Pirate Chai

We got the cutest little sample tins in the mail today. Think Geek is an awesome site. I love these tins. Today we tried Pirate Chai! Argh! Okay now that’s out of my system.

On to the tea. Cinnamon and clove are quite apparent at first. Though they are the most apparent flavors they are very well balanced. They also taste very natural. I know for sure I seen the actual clove sticks in there. The tea base feels a bit malty to me. It’s very mellow though, only showing up towards the end of the sip. I find an acceptable astringency here as well. The sip ends with a bit of cardamom. Not a bad chai especially since it’s Pirate chai! Now I’m going to feel the need to run around yelling avast, ahoy there matey, and shiver me timbers.

I’m not sure this one is a clear winner but it’s definitely a good solid chai.

A pirate, a zombie, and a starship captain walk into a bar…

I ordered this tea set off of ThinkGeek.com for two reasons: First off the tins looked awesome. Second, we haven’t actually put in an order with Adagio yet, and this seemed like a good way to get to sample some of their teas. Maybe they wouldn’t have been the first teas we tried, but still. It’s a two-birds-with-one-stone kind of deal.

Let me say one thing, to any other potential geeks out there that must order these for the awesome tins… these tins are tiny. I mean small. They say they are an ounce each. This is possibly true, but man it doesn’t look like it. They’re about 1.5″ × 1.5″ × 2.5″. To put it a different way, you can almost hide two behind a credit card. They’re cute, but the size really makes them of limited use if you brew tea in any sort of significant quantity. Missy and I brew tea in a 40 oz pitcher, so one of these almost makes three pots. Besides, where can you buy tea an ounce at a time (and would it be worth it)?

And so far, the tea is good!

As a basic chai, this is a fairly strong contender. The clove and the cinnamon really balance out quite well, with neither taking too dominant of a role over the other (which I personally consider to be a feat!). Beyond that, the lightly malty flavor of the tea itself shines through, smoothed out with just a hint of cardamom peeking out at the end. I get a little bit of a spicy aftertaste, just barely barely ginger.

While I really do think the balance between the clove and cinnamon is perfectly done in this blend, the cardamom and ginger really feel under-utilized. It is possible that I’m asking too much here. If those aren’t your favorite flavors, this could be a perfect chai. But for me, I want something just a little bit more fitting for a permanent selection.

So, not quite my cup of tea. But it could be your cup of tea! Definitely my tin of tea though.

This was a Christmas gift last year from my youngest daughter. I can’t believe I haven’t tried this one before, but I am not a big chai drinker. That being said, this is the sort of chai I prefer – no pepper, no turmeric, but just ginger, cinnamon, and clove as nearly as I can tell.

The tea base seems a bit weak to me. There isn’t much black tea flavor here. I am drinking it plain, but I think that people who add milk and sugar to their chai would enjoy this more than I do. It isn’t terrible, it just isn’t the best chai I have ever had.

The tins are so cool that as each one is emptied, I will probably refill it with a better version of what was inside. So Earl Grey Hot will get Harney and Sons Earl Grey Supreme, this tin will get Rabbit Hole Chai, Zombie Blood Orange will probably get Orange Grove Vanilla, and Timmy’s 1Up Jasmine will get a Teavivire loose jasmine.

Quite a tasty chai mix. Brewed it up with cream and sugar as I didn’t have the patience to steep on the stovetop. Leaves were beautiful to watch unfold.

Ooh! A nice mellow chai!

It may be that this TARDIS mug actually IS bigger on the inside… It says 16oz, but I fill up the ingenuiTEA all the way to the top and there’s still lots of space. I knew I was going to be adding milk to this, so I brewed about 12oz, and I may have added a bit more milk than expected.

BUT THAT’S GOOD. Because I don’t particularly like chais – too spicy.

Although now that I think of it, my problem might have been that I was leery of adding milk to tea (don’t know why, really).

But yum. 2tsp/12oz, 1tsp German rock sugar and a liberal splash of whole milk. I think I’ll add more tea next time, since I’d actually like it a bit spicier!

Dry leaf smells really warm. Lots of cinnamon and clove, ginger and cardamon… smells like a typical chai to me. Steeped, it’s got an yellowy-orange taste that sort of fades into darker orange towards the sides, surrounding my taste buds. It’s very warm. It smells fairly spicy, but doesn’t have any of the bite.

Sssssipdown! This time, I tried adding rice milk right after I was done brewing the tea rather than halfway through drinking it. It’s much better this way – presumably something to do with the tea being hotter when I added the rice milk? Anyway, this is nice and creamy and spicy. Good while it lasted!

I’m glad to have the empty tin now so I can put some samples in it, but I can’t get the chai smell out…

….
I decided to try the Pirate Chai next. Oh! This one smells amazing. Heavy on the clove. I love cloves, and I love spicy teas. I’d like to do this in a traditional method, but as I’m sitting at work, I don’t have the necessary equipment. Once I started drinking however, it seems it’s pretty much just a clove blend. Maybe they were trying to make this like a Bay Rum style chai? For me, a truly good chai needs the spicy heat of the cardamom and pepper which this tea is missing. But, as a clove tea? It’s a great clove tea! In fact, my mouth is even getting slightly numb from the clove oil.. so you know it’s clove-y.
…..

from my review of all the Think Geek Sampler at It’s all About the Leaf – go read the rest of it!

http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2339/tea-review-think-geek-timmys-tea-sampler/

I wasn’t expecting much before I opened this- I’m usually not a fan of chai and only purchased this as part of a sample pack. I gained some hope, however, as the strong cinnamon smell, the generous helping of whole cloves, and the pieces of orange peel made me think this was going to be more of a Christmas tea than a chai. It seems to be blended from at least two different kinds of tea- a slightly twisted black tea and what looks like a knot-shaped green tea. The blend also contains something that looks like a tiny peppercorn- biting down on one, I’m still not sure what it is.

The sampler this tea is a part of did not come with any kind of brewing instructions. Because the blend may be made of both black and green teas, I wasn’t entirely sure whether to give it a cooler green tea brew, or a hotter water temperature that would coax the most from the cloves. It strikes me that this is a tea that would offer drastically different flavors at different temperatures. I ended up going with a cooler temperature because I don’t actually enjoy very hot tea, and was disappointed to discover that Pirate Chai takes FOREVER to brew at a green tea temperature, and it isn’t very good. It does taste like a Christmas tea, albeit a weak, watery one. Some cinnamon and orange peel flavors emerge, but they’re not very satisfying. The liquer was a lovely copper color, however.

All in all, not a cup that I’m very excited about, but it’s drinkable and I’m going to continue experimenting with proper brewing times and temperatures. Since the tin is only sample sized, though, I may run through the whole thing before I get it right.

Got the four-tea sampler for Christmas. This is the best of the bunch, a perfectly serviceable chai. Nice with a little vanilla almond milk.

Again I don’t know who sent this but Thanks! I tend to like my chai pretty spicy and with a lot of cardamom. A nice chai but a bit lacking in cardamom. Liked the name but the tea isn’t particularly exciting.