Chai Tea

Many Thanks to Tea Sipper’s Traveling Tea Box for this tea!

I was Home Alone and had a Grand Plan to throw caution to the wind and drink a caffeinated tea in the evening so I could stay up and read The Hound of the Baskervilles late into the night under a blanket with my cat. Wild times. I made this one because I love chai :) and I had a single bag from TSTTB.

It was not the most distinctive chai I’ve ever had, but it was very good! There was nothing to dislike about it. Nice spices, nice tea base, good with a little honey and milk.

You know what happened though, don’t you? Yes, I fell asleep reading around 9pm, woke up at 2 am and tossed and turned because of the caffeine! This happens Every Time, yet every couple of months I do this thinking I’m going to stay up during the right part of the night rather than the wrong part of the night. Sigh.

I had two bags left over, so I used both of them to make a huge cup of chai latte yesterday. I’ve started to develop a sore throat, maybe heading towards a cold, so the warming spices and comforting milkiness were just the thing. I went to see Propeller perform The Comedy of Errors last night — it was absolutely brilliant. I like to think this tea got me out of the door when it would have been much easier to stay at home. I’m seeing the same company perform A Midsummer Night’s Dream tonight — on the strength of last night, I’m really, really looking forward to it.

Thanks KittyLovesTea for sending this one! Somehow steeping at boiling for ten minutes, the flavor somehow still isn’t chai enough for me. It seems like there is a spice missing or something. The cinnamon definitely should have been more present, as I was seeing large pieces in the tea bag. I like the mix of black tea and spices, I just wish the flavor had been a bit sweeter or something. Not bad chai. just not the best.

Thanks to kittylovestea for this lovely chai sample! First of all, LOVE the bags! Not your typical papery type, more mesh-y. They are very nice. And they’re clear, so you can see the ingredients quite nicely. Second, this tea smells so nice in the bag! I brewed this one a little on the strong side, then added milk and sugar for a more traditional chai, and I really enjoy it! It’s spicy, lots of ginger, but not so much that it’s overwhelming. It’s very nicely blended.

Tea #15 from the ’Here’s Hoping’ teabox.

This is a decent chai. All of the spices are there, and the base tea is ok. Given all of the amazing chais that are out there I doubt that I would order this one, but I certainly wouldn’t turn down a cup of it were offered to me.

This is a fine chai. Flavorful. I am a little surprised, though, that this is an Assam based tea, because it doesn’t taste as rich as Assam as I have come to know it. It is still very flavorful, but it tastes a little … thin. If I had been served this, I would have thought this was a decaf, because of the thinner taste and texture.

It is still very good though.

Thanks to TeaEqualsBliss for sending this one my way!

I had this at Parched Tea Bar earlier, and I thought it was a good (if pretty generic) tasting chai. I had it with milk and a little sugar. It was a little heavy on the ginger, but not unbearably so.

The last of my Teapigs tasting session for a while.

Colour: A wonderful golden red.
Smell: Spicy cinnamon with warming ginger.

This is one of the most subtle tasting Chai’s I have had, while noting the cinnamon and ginger flavours it’s very light and thin. It’s a pleasant every day chai and while it still has a nice flavour it’s just not as nice as other pre bagged chai’s on the market I have at home. The Assam is a little hard to detect as it usually leaves a bitter and rich after taste but the spices cover those up nicely.

I think I will stick with Teapigs chilli chai in the future.

Let me start this by saying: I don’t drink milk and I hardly ever put sugar on my tea, which means that I’ll never get the real taste of Chai tea. Still, I’ve tasted some Chai teas that were nice, and this spice blend from Tea Pigs is one of those. The taste doesn’t compare to the wonderful smell you get when you pick up the tea bag, but it’s a nice spice blend, perfect for wintery days (and sunny, warm fall afternoons like today). Paired with some lovely chocolate biscuits and the latest episode of Project Runway, it made for a good afternoon.

I enjoyed the simplicity of this tea after so many wild flavors recently. I notice cinnamon most, followed by ginger in both the smell and taste. It would be an easy one to add to my rotation for an everyday drink.

teapigs advent, day 7