Indian Spice

It’s an okay Chai but not the best I’ve had. I won’t be ordering more. It’s pretty basic and kind of flat.

This Tea is now Harney & Sons CHAI. It makes for a wonderful afternoon pick me up & my favorite offering when friends visit, they LOVE it! For years I made my own from a Recipe that a Tibetan Lama (Teacher) gave me (w/Lipton Black Tea from local NYC Indian Shop; ground fresh Cardamon pods; sugar & a tip of Vanilla). This blend has just the right touch of added Cloves that other brands seem to go too heavy on. It truly is a perfect blend & since discovering it, I no longer do the homemade one. The brewing itself is special as you gather lots of “generosity intention” during the 4 minute stir & simmer. :) I can’t think of any better Tea to serve on a cold, winter Day. * Someone mentioned trying the Bag Form without Milk! ? It requires the Milk to offset the acidic strength & render a creamy, sweet Tea. Recipe is 1 pint (2 cups) Milk + 1 cup Water + 3 level Teaspoons Tea

Sipdown no. 207. A sample, and a mystery.

Apparently, I tasted this sample of this a while back but did not write about it under Indian Spice. It also appears no one else on Steepster has ever written about it under Indian Spice, which I find hard to believe, but I did search on several terms and nothing came up.

So I went and created this entry. Then I did yet another internet search and discovered that Steepster refers to the Harney Chai as “previously known as” this. Well crap. I am now guilty of creating a duplicate entry. Sigh.

The Harney Chai is described on their site as similar to this but spicier and with a hint of vanilla. It seems I did taste and write about Harney’s Chai. I described that as not very spicy. So if that is a spicier version of this…

In any case, I decided to drink it without making a chai production out of it, which it appears I did the first time around. Though I can’t be 100 percent sure that what I drank then was Indian Spice rather than Chai and was just smarter about where I put the entry than I was today. Here’s where that note is, just for completeness.

http://steepster.com/teas/harney-and-sons/3260-chai#tasting-notes

Note that to complicate things, the entry is called Chai, but the picture is of Indian Spice.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect here — whether this is in fact the same tea as described in the previous note, but I suspect it is. It’s a pretty mild spiced black tea. Milk and sweetener brings out the spices a bit more. Unfortunately, mine today is still wearing some of the lapsang I made in the Breville yesterday (that’s the other thing about lapsang, it clings on for dear life to tea making implements and so tends to flavor the next thing made with the implement), which I am trying to ignore. Even if this isn’t the same tea, my assessment from the initial note remains the same.