81
drank Kashmir Tchai by Kusmi Tea
243 tasting notes

Chai teas have definitely been growing on me. I now know the specifics in which I enjoy them and try to stick to those guidelines.

I like my blander chai teas to be hot with no additives. I like my spicy chai teas (ones that are heavily spiced, very aromatic) dirty. This chai, while not being overwhelmingly spicy, I do smell some cardamom, I see a clove, and maybe a hint of ginger, does smell very strongly of licorice. Blegh. I do not like licorice, this tells me that making this chai dirty will be the way to go.

My recipe was: boiling water + German rock sugar = simple syrup, add I scoop of tea, allow to boil 30 seconds, then turn heat off (but do not remove from heat source) for 2 minutes. During the two minutes, add splash of coffee, stir. Strain mixture into glass, add milk to taste. (In this case a fair amount of milk).

While still smelling strongly of licorice, I have added enough things so that I do not mind the flavor of it. When the sugar and milk and maybe even the coffee are added to the chai, the flavors seem to marry, I can taste cardamom up front, and a gingery note in the middle, followed up by a clove flavor, all smothered in a milk base. Overall, decent.

I do prefer chai tea when it has an additional flavor added, in this case it was chai with licorice, though that did not sound or smell so pleasant it turned out to be pretty good.

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec
Cofftea

By dirty do you mean w/ coffee or w/ milk? A dirty chai (if you go to a cafe at least) means w/ espresso added, but I’m assuming you mean milk?

Cinoi

Coffee and milk is what I usually add when I say dirty chai.

Cofftea

Gotcha. See what happens when I assume;) dirty Chocolate Pu Erh is also amazing:)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

People who liked this

Comments

Cofftea

By dirty do you mean w/ coffee or w/ milk? A dirty chai (if you go to a cafe at least) means w/ espresso added, but I’m assuming you mean milk?

Cinoi

Coffee and milk is what I usually add when I say dirty chai.

Cofftea

Gotcha. See what happens when I assume;) dirty Chocolate Pu Erh is also amazing:)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I am a sarcastic perfectionist, a computer nerd, a game geek, an avid reader, a gadget guru, a wine (and tea) enthusiast, and (in my spare time) a chemist.

As I mentioned, I am a chemist, research and development to be exact, so when evaluating tea, it is much like evaluating my products: I will find the flaws and do my very best to fix them because it is what I love to do. Along those lines, nothing is perfect, but can have perfect qualities, I will highlight those also.

I made a preliminary guide to my rating scale:
0-19 – Did not like anything about the tea, feel it cannot be saved without being reformulated.
20-40 – Did not like the tea, it can be saved with extreme amounts of tweaking (i.e., sugar, milk, honey and or blending with another tea)
41-60 – Neutral about the tea, it can be helped or hurt by additives or blends, varied temperatures and steep times
61-70 – Decent tea, needs a little bit of help to get it in the place I like it, but definitely not out of reach
71-80 – Quality tea, liked it, will try again
81-90 – Really enjoyed the tea, high quality, will continue to drink the tea, not looking for something better
91-100 – Loved the tea, will continue to brew and drink and spread the word about the tea to everyone

Location

NJ

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer