally gravitate towards so I can’t see myself stocking up but I would definitely have this tea again…especially before a big meal! As I am using my phone and can’t rate I will just mention here that I am giving this tea an 80.

I love Indian food, but still I was very very hesitant when I smelled this and felt like I was in the middle of rush hour in an Indian buffet. Still, all teas can shift during brewing, so we tried it.

Nope, watered down samosa is exactly the flavour I got. Apparently I love the spices in my food, but not my tea. Not rating it since if you like these flavours it’s probably amazing, but it really wasn’t for me.

Day 72 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

1.5 tsp in a tea-ball, brewed in-cup.

This tea has a very interesting flavour profile. I… never thought I’d meet a tea that smelled or tasted like Indian spices — curries and samosas.

This tea, however, does it. And does it quite well.

The only problem? I don’t quite know what to make of it. It’s certainly an interesting tea, and it tastes just like I suppose it should. And it works, which is something I wasn’t expecting either. I just don’t know if I quite enjoy it or not.

But it definitely is an interesting tea, at the very least. Worth trying for sure!

This tea is just…weird. The smell of it reminds me of dutch cheese, which I’m not too fond of (at least in tea form!). I think it tastes gross. I will not buy this again, and am only going to keep it to see if it helps after I eat a heavy meal.

Accidentally steeped this for 14 min instead of the 10 I was aiming for…surprisingly the flavour still isn’t overwhelming even with such a long steep, so I may push it to 15+ in the future.

Aroma-wise it reads heavily of samosas (says the midwestern white girl who eats too much Indian/Pakistani food and still can’t name half the spices in the cuisine) but it’s remarkably bland on the palate. Reassuringly bland, if that can be a thing.

You can tell there are spices, but there’s none of the bite you sometimes find in western “chai tea” mixes. Just a warm, comforting blend to soothe the throat, settle the stomach and warm you when you need a drink without all the caffeine.

Almost nice.

Sipdown! 975.

Thanks to Janelle for sending me the last of this tea to sample :) I was in the mood for some herbals tonight, and figured I’d try out this tea, since it has fennel + two ingredients I enjoy (in food, at least)… and the fennel in Kapha Ayurvedic was actually quite a pleasant surprise both in the initial infusion and tonight’s resteep.

The aroma very, VERY strongly reminds me of an Indian restaurant, or grocery – cumin and fennel dominating. My boyfriend has some aversion to the smell of Indian spices, and I imagine this tea would make him gag (I find it makes me crave Mutter Paneer and Aloo Gobi and all that yummy stuff). Flavourwise, it’s primarily coriander, followed up by cumin (ok, those two switch depending on the sip) and surprisingly little fennel. Like, not even any sweet aftertaste of fennel. It’s also very weird to have cumin-flavoured water. Coriander, I can handle, fennel in small amounts is ok, but cumin is SO savoury, it’s throwing me off.

Despite this tea being reasonably pleasant, I’m finding that all it’s really doing is causing me to have severe food cravings, so I’m glad I only had a single cup’s worth of this.