Thistle & Sprig Tea Co.

Thyme forward. Savory and at times I did think to myself, could I baste a chicken in this? Weird combination to get used to. I brought it with me to work after my initial cup so I’d be forced to drink it. Once I got to the bottom of the canister I came to miss it as my daily tea.

This tea tastes like someone tried to make a chai out of a cinnamon black tea. It never quite strikes the right note with me.

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So this was a free sample that came with my order. I found this company randomly while I was looking for something else, and they have a blend called Wintertide that sounded too interesting to pass up – it’s peppermint, thyme, and allspice. So of course, I had to order that ha ha, and they were kind enough to throw in a little baby single-serve packet of this chai as a sample! :) The packaging is adorable.

Now I’m not a big chai drinker in general, though I actually did just order a few from The Chai Box because it’s getting to be that time of year, and I’m hoping to get more into it. This one seems like a fairly standard chai – black tea with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, clove. Not that I know what’s actually “standard” in India but I feel like these are the spices I see most often.

The description calls it ginger & cinnamon forward, but actually I feel like I’m tasting quite a lot of cardamom. The ginger is strong as well, and I would say that those two spices are the defining flavors here. Cardamom is lovely, it has such an interesting citrusy-spicy-floral flavor to it. I do taste cinnamon as well, which adds sweetness and a cozy warmth. The clove is light compared to the others, which I appreciate, as I feel like clove can very easily overwhelm other flavors and I’m not a huge fan of its tongue-numbing qualities ha ha.

So yeah, this is a very nice, fresh-tasting chai blend. I find it to be well-balanced, and I can taste all of the ingredients, which I like. It does have a very slightly dry texture, but I think it’s from the cinnamon, and not astringency from the black tea.

Happy Chaiday Friday! :P