Kashmiri Chai

I’m kind of disappointed. After hearing/reading rave reviews of proper chai, and going out to actually buy milk (this rarely happens in my house), I expected to be amazed.

I loved the smell. It has that smell of a country farmer’s market. I want to go pumpkin picking now, or something. And it certainly filled the kitchen with its spicy, woodsy fragrance (surely mother won’t be complaining).

I used the “authentic” recipe that teaplz forced upon me [ever so lovingly]. Know what this reminds me of? Why I don’t add anything to my tea.

The first few sips were enjoyable. It’s really rich, probably due to the water/milk ratio (1:1). But toward the end I had to force it down. I’m just not used to thick teas, and it reminded me more of “milk with a tea aftertaste.” How disappointing. Maybe chai isn’t for me after all.

I don’t often crave Chai, but when I do this Golden Moon mixture is very satisfying. You have to be very careful to not over-steep this one as it gets bitter as time goes by. Fantastic aroma is almost better than the taste. :)

Again I had a hard time getting my nose of the package. Leaves smell wonderfully of cinnamon and cloves. Kinda reminds me of mulling spices for apple cider. I love chai so i was looking forward to trying this one.
LOVED THIS TEA. The spices were wonderfully warming on a cold day. The only negative is that there was a strong bitter taste that you get with black teas which i’m not a fan of. Haven’t tried it with cream and honey cause i didn’t have time to fix another cup, but hopefully will try this mixture tomorrow.
And Merry Xmas Everyone XD

This is one of my favorite chai tea blends, mostly because it doesn’t contain pepper. It’s mellow and lovely and I need to buy more!

By far my new favorite Chai. I’ve made it straight and as a latte.

I’m liking this tea much better than the last time I had it! I boiled sweetened vanilla soy milk and steeped the tea in it for about five minutes while stirring. I strained it into a jar and let it cool in the fridge overnight. Today, it is quite delicious! It seems to have a good mix of cinnamon/cardamon/clove going on in it. It isn’t quite as heavy or earthy as I would like and I prefer a little more of a pepper spicy bite, but it is still pretty good. I might try adding a few peppers in it next time and see if that fills my chai desires.

OMG.

Last time I tried this tea, I brewed it the normal way – pour the hot water over the leaf, let the whole thing steep for a few minutes.

This time, based on reviews by others about this tea, I tried making it as a latte. I took 2.5 tsp of leaf, 2 cups of almond milk, and then simmered the tea in the milk. I then took a mug and put a dollop of cinnamon honey in the bottom. It took a few minutes at least for the liquid to boil, but once it did boil, I simmered it the boiling milk for 5 minutes, then poured this beautiful mocha-coloured liquid into the mug with the waiting honey, and then stirred.

Oh. My. God. This is good. The nuttiness of the almond really comes through, but it mixes so well with the earthiness of the tea and the spices. The flavour is just full and round inside my mouth – so full, that I have to drink this tea in slow sips or my tongue will get overwhelmed. It does leave a slightly sour aftertaste, but I don’t mind, since the milk is dairy-free.

I MUST DO THIS TO ALL OF MY CHAI TEA FROM NOW ON. ESPECIALLY THE CHOCOLATE CHAIS.

Oooh, this is tasty! I’m bumping up the rating accordingly, from 77 to 80.

PS: I just got notice this morning that a non-fiction memoir piece of mine will be published in an anthology later on this year! Yay!

Edit: I also think I’ll try to use up my cinnamon honey in the same way – with milk lattes like this. Yum.

Here is one of these unwieldy metallic packaged GM samples sipdowned. I felt like chai today! I don’t know if it was just my sample, but this one seems to have mostly cinnamon (and black tea of course – though the description on the label says it should have also contained green tea – eww no.) A hojicha chai might be nice. But it looked like there is just black tea here.- not a CTC leaf but kind of smallish. This is pretty good – nice black tea with a decent briskness. The cinnamon shines. If I were to pick a favorite chai ingredient, I’d pick cinnamon.

I think my tastebuds recently changed… there was a week where my tongue was sore… like if I had eaten eggplant, though that usually only lasts an hour. Some things are tasting differently now. Ketchup is almost unbearably strong now. If taste buds change every seven years, that means the last time was about a year after I started drinking tea and that was mostly teabags. Hopefully none of my favorites are terrible now! hmmm…

We got the revert-to-cold snap last night I was hoping for and I jumped on it as a chance to drink up some chai! I did them all proper even, the whole 10 to 20 minute stovetop dance with milk and honey as I’ve decided that’s just the only way I’m ever satisfied drinking chai.

Wasn’t nuts for this one. It was rather bitter. Not awful, but compared to the others I had last night it was my least favorite. Ah well.

Sample. Simmered 6 minutes in 8oz of whole milk. I love chai, but I did not like this at all. Thought it was weak, and didn’t enjoy the spice combo.