A sample from Miss B! I’ve not tried very many “herbal” chai blends before today, or at least, not that I can remember. I know I’ve tried at least a couple of rooibos vanilla chai blends, but that’s been about my limit in terms of exploration. This blend appears to be made up of a mixture of green and red rooibos, with, I think, pieces of ginger root, cinnamon bark, cacao nibs, and some tiny pink flowers that are amazingly pretty. There are doubtless other things, too, but it’s quite a fine blend and the components are tricky to spot.
I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. It brews up to a beautiful sunset-orange, very vibrant! Based on taste alone, I’m not sure that I would have immediately identified this as a chai. The rooibos is very prominent, particularly the green rooibos, but after that I’m getting mostly chocolate and then a good, spicy kick of ginger. If I was tasting blind, I’d probably have said ginger-chocolate rather than chai. I actually don’t mind the flavour, but as a chai it’s not ticking many boxes for me.
The description of this one is pretty unique, too. I mean, I get that it’s a Twilight thing…but what’s it got to do with this tea?
I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve read the books. I don’t recall anything about Alice drinking chai. Just that she saw the future and was basically the only sane one in the series.