Starry Chai

I think this was a share from tea buddy K S a while back. Drank a celebratory cup after restoring the living room to (sort of) order, tree down, tringlings and trapplings up for another year.

Cherry with chai is an interesting concept.

My general beef with chai is that folks cardamom it to death, and it ends up tasting like somebody just dumped the contents of their spice rack into a cup. In this case, Good Earth was light on the cardy, light-ish on the cherry, and generous with good old gentle cinnamon. Took it without milk, and it didn’t need any. Would try this one again.

As a general rule, I am not a fan of chai. I couldn’t quite figure out why as I like everything that is in it. This and Sweet Chai of Mine have kind of clued me in, most chai are too over spiced for my tastes. Good Earth backs off on the intensity a couple notches and I appreciate it.

Dry this does smell a little medicinal with the cherry flavor. Once steeped the aroma turns to a warm cinnamon and cardamom with a touch of cherry. The taste is similar to the steeped aroma.

In tea, cherry never tastes like cherry in pie – which is how all cherry should taste. It is more like the cherry in a shaved ice. Since I have never found a tea that tastes like cherry pie, I can’t fault them here.

With Sweet Chai of Mine, the black pepper and ginger hit with a spicy heat at the end. In this one they are calmer and support the cinnamon allowing it to warm up the end of the sip.

I did sweeten this but only a little. It disappeared very quickly from my cup. That kind of surprised me.