65

I’m bringing the rating up on this one, because after getting to play around with this tea a bit, I’ve found a way to prepare it that works much better to bring out a sweeter profile rather than the initial extremely spicy one. The tea is no longer burning my mouth off and I have to say… I’m kind of digging this creamy golden latte.

While infusing directly in milk (from everything I’ve heard) usually isn’t advised, that’s basically what I did! One use of this stuff stained my gravity well infuser yellow, and it was extremely hard to dispense because it left a thick sludge on the mesh so the water couldn’t escape, so I was trying to think of ways I could make the tea that wouldn’t require the infuser. That meant using a teapot and pouring the tea through a strainer, or — since I wanted a latte anyway — I thought of simply making it the way I make cocoa, and putting the tea (which is mostly powder with ground spices and coconut) into my milk frother and letting it whip it up directly into the coconut milk while it heated the milk. Nothing gained without trying, right?

This time, I used one teaspoon of the chai, one cup of coconut milk, and a small dash of vanilla coconut creamer for an extra dash of sweetness. I leave the frothing attachment off my milk frother so it just stirs the ingredients and heats the milk, and I ran two cycles, so it was heating for about five minutes. At the end, it looked like a very creamy orange conconction! I put my strainer over my cup as I poured the milk in, and other than tiny bits of lemongrass making it into the cup (they actually looked like a garnish on the top) all the tea was filtered out and easily disposed. And the chai was now very sweet, without that extremely hot burning ginger aftertaste! Very smooth and creamy, some nice turmeric notes and some hints of spice, but overall a sweeter profile based more on the coconut in the blend. This is the way to go with this tea if you are spice-sensitive like me.

Flavors: Citrus, Coconut, Ginger, Orange, Pepper, Spicy, Sweet

Preparation
5 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML
Lexie Aleah

What particular frother do you use? My handheld one just broke and I’m debating between getting an electric one or another handheld.

Mastress Alita

It looks like the exact model I have is no longer on Amazon, but there are similar models to it. Mine was this one: https://www.amazon.com/Epica-Automatic-Electric-Frother-Heater/dp/B00I8WFKR0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1525055261&sr=8-4&keywords=epica+milk+frother

It is an electric frother, but it is not handheld. You put the milk into the carafe, and there is an attachment inside that goes onto a spindle. There are two pieces, one is a flat plastic piece that simply mixes (which is what I always use, great for cocoas, matchas, and most things I just want stirred or whipped up quickly), and the other is the little wire “ring” you see on most hand-held frothers which can be slipped around the plastic mixing piece, which will actually make the milk “frothy” and airy (I personally don’t care for my milk to be airy and bubbly, so I tend to keep this piece off and stored away). There are also two buttons on the front: hot and cold. The hot cycle will heat the milk as it stirs/froths, and the cold cycle will simply stir/froth without turning on the heating mechanism, if you wanted to, say, make a cold matcha latte. I find it pretty handy!

This model is currently available, looks similar, and seems to have the same sort of features: https://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Star-MF-2-Automatic-Cappuccino/dp/B072W1MWDG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1525055261&sr=8-3&keywords=epica+milk+frother

Lexie Aleah

Thanks for all the information! Now the prices for them makes a lot more sense.

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Comments

Lexie Aleah

What particular frother do you use? My handheld one just broke and I’m debating between getting an electric one or another handheld.

Mastress Alita

It looks like the exact model I have is no longer on Amazon, but there are similar models to it. Mine was this one: https://www.amazon.com/Epica-Automatic-Electric-Frother-Heater/dp/B00I8WFKR0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1525055261&sr=8-4&keywords=epica+milk+frother

It is an electric frother, but it is not handheld. You put the milk into the carafe, and there is an attachment inside that goes onto a spindle. There are two pieces, one is a flat plastic piece that simply mixes (which is what I always use, great for cocoas, matchas, and most things I just want stirred or whipped up quickly), and the other is the little wire “ring” you see on most hand-held frothers which can be slipped around the plastic mixing piece, which will actually make the milk “frothy” and airy (I personally don’t care for my milk to be airy and bubbly, so I tend to keep this piece off and stored away). There are also two buttons on the front: hot and cold. The hot cycle will heat the milk as it stirs/froths, and the cold cycle will simply stir/froth without turning on the heating mechanism, if you wanted to, say, make a cold matcha latte. I find it pretty handy!

