Masala Chai (Ayurvedic)

This was so not what I expected!! Partially because I didn’t fully read the label at first- Which I finally did when trying to determine the company name. There is a hole punch through the logo so I’ve messaged my friend who brought it over from India in hopes that she can enlighten me. Bah! One day I’ll go to India with her and buy my own tea =D
Okay, so the tea! For a chai, it tastes very healthy. Clean and uplifting. The spices are bright and play up on the astringency of the base. I wonder what region this is from, because it certainly is not Assam. Ceylon perhaps? It’s a ctc tea, not that the processing means anything, necessarily.
As for the ingredients, there is most certainly some cardamom in there, and clove. A touch of cinnamon as well. Nothing too spicy, or sweet. More… sour, I would say, esp as it cools.
I tried a tiny cup of it with milk added, and it brought out an odd sort of bakey note. Like apple pastry. Interesting!!
It seems better without any milk, the first infusion anyhow. It may go better as a latte.
The second steep is more sour. I wish I’d added more honey now, but I was already upstairs and settled into what I was doing… shrugs
Overall, it’s a nice chai but not my favourite. I’m sure it will get drunk eventually. Maybe.

Thanks for yet another sample Indigobloom!

The dry tea doesn’t have a great deal of aroma, and the aroma once steeped is fairly light and spicy. I would have barely recognized it for a chai, to be honest.

Even after three minutes of steeping, there’s a good bit of astringency (perhaps because it’s ctc?), and the spices aren’t as prominent as I would like. Oddly it does seem a bit creamy to me. I think it needs some milk and sugar to be tasty (although I think they will completely overwhelm the spicing).

Ok, completely forgot about this and it’s cold. I will re-heat and milk/sugar it and perhaps review properly later.

ETA: So I did re-heat and add milk and sugar, and it actually took them fairly well. Quite drinkable that way. So it will definitely get finished. I have to say that’s it’s really nothing special though.