Cookie Dough Chai

Now that the weather has cooled off and I’m drinking hot tea again, I’ve been craving chai, but pretty much have none left in my collection (I haven’t purchased tea outside my smoothie matcha for… two years now? Maybe three?) But I found this and decided to brew it up.

It has a very chocolately aroma. I get a stronger chocolate flavor earlier in the cup, but as the tea cools the spices dominate over it a bit. I taste the allspice most, with a bit of cinnamon, and as my tea cools I taste more cardamom and clove.

Sweet and satisfyingly cozy-spicy rather than hot-spicy. More of a light chocolate chai than anything that would read as cookie dough to me, but pleasant in the work thermos on a cool fall morning.

I am having a really off day and posted my very brief review as part of my Instagram caption. Then I got confused where my review went to I am copy/pasting from that:

I ordered syrups and am back to experimenting with sweet creams. Today I made a toasted marshmallow sweet cream and paired it with this tea. It was mostly a sweet vanilla marshmallow tea, with the spice and toasted element not coming through strongly but keeping this from being overly sweet

The first tea in my tea swap advent calendar so thoughtfully put together by AJRimmer!

This one is such an interesting idea! Impressively, I AM getting chocolate chip cookie dough from this! I can’t say I’m getting much chai, but I feel like that might overwhelm the flavor of the cookie dough anyway? Overall, not bad!

This flavor combination is super interesting to me. It brewed up much lighter in color than I anticipated, and the flavors are pretty light too. I’ll definitely overleaf next time. To be honest, I don’t taste any chai flavors at all, and I don’t think I taste any of the chocolate chips either. I have to say, though, that I do get the cookie dough element here. It’s mild and desserty and has almost that saltiness of cookie dough. I think I’ll add a pinch of salt to emphasize it a bit. I’m enjoying this, but the flavors definitely could have been stronger. The next time I made this, I used way more leaf than usual in order to get the most flavor. Now it’s pleasantly desserty. I taste both chocolate and chai spices, but both could still be stronger.

This was nice! A very light chai, heavy on chocolate courtesy of cacao shells. I expected it to taste a bit more like raw cookie dough, and possible be a bit spicier, but I think I’m happy with it as is. An easy-drinking chai that doesn’t need to be latteed (although it’s probably good that way).

The 12th Tea of Christmas – this is also this month’s “bonus” tea of the month. This month, I had planned on reblending the Coconut Cream Pie Black Tea as the reblend/bonus tea, but since I had not just 1 BUT 2 coconut teas in the 12 Teas of Christmas box PLUS I did a coconut tea for December as well – I figured, that was enough coconut teas for one month. I mean, I’ve missed coconut too (I went about a year without any coconut teas) but I feel like I’ve more than made up for it over the course of the last few months. (Note: that’s not to say that I’ll not be reblending the coconut cream pie tea, but it will be some time in the new year – and not immediately.)

Anyway, this tea: I fell in love with this tea at first sip. Yeah, it wasn’t strongly CHAI – but I didn’t really care, to be quite honest – because it tasted so good just the way it came out. It tastes like chocolate spice cookies. Like my brownie cookies & spice cookies got together into a cup of tea. Perhaps chocolate spice cookie would have been a better name for it, but I had already called it cookie dough chai & things were hectic & I had already made several changes to my tea menus (see the previous paragraph) – so I just kept it the way it was.

Just – so – good!

52Teas 12 Teas of Christmas: Day 12!

The final tea of Christmas! I just sipped this one on Christmas night after making lots of tea for various family members. I didn’t get much chai; it was more of a muted black tea with a sweet cookie or pastry note. Fairly simple, but tasty enough. I’ll add a bit of oat milk next time I make it to try to round out the flavors.

Overall, I was so thrilled with the 52Teas advent collection. I’m late to the 52Teas game but I’m definitely a convert!

Twelve Days of Tea 2021 – Day Twelve

Honestly, I wasn’t too excited to see this one. Chocolate in tea – you know? However, I added eggnog and I’m in eggy Cookie Dough heaven. Soo good. I’m not getting too much “chai” but that’s fine. I’ll have to see what this tastes like before the milk drop (or not, because it’s seriously perfect with nog). Like Nik, I’m getting caramel mocha notes from the chocolate too, which is interesting.

Advent Last Thoughts: I haven’t made tasting notes for all 12 days yet – but, as many of you can imagine, I’m super happy with this box (is it a secret I like 52Teas a lot? lol). The incredibly bold flavours were a lovely contrast to my two French advents, and the concepts are (as always) unique and playful. And, of course, it marks another good year of tea coming to a close.

Sipdown (1598)!

Looks like it was unintentionally a 52Teas sipdown weekend!

I really like how gently spiced this blend is. It’s just enough to be noticeable and warming but doesn’t really detract – and if nothing else warming is certainly the kind of descriptor that goes perfectly with gooey chocolate chip cookies from out of the oven. The chocolate is not too heavy but has a richness to it, and the undertone is a little doughy. I don’t personally love this and I think it could be closer to cookie dough but I get the idea and it’s a nice cup overall!

I’ll be honest: when I’m not active on Steepster, my tasting “notes” are: yum, meh, and nope. I don’t really consider the bouquet or astringency or mouthfeel. But when I’m active here, y’all make me feel like a slacker. So here’s me trying to be a bit more mindful about things. =P

On paper, this blend from my favourite arteasan should be the best thing ever—cookie dough, chai, and black tea: three things I love dearly. But I wouldn’t have guessed either cookie dough or chai if it weren’t printed on the label. What I got from the dry leaf was notes of caramel, mocha, and maybe like a warm, flaky pastry of some sort. It was a really nice fragrance, and I admit to letting my nose linger in the packet.

The flavour reinforced my initial impression: I could maybe be sold on warm chocolate chip cookies, but not cookie dough. More caramel, slightly less of that hint of coffee in the mocha. I didn’t get any chai spices at all.

Now, just because it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, and just because I don’t think it matched what it said it was, doesn’t mean it wasn’t good. I love the well-rounded heartiness a black-tea base gives flavoured blends. There’s a density and depth here that’s perfect. It’s the kind of tea that makes you sip and nyum-nyum-nyum, sip and nyum-nyum-nyum to really figure out what you’re tasting.

And really, at the end of the day, I’m in it for the nyum. =)