A sample from Miss B! The target is, once again, to get back under 200, so I’m finishing up some samples and smaller quantities this week. I’ve been drinking tea for a while now, and I’ve yet to find a chai blend that really sums up chai for me. Some have come close, though.
This one is another that comes close. It’s a good blend of spices – LOTS of fennel seed (always a good start, in my book), some cardamon pods, orange peel, a little bit of ginger, the odd clove. The cinnamon here is what really makes it, though, and I’m glad I finally tried a blend that uses sweet cinnamon as opposed to the more typical stuff. It’s so much better, sweeter, more fragrant…and it doesn’t have that sort of dusty, drying quality that lots of cinnamon sometimes has for me.
The spice blend is a good one – it’s definitely the heart of the tea, but it’s not overpowering. I’d have liked there to be a little more actual black tea just to provide a touch of extra malt and a little more substance – it turns out a bit thin with milk, and since I drink chai with milk almost exclusively, that’s pretty important to me. Otherwise, it’s a good ‘un! Another chai I’d happily drink again, and that’ll probably make it to my list of potential repurchase contenders if I ever get to a point where I’m choosing long term prospects and not just buying all the tea.
Chai is interesting. There’s so much variation in ingredients that each company ends up with their own house blend.