Organic Chai

I was given this tea for Christmas in the set with a teapot and two mugs. I brewed this tea for the first time today and I utterly in love- I added a little soy milk (which I discovered I liked with other chai teas) and it is perfect for this chilly day with the snow swirling outside.

Extreme black pepper flavor. It’s unpleasant at first but I grew to enjoy it. Certainly not my favorite, but a bright, peppery cuppa has its place.

You may have noticed (or not) that my reviews have been quite sparse over the past two months or so. That is because I came back from vacation and was immediately informed that my request for a transfer had been approved and they wanted me ASAP. Well, when you have a full case load and have to write transfer memos for all of those cases, on top of actually doing your job and remaining responsible for the transfers until the day you leave (literally), ASAP is exactly two months if you work late and weekends. I had to pack up my office in such a hurry that I ended up packing all of my office teas. I won’t see them again until my stuff gets delivered to the new office – next week if I am lucky. So when I didn’t want any of my purse teas, I resorted to bumming tea off my new officemate. I was in the mood for something spicy, so this one piqued my interest.

Alas, this tea is blegh! It just smells and tastes like black pepper with a clove backdrop. Awful. Simply… awful. Perhaps it would be better with milk and honey, but I expect a chai to at least be drinkable even without those things. I did manage to down it because I desperately needed caffeine, but it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience. I sure hope my stuff arrives soon…

Overall a very mild spice blend. Not overwhelming like I thought it would be. Needed a little bit of sweetener for my personal preferences. I still think I’d like a stronger flavor, but overall still delicious.

Pepper on the tongue
Is it chai without milk or sugar?
Stolen bag, regret.

Smells like a chai with a whole ton of spices added. Tastes like it as well. If you’re into that thing, you’ll like this. I’m not. I want to taste the tea, not the added flavors.

Wow…the fragarance alone has completely impressed me! The black pepper, cardamom, and clove notes are clearly pronounced and are what I would expect from a higher-quality bagged chai. I added a bit of honey and milk and the spiciness still comes through with gusto! I will definitely be purchasing this again!

I found some bags of this Tazo Organic Chai and decided that since I was severely decaffeinated and the weather was cool and drizzly this would be a perfect opportunity to brew up a large Bodum. I have consumed a lot of this tea in the past, but I’ve been less into chai lately for some reason. It was probably one of those fads which carries us away until we get our wits about us once again.

Anyway, I’ve tried my share of chai blends, and many are “spice cabinet” chais, with much more spice than tea, which always annoys me a little. I mean the word chai means “tea”, does it not???? I mention this today because I checked out the ingredients list for the new Oprah Chai chez Starbucks (which appears to be replacing the Tazo), and the first ingredient listed is cinnamon. Well, I certainly like cinnamon, but as the top ingredient in a chai? No, thank you.

Tazo Organic Chai boasts black tea as its first ingredient, followed by ginger and then cinnamon. Clove is rather far down the list, although I recall that in the loose-leaf, non-organic Tazo Chai, whole cloves figure rather prominently, necessitating the addition of a hefty dose of Assam (usually CTC), if I am to imbibe that blend.

This one, the organic version, is perfectly dosed, with enough black tea to make this seem like a flavored tea, not a tea-tinged infusion of spices. I usually do not sweeten tea, but chai is the exception to the rule. Today I used my all-time favorite chai adulterant: sweetened condensed milk, which adds both the milk and the sweetness all in a few large glob-like spoons (or are they dollops?) of caramel-esque wonderfulness. Needless to say, this beverage is of the meal replacement variety. I was hungry and tired; now I am neither!

I chose this one this morning because I’m traveling and it’s really the only breakfast tea I brought with me. Don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow morning, since I only brought one bag of this.

I prefer chais without anise, but this one is actually subtle enough about it that I don’t mind. :) It’s a decent cupp. Nothing to write home about, but I appreciate that it’s organic.

I like any chai tea, its my favorite kind of tea. I made it tonight because its going to get really cold over the next day. We are expecting storm Titan to hit tomorrow.

I went to Trader Joe’s today with my mom. I stocked up on TV dinners. I have paper plates and bowls and plastic silverware just in case we lose water [again].

I’m supposed to be studying for Spanish Speaking test 1. I think I’m pretty much ready. I’m listening to Pandora to try to relax. A neighbor is playing really LOUD music. (I’m using headphones). I love Chai tea. I like it iced the best with milk.