Finally getting to the bottom of the sample box Miss B sent me literally ages ago. I think I’ve just got a couple of tea bags left now…
Anyway, this one intrigued me because I don’t think I’ve tried a white chai before…or come across one, even. Usually I’d cool the water quite substantially for a white tea, but the parameters for this one recommend 195 degrees so that’s what I went with. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and left it approximately 2.5 minutes.
The resulting liquor is a medium yellow-orange, the scent mildly spicy. To taste, it’s definitely the most interesting chai blend I’ve tried in a while. It’s fruity, first up, and quite tropically fruity at that – pineapple, coconut, a background hint of citrus. There’s also apple, and it’s a baked apple kind of vibe that I’m getting. Sweet, mushy…paired with the spices, it’s putting me in mind of apple pie!
The spices are the other side to the coin here. On the one hand there’s fruit, and then from the mid-sip onwards it’s all about the spicing. Ginger and cinnamon are the most prominent, but there’s also a good strong hit of pepper (which I adore in a chai), plenty of cardamon, and a touch of clove.
The white tea, which is the truly unique thing here, makes for a better base than I expected, in all honesty. It’s not thin or particularly sweet – it’s more of a thick, almost slightly dusty-tasting white. It allows both the fruit and the spices to shine without being particularly obtrusive, and it works well enough with both that it’s not a jarring contrast. It doesn’t feel like a tea of two halves – it tastes like it was meant to be, and I think the choice of base helps with that in a way that’s hard to express in words. It has to be tasted to be believed.
Highly recommended for all chai fans!
