Indonique

First off I’d like to thank LiberTEAS for sending me a sample of this! The smell is amazing and it makes me think of some dessert that I had when I was a kid but I can’t put my finger on it. It’s a very smooth chocolatey tea but I don’t taste anything that says chai, although I do smell the cinnamon with the cocoa powder. I think I will leave this without a rating for now because it tastes good but I just had spaghetti and the garlic is messing with the flavor of the tea. I know I like it, just not sure how much yet. :)

This must be a new tea from Indonique, because I can’t even find it on the website.

It is one that I will be trying again before I include a numeric rating, because I want to play around with the steeping parameters of this tea. The cut is quite fine on the Assam leaves so a teaspoon of the leaves is probably equal to two or more teaspoons of another tea leaf… and because the cut is so fine there is more surface area exposed, and therefore it brews faster than a typical Assam would.

That is not to say that my current cuppa tastes off, because it is actually quite good. The flavor is rich and sweet … very honey-like! But, with my Assam I do like a little deeper flavor and I feel like I used too little leaf this time for fear of overdoing it. This tea is reminding me more of an outstanding Ceylon rather than an Assam. I am getting a little bit of a malty note, but, not as much as I’d expect from Assam.

So, as I say, I shall play with this one a bit before I rate it. It is good, but I think it could be even better.

Another sample from the fabulous Lena. This tea was weaker than I expected. I’m not getting much cherry or much tea flavor out of it. I think I may have left the sample out in the sun for a day after I got it, so I think it may not be at it’s best. I’m going to leave off rating it, but merely log that I drank it.

This is my last attempt with this tea before sending the rest to Susan and Azzrian.

I purposely under infused in both length and amount.

It smells just like it should…chocolate and chai.

The tea color and texture is dark muddy brown and chalky.

This time around I can taste the chai flavors and a little bit of milk chocolate powdery something like hot cocoa or something.

This one still isn’t jiving for me. BUT…maybe the MILK is the key as Liberteas said. Plain…I can’t get it to ‘float my boat’ I guess! LOL :)

Trying this one again just because I saw it in my stash and thought it had been a while. I really want to like this one. It’s just not doing much for me tho. This time I did it with about a tsp of loose and it was MUCH better than my first two attempts but still left wanting…I suppose…

I tried this one again today – and it could have been human error because I doubled the amount – to infuse – but this is something I do NOT suggest! It was VERY bitter even with under infusing – and I couldn’t even bring myself to complete the first sip. BLAH!

So…I will hold off on the rating AGAIN until I can try it with milk. BUT so far without milk – a double shot – I would give it a 1 rating…yes…a ONE…but like I said…I will try it again…hopefully soon, with milk…

I’m not going to rate this one because I want to try it with…WAIT FOR IT…Milk…(if you know me then you know I do not add ANYTHING to my teas not even chai) But LiberTEAs says it’s ‘killer’ with milk and I am hoping that will do the trick. Plain…I’m not digging it, personally. It tastes like coffee, actually. But I am not getting much Chai flavors nor am I understand the chocolate parts…I can see the texture-E type liquid which would make sense for the chocolate but I don’t smell or taste any chocolate. Nor do I with the chai.

I’m dumbfounded with this one but certainly willing to give it another shot…perhaps…WAIT FOR IT…with Milk.

I thought this one was going to be very usual and not bad but not wonderful! It IS quite good! Because it’s a plain unflavored honeybush there isn’t much to say about it but it is tasty and sweet but also light on the tongue. Nice!

Very tasty on a cold morning. I added just a bit of cocoa powder and sugar to this, because I’m not a big fan of chai spice, but this is really tasty.

I’m not a huge chai fan. It’s never been one of my favorite teas, but today was cold and I had this, so I brewed a pot to take to class with me. I’m pleasantly surprised. It smells more chocolatey than it tastes, but it’s definitely more mellow than most chai teas I’ve had. It’s also possible I’m not really brewing it well. I’d welcome any suggestions or tips from chai-lovers! It’s still not my favorite, but it’s definitely nice on a cold day.

I actually steeped this stovetop method this evening… something I almost never do because I hate the mess, but, for whatever reason, I wanted to make a mess today, so I did.

So GOOD. I don’t know if I prefer it stovetop or my tried and true method of steeping extra strong in water and then adding milk, both result in a delicious cuppa. This method also results in mess though… which is a big negative unless I am in one of these weird moods where I feel like making a mess… then, I guess it’s all good.

Anyways, I don’t know that I notice any significant difference between brewing this way and brewing the way I usually do, except that the flavor and texture is creamier. Thicker. But, other than that, both methods produce a very delicious tea. Rich black tea base, sweet vanilla and robust spices! YUM! And perfect on this chilly evening.

