Chocolate Chai

So this tasted better than it smelled. Dry, it’s fairly spicy. Steeped, it’s still definitely a chai but sweeter and creamier for the chocolate.

I. Love. This. Tea. I love the chocolate chunks in it and how it’s not too spicy like some other chais.

Well I tried making my first tea latte with this but it was pretty much a failure. Not sure if it’s me or the tea.

1 cup unsweetened almond milk + .5 cup water, heat until steaming/tiny bubbles, add 2.5 tsp tea, whisk & heat for 2 min, remove from heat and steep for 4 min, then strain. It didn’t have much flavor. I added 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1 tsp honey but that didn’t really boost the flavor at all.

Backlog from last night.

This was a sample that Jude sent me in a swap a few months ago, and there was just enough in the little packet for a full 24 oz pot of tea. Perfect for sipping down!

Tastewise, this reminds me a lot of David’s Teas Saigon Chai. I didn’t taste much chocolate or even much coconut, but I did sense cinnamon, and for some reason, I also sensed ginger, even though I don’t think that’s on the ingredient list.

Anyways, this was nice, but I doubt it would be a tea I would seek out to restock. Thanks again to Jude for the sample!

I have so far managed to not be pranked by anyone, which is good, I doubt my delicate constitution could handle it! Well, that is not entirely true, I was pretty viciously pranked while playing Minecraft today. Minding my own business in a fenced in garden in the middle of the day, I was visited by everyone’s favorite green explosive. Of course I assumed I was safe so I took this moment to sip some tea, from behind me came a Sssss BOOM and I died, spilling the contents of my inventory all over the nice new hole in the middle of my garden, and of course the contents of my teacup all over myself. Who knew Creepers were such vicious landscape critics?

Today’s tea is Chocolate Chai by Wegman’s Grocer, a delightful grocery store that has a self serve tea counter that, when I lived in Pennsylvania, I visited quite often. Sadly they do not have an ‘order online’ option so the only way to get their tea is to pester my friends who live back home to send me some. This blend is a mix of chocolate chai and tropical chai, with Black Tea, Coconut, Chocolate Chunks, Vanilla Bean, Cardamon, and Cinnamon. The aroma is a happy dance of sweet chocolate, rich spices, and nutty coconut. It reminds me a bit of xocolatl but with coconut and the earthiness of black tea. This tea smells delicious.

Giving the chocolaty tea a steeping (goodbye really huge chunks of chocolate) the aroma of the leaves is as expected, intensely chocolaty. There is also rich malty notes and nutty coconut, it is very sweet and the spices make my nose tingle. The liquid without the leaves is very sweet chocolate with a hint of coconut and a finish of spices. The chocolate is sweet and creamy, like sniffing hot chocolate rather than dark chocolate.

Tasting the tea is going to be a treat, I can just tell as I am adding the customary cream and sugar to the chai. The taste is malty and chocolaty with a gentle kick of cinnamon. It moves on from the initial malt and chocolate to rich buttery coconut, it also gives the mouthfeel an oily quality. The spices do not overwhelm, it feels more like a cardamon caress and a cinnamon whisper, I can swear that there is pepper and a hint of ginger though it is not listed in the ingredients. This is a great balanced chai that has a really interesting flair, coconut and chocolate really go well together and in chai.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/wegmans-food-market-chocolate-chai-tea.html

So in a moment of procrastination, I stepped foot in the closest Wegmans to my house (about 30 miles). I haven’t been to Wegmans since college and now I have an appreciation for the vast tea display and I have some disposable income. This is a dangerous combination.

I love that it’s kind of like do your own Davidstea. There are tins on a wall, a little shelf with a scale, scoops and brown resealable bags and you can buy as little or as much as you’d like.

This immediately caught my eye and when I opened up the tin, it looked a lot like Davidstea Stormy Night. It smelled a lot like Davidstea Stormy Night, the ingredients looked a lot like Davidstea Stormy Night. Could it be a replacement for my discontinued tea?!

It’s definitely not the same tea as the chocolate chunks are different, but it does taste almost exactly the same, if not spot on. They sell it for $39.99 per pound, about $2.50 per ounce. Not as cheap as the price I paid for Stormy Night ($14.50 when Davidstea was running that crazy sale last summer for 8.8oz/250 grams) but the fact that it’s not discontinued and doesn’t have to be shipped from Canada (if it ever came back) is certainly a plus. Also, I somehow doubt I’d manage to get it for $14.50 again.

So if you liked Stormy Night and you have a Wegmans nearby or someone that is willing to ship it (raises hand), I highly recommend Wegmans Chocolate Chai.

edit
After coming home, I realized there is another location a mere 8 miles away, doof!

Very fragrant, smells very chocolate-y, coconut-y, and spice :) Straight up, taste is a very mild dark chocolate chai. Sweetened, you can definitely taste dark chocolate and coconut. When I added milk, the chai spices becomes more flavorful.