Vanilla Chai

Yummy Yummy Yummy! Notice those are all capitalized. This one has to stay in the tea cupboard.

I was really surprised that the cinnamon and clove didn’t over power the vanilla. Nice medium tea base here. I wondered if a vanilla chai was truly out of reach for me. Vanilla seems to hide when other flavors are used. I’ve tried several just vanilla teas where the tea over shadowed the vanilla. I thought the chai spices were going to be too strong for vanilla to show through. However this is a wonderful balance of flavors.

What a tasty tea! Thank you Missy so much for the wonderful sample!! I knew I was going to like this the second I stuck my nose in the bag. How could you not with all of those wonderful flavors melding together. It was a bit bitter, but I think that’s because I was not sure of the steeping parameters. Next steep I’m going to go up to 1 1/2 teaspoons and bring the temperature down a bit. I know then it will be perfect. So vanilla and yummy. This is going on my shopping list for sure!

Yaaaay, it’s new tea day! It’s new tea day everyone!

So… I got my Ovation Teas order in today, and it has this Vanilla Chai in it. Oh em gee, is it good.

Like most masala chais, the tea in this blend takes a backseat. Both cinnamon and clove are a tough roadmate to contend with, and this blend is no exception (nor do I want it to be!). The vanilla adds just the perfect touch of sweet, creaminess alongside the spices. Man, Ovation did a really good job on this one. The flavor combination is perfect.

This was my first order from OvationTeas. It consisted of this, a maté chai (to compete against Teavana’s Samurai), and a custom blend that smells really, really good (and has figs!).

If nothing else, I have to say that the price is competitive. At $9/4oz, this is going to be a fairly difficult tea to beat. Plus, it really helps that Ovation is about ~10 miles away from my house. I feel like my ridiculously good, moderately priced tea is contributing to my local economy. The shipping was fairly quick, considering that I had a custom blend in there (so excited!).

Thank you to Dustin who sent me this a while ago— when Ovation sadly went out of business. I’m sorry I didn’t buy ALL their teas. I was able to try quite a few of them buying an ounce or two here from many kind Steepsters!

I only had this once before, even though I thought it was my favorite chai since I had it. I skipped a tasting note that time. This lovely tea sure smells very spicy opening the bag, even though there is a fair amount of non-CTC black tea leaves here. I saw ginger, cinnamon pieces, cloves, big green things that I had to see the description to tell that it was cardamom and apparently there is also black pepper. The flavor is a nice amount of strong chai but the black base here seems to be different than many of the bases from Ovation – this doesn’t seem to have too strong of a flavor. And there is also no vanilla flavor for me. I would have said this was my favorite chai, but that was before TastyBrew sent me Necessiteas Vanilla Chai. So I guess this makes my second favorite chai that I have in stock right now.

This is why I have only had this lovely chai twice since I acquired it a while ago:
Well, I had time to update my cupboard with tea company samples, teabox scores, and generous packages from other Steepsters. The number went up to 502 (!) before I took all of the teas off that went in teaboxes and the packages I sold. Now it’s at 474. Oh no, that is still too high! They are all mostly smaller amounts, but even if there is only one cup of tea in each sample, that’s still 474 cups… not to mention resteeps. Ah well, I love my tea collection! I certainly have variety though (but it doesn’t help when I want to be drinking six different teas at any given moment!

Years later, after buying a pound of this tea in Ovation’s close out sale, I am finally sipping it down and can take it off my cupboard list! It has always been a really good chai, but has lost a little magic over the years. I was in a hurry this morning and didn’t add any honey, which I usually do with chais, so it is lacking a little something that my other cups have had. Even so, it’s still a pretty decent cup!

I just love this tea. This tea is has a wonderful flavor which will make you order it again and again. The aroma and the flavor is awesome. A must try tea.

DELICIOUS!
This is a perfect tea for beginners, it is a smooth crisp blend with a creamy finish.