I enjoyed a latte that I made using this chai while eating a white tea brownie (yum).

This chai has a lovely Nilgiri base that is strong and stout, and the spices are warm and I love the vanilla in this. It adds a really smooth, sweet taste to it.

I’ve reviewed this tea previously for the Tea Review Blog, please check it out here:

http://www.teareviewblog.com/?p=7369

It’s been a while since I’ve last had an unflavored Honeybush, and I’ve forgotten just how good it is unflavored!

I don’t really care for unflavored rooibos, but I do enjoy unflavored honeybush. The flavor is not quite as woody, it’s a little lighter and brighter and I love the sweetness of it.

A very pleasant cup!

Another gift from LiberTEAs.

Since this infused SO quickly I only steeped for 2 mins MAX…and you know…I usually like to go stronger and over do it or take the longer of the suggested infusion time…but…with this one I think that if I were to go longer than the 2 mins it would have been really bitter and/or gross. As I sip this I am more happy with my decision to stick with the 2 min steep! This is bold and Malty yet smooth and NOT Bitter. There is a natural milky and honey like textures to it. Pretty good!

Yum!

Of all the chocolate chai teas that I’ve tasted up until now, this one is by far the most chocolate-y. There is a smoothness to the tea and to the spices as a whole – it is very well rounded. It isn’t overwhelmingly spicy and in fact I could even call it somewhat mild in the spice department, but, the stronger cocoa presence more than makes up for that.

The tea is not bitter despite my longer than usual steep time. I’m really loving this…

Yum… Chai Latte Time!

Yep, I even warmed up the milk and frothed it.

This is really nice. A pleasing balance of chocolate (rich and delish!) spice (strong but not super spicy) and tea (brisk and strong enough to hold its own with the other powerful flavors). I will have to try this without the milk sometime and see how it is – but it is EXTRAORDINARILY good with the milk. yummy nom nom nom!

just finishing up the last of this sample=[. So sad because this was one of my favorites. It has the typical black tea taste, that is sweet, a bit caramel-y, and malty. BUT, there is the added flavor of the flowers and passionfruit, which is a wonderful combo! The tea smells great too, the aroma is sweet and mainly passionfruit.

I originally bought this tea as a nice spiced iced tea, but as the weather wasn’t quite warm enough, I started brewing it hot. I love this tea so much I may have to buy more for summer! It is is a great tea blend – reminds me a lot of “Yorkshire Red”, but it has a great spicy flavor with the whole cloves and cardamom and the black pepper. It’s great black – with a nice spicy bite to it – it takes milk well and even a bit of sweetener if you want. An amazingly versatile tea! It’s only down fall is that the leaves are very tiny – again like the “Yorkshire Red” and so you need a good strainer for this loose leaf tea.

I’m noticing an oddly dry sort of characteristic to this tea’s flavour – it’s not dry as in astringent, more like a sort of dusty dry. I made that sound horrible and gross, didn’t I? It wasn’t meant that way; it doesn’t spoil the tea for me, it’s more of an “oh, that’s interesting” sort of thing.

It give a very flavourful resteep (@ 5:15) which I can still taste the cherry in. A lot of flavoured teas will lose their flavour after their first steeping I’ve noticed, but not this one.

This would be an interesting tea to try sweetened but unfortunately I’m all out of the little sample I got from TeaEqualsBliss.

Yum, this tea smells deliciously cherry-like. Cherry and mango are my two favorite fruits and sadly there don’t seem to be many (good) cherry-flavoured teas out there. The flavour is mostly that of a nice, mild Russian Caravan. I’ve found that a lot of Russian Caravan blends are too heavy on the Lapsang Souchong, but this one is quite pleasent.

I’d like maybe a touch more cherry flavour, though. Right now I’m just getting a slight hint and a bit of an aftertate. Still is makes for a nice variation on a common tea blend like this.

The Estate Owner at Rani and Satrupa in Assam India introduced me to this one. He ripped open a sack and the smell of chocolate of all things filled the room. It amazed me but was in a days work for him, apparently. When he steeped me cup, a rich honey aroma filled the room. So rich and malty. Definitely a tea for milk and sugar, rather strong otherwise.

This was fairly good. I love that the oolong and peach cut back on the ginger. It’s right were it should be!

7 months ago I logged this. Must have forgot! LOL
Here’s another attempt.

I can’t really smell vanilla or chai aromas from this. It’s ‘brews’ REALLY dark. It’s mostly black tea tasting, but I can taste a hint of vanilla in the aftertaste. Not so much chai-ness happening tho.