This model is currently available, looks similar, and seems to have the same sort of features: https://www.amazon.com/Chefs-Star-MF-2-Automatic-Cappuccino/dp/B072W1MWDG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1525055261&sr=8-3&keywords=epica+milk+frother

Lexie Aleah

Thanks for all the information! Now the prices for them makes a lot more sense.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

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Bio

Hi! I’m Sara, a middle-aged librarian living in southern Idaho, USA. I’m a big ol’ sci-fi/fantasy/anime geek that loves fandom conventions, coloring books, simulation computer games, Japanese culture, and cats. Proud genderqueer asexual (she/they) and supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. I’m also a chronic migraineur. As a surprise to no one, I’m a helpless tea addict with a tea collecting and hoarding problem! (It still baffles me how much tea I can cram into my little condo!) I enjoy trying all sorts of teas… for me tea is a neverending journey!

Favorite Flavors:

I love sampling a wide variety of teas! For me the variety is what makes the hobby of tea sampling so fun! While I enjoy trying all different types of teas (pure teas, blends, tisanes), these are some flavors/ingredients I enjoy:
-Dessert/chocolate/vanilla/caramel/cream/toffee/maple
-Sweet/licorice root/stevia
-Vegetal/grassy
-Floral/lavender/rose
-Spices/chais
-Fruity
-Tropical/pineapple/coconut
-Bergamot (in moderation)
-Roasted/nutty
-Tart/tangy/hibiscus/rosehip

Disliked Flavors:

There are not many flavors or ingredients that I don’t like. These include:
-Bananas/banana flavoring
-Hemp/CBD teas
-Smoke-scented teas/heavy smoke flavors (migraine trigger)
-Perfumey teas/extremely heavy floral aromas (migraine trigger)
-Gingko biloba (migraine trigger)
-Chamomile (used in blends as a background note/paired with stronger flavors is okay)
-Extremely spicy/heated teas
-Medicinal flavors/Ginseng
-Metallic flavors
-Overly strong artificial flavorings

With the exception of bananas and migraine triggers, I’ll pretty much try any tea at least once!

Steeping Parameters:

I drink tea in a variety of ways! For hot brews, I mostly drink my teas brewed in the western style without additions, and for iced tea, I drink teas mostly brewed in the cold brew style without additions. Occassionally I’ll change that up. I use the https://octea.ndim.space/#/ app for water-to-tea ratios and use steep times to my preferences.

My Rating Scale:

90-100 – Top tier tea! These teas are among my personal favorites, and typically I like to keep them stocked in my cupboards at all times, if possible!

70-89 – These are teas that I personally found very enjoyable, but I may or may not feel inclined to keep them in stock.

50-69 – Teas that fall in this range I enjoyed, but found either average, lacking in some way, or I’ve had a similar tea that “did it better.”

21-49 – Teas in this range I didn’t enjoy, for one reason or another. I may or may not finish them off, depending on their ranking, and feel no inclination to restock them.

20-1 – Blech! My Tea Hall of Shame. These are the teas that most likely saw the bottom of my garbage can, because I’d feel guilty to pass them onto someone else.

Note that I only journal a tea once, not every time I drink a cup of it. If my opinion of a tea drastically changes since my original review, I will journal the tea again with an updated opinion and change my rating. Occassionally I revisit a tea I’ve reviewed before after a year or more has passed.

Inventory:

My Cupboard on Steepster reflects teas that I have sampled and logged for review, and is not used as an inventory for teas I currently own at the present moment. An accurate and up-to-date listing of my current tea inventory can be viewed here: https://tinyurl.com/xjt9ptx3 . I am open to tea trades (within the United States only!) at this time. Note that I will not trade teas that I currently have in a quantity less than 50g (samplers, 1oz packages, etc.) or any teas that are currently still sealed/unopened in my cupboard.

Contact Info:

Feel free to send me a Steepster PM, or alternatively, check the website URL section below; it goes to a contact form that will reach my personal e-mail.

Location

Idaho, United States

Website

https://teatimetuesdayreviews...

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