Maharaja Chai Oolong

I cold steeped a bunch of this in soy milk for 2 days.

It’s pretty good. Mostly cinnamon and cardamom, but there’s a few other flavours lurking in the background.

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend a milk steep for this tea (it’s also incredibly sweet. Wow.), but it was a fun experiment. I’ll have to try something else at some point. Maybe Florence from Harney and Sons? Hmm…

If you know me well, you know about my love affair with chais – and this one is getting filed under “Best Oolong Variety.” I love the medley of spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom…and I swear allspice, although I checked and it’s not listed as an ingredient. No matter.

As with most chais, I believe sweetener enhances the spicy flavorings, so I added a Sun Crystals packet. I know many drink chais with milk, but I don’t enjoy milk with anything as I’m allergic to an enzyme in it. I do enjoy a chai latte with soy milk every once in a while, but I really think this would be better off with little added to it.

This oolong hits the spot! Yums!

So my chocolate cravings didn’t work out this morning and now my cravings are leading me towards having Indian curry for dinner. Whenever I eat Indian food in a restaurant I always have Chai because they match so perfectly in flavour.

Well I’m not eating yet but I need tea now and I cannot wait the hour or so to pair this with my food. In scent it’s very strong with highs of clove and cinnamon with hints of fiery ginger. It smells nice and strong and fresh.

I will be serving this with a little splash of soy milk. Also thinking about it I cannot remember ever trying a Chai blend with Oolong before.

Once steeped its aroma is very strongly cinnamon and clove much like its raw form. It reminds me a little of some chewing gum I once had from USA that was cinnamon flavour, can’t remember the brand or name though. I loved that gum.

This teas flavour matches its scent. It’s a little on the dry side but I can note clove, cinnamon and pepper. A little like atomic fireball sweets in liquid tea form.

Such a simple yet beautiful blend. Not quite as authentic as I am used to but it still fills the craving. Shame I only had one pot of this tea :( If anyone has any available to swap then please let me know.

I received this from fiddling

I have determine Teavana can’t do chai or cinnamon. BLECH! It always tastes like liquified cinnamon heart. I love those, but not in liquid form. This one is however less offensive than the others.
Glad I didn’t waste money on this, especially since there is hardly any oolong in it. I looked at it as I was scooping it out of the pack & thought to myself “wasn’t this suppose to be an oolong?”

I was running late this morning for Convocation, so my wonderful husband was kind enough to make me a nice big mug of this. With a considerable amount of raw sugar and a healthy dash of milk, it was an excellent drink on the run!

Where was the oolong? Didn’t even see tea in the mix until after it had steeped.

Being my first time with this tea, I made it with my usual half water/half 1% milk and a teaspoon of sugar. WHOA, way too sweet. I’m inexperienced with carob, and I guess that must have added some sweet? Also, the fake cinnamon flavor is more than too sweet and a bit overwhelming. This tastes like lots of other masala chais, just with fake cinnamon added.

How do they charge $12 for this? Glad I got it for free, since I wouldn’t buy it. Will try this with minimal sugar, and perhaps less milk next time. Strange brew.

Giving this tea a second and third taste…I found that I really liked it, so I boosted its rating. It has a nice spiciness to it and I can taste the black pepper and it tastes well balanced.

Maharaja Chai Oolong —Teavana

This was my son’s pick when he went to the Teavana store in Little Rock, Arkansas. He brought a large tin along when he came to visit me over the holidays and allowed me to bag a generous sample for my own collection. Dry, it is fragrant with lots of nice chunky bits and pieces, cardamom pods, cloves, and stuff.

After brewing some of this up hot, I must admit my son’s tastes are similar to my own. I love a chai that has lots of variety and isn’t overly heavy on the cinnamon. This one has a lot of parallels with my all time favorite, Numi’s Golden Chai. I’m enjoying the nice balance of flavors, good enough that it doesn’t need any “help” from cream or sugar, though I’m sure they would be fine additions.

As my kids go out in the world to make lives of their own, I find myself occasionally reflecting sadly upon the vacancies of my nest. It’s nice to be reminded that they are discovering a whole new world out there and can introduce me to some of their new experiences. Having my son come home to visit is awesome. Getting a sample of a new tea just makes it that much better. I liked this one. Thanks dude, ya done good.

I like this one. I’m not so sure about the oolong, as there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of it in this tea, but as a chai, it’s very nice. Really nice and spicy, though, not as much as I would prefer. (If there’s anyone who’s found a strong chai, I wouldn’t mind recommendations) Even the second steeping is nice, the oolong flavour presents itself a little more as the chai spices get diluted.
I would buy it again, but if I found something a little stronger I would probably switch.