Bollywood Chai

With a pending Edmonton trip on Wednesday thought I’d catch up with the backlog of reviews. Hope everyone has been having a great May so far and are planning special treats for Mother’s Day. On the note of treats, singing and dancing this chai definitely fits the bill for all three. It’s mild and refreshing hot and cold.

The bright hues of the candied fennel gives the image of the silk saris that those in the Bollywood movies, so that is a win there. It also gives the comforting notes that the tea has on the taste buds. All in all out of the chai teas I’ve had so far this one stands out as a great starter chai. Enjoy. :)

I’m not a big chai tea drinker but I did find this one had nice sweetness to it which I wasn’t expecting. Reminds me of something I’d find comforting to have on a rainy day.

I picked up a sample of this today and was quite pleasantly surprised.I love the warmth of this tea. It really reminded me of chai guarana and also of ceylon star. Overall I think that this is a great tea. I just had it as a tea however, I think that it would also be good as a latte. I will definetely pick up more of this tea. Due to the warmth of this tea, I am surprised it was the april tea of the month.

It’s a solid chai, nothing amazing but not bad either. The smell is a lot stronger than the taste when it’s prepared with milk and a little sugar. In fact, I wish it would have brewed up a little bit stronger because the spices really don’t stand out to me. I can’t pick out the individual flavours, except for maybe a little ginger. I wish the black tea was a little stronger as well.

This was definitely spicy at first. I added some sugar, and it brought out that little bit of sweetness from the candied fennel. This is a warming cup of tea with a peppery hint to it. I taste the cloves as well. Overall this is a nice tea, but it’s not something I’d drink all the time.

Wasn’t a fan of this one. I tried it both hot and iced.

A sample from Miss B! So this tea totally wins the prize for prettiest chai – the candy-coated fennel in its array of pastel shades , along with the bright red whole peppercorns and the green cardamom pods really make this something worth looking at. I was too intrigued not to actually try one of the fennel seeds, and they’re absolutely delicious – liquorice with the sweetness of the sugar shell. I could eat these all the time and not get bored!

Anyway, the tea. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it approximately 4 minutes in boiling water. It brewed up to a medium golden brown, so I held back on the additions. To taste, it’s a pretty decent chai blend. There’s a lot of pepper, which gives it quite a hot/spicy kick, and I love that about it. I also really like how prominent the fennel and cardamom are – they’re two of my favourite chai flavours so I’d be sold regardless. The fact that there’s also a distinctive pepperiness really makes this one a bit different in my eyes. There are the more characteristic ginger and cinnamon flavours here also, but only in the background. They give the whole cup an underlying sweet spiciness that’s very appealing.

I really enjoyed this one. I’ve been drinking a lot of chai recently, and sometimes it’s hard to tell one from another. This one’s fairly unique, at least in a few key respects, and I’ll enjoy my second (and final!) cup before this one leaves my cupboard. A good start to the day!

I really enjoy this tea as a latte (with milk, foam + sugar). I’m someone who keeps the tea bag in the whole time I drink because I like teas to taste strong. With Bollywood Chai, since it’s a black tea, it makes sense that when kept in over recommended steep time it gets a bit bitter. As a latte, I’m able to keep the bag in the whole time and it tastes really great! It’s not the best chai I’ve had, but I’m sad to see DT discontinue this one because I do enjoy it quite a bit.

Had a DAVIDsTEA chai taste-off today! I have a bunch of chai and spice teas from DAVIDs, so I thought I’d compare a few and see which I like best. For some reason, this one ended up being the frontrunner… Not what I expected, since I remember being pretty indifferent the first time I tried it. I think it might be because the black tea base is on the lighter side, which seems to match my mood today? Also, the flavors are very balanced.

There’s a little sweetness from the vanilla and the candied fennel, which also adds a slight cooling note. And none of the spices are too dominant. There’s cinnamon and ginger and cardamom here, all equally noticeable and very warming. (Unlike today’s cup of Saigon Chai, which ended up being a cinnamon bomb! But I may have overstepped that one; I’ll have to give it another chance when I’m in the mood for a heavier chai.)

Anyway, I don’t have much of this tea left, but it was a pleasant surprise for today. (I’ll be honest, though… I’m really looking forward to getting my tin of Laoshan Village Chai from Verdant! That one is delicious, and exactly what I like in a chai. It’s spoiled me!)

I was hoping for a little more of an Indian chai taste. It really didn’t satisfy what I was looking for. It is attractive dry but the cardamom is so dried out and crushed that I felt bad about the quality of it. Not a bad chai but I have had much better. Thanks KatBender for sharing!