Saigon Chai (Organic)

I love cinnamon. And good cinnamon teas. This tea has a strange cinnamon smell. Doesn’t do it for me, in fact, really turns me off. I tried to drink a few sips, but it wasn’t worth it with all the other yummy teas I have to choose from. I didn’t dump it though. My mom was coming over to watch the kids so I can get some stuff done and I saved it for her. Her first comment, “This smells great.” So as always, to each their own!

I’m not drinking enough soymilk.

I keep forgetting this and buying soymilk anyway, even though I’ve got unopened cartons at home, so now I have a ridiculous surplus of soymilk and ought to try to correct this.

And most of the time when I drink soymilk, it’s in a chai latte.

Soymilk because dairy milk makes most chai taste oddly sugary to me, even before sweetening. Soy lets it retain an edge for some reason. One day I’ll be a good enough flavour scientist to explain it.

A lot of people seem to think this chai is sort of meh, but it ticks a few important chai boxes for me. First, it’s not heavily clovey, which is good since I’m not fond a ton of cloves at all. Second, peppercorn, which makes me happy. And there’s enough cardamom and ginger happening in there that it doesn’t taste like hot soymilk that somebody’s sprinkled a little cinnamon into (why bother?).

Now I just have to make sure to finish the other two-thirds of soymilk in the carton before it starts to go. It’s so hard to eat all the servings of food before they start to go funny when you’re single and you live alone.

WOW! This tea has a kick! I’m absolutely loving it today.

This tea was in a gift pack that my dad got me and I haven’t gotten to trying yet. It is SO good! The cinnamon is strong but not overwhelming. I can clearly taste the cardamom and ginger. I love the chai flavour and how strong it is but not like over the top. Given too, I have milk and sugar in it and it held up SO well! This would be a good chai tea to have on hand for those days that I need a good wake-me-up. This tea is awesome.

I’m so glad I got to try it. I think once another tea or two are out of the cupboard, that this is one I’ll have to get. (Which is funny for me to say ‘cause I just order three or four new ones. Shhhhhh don’t tell anyone. My name is TheKesser, and I’m addicted to tea… specifically DavidsTea.) :)

Living in the very cold city of Montreal, you learn very quickly how costly heat can get just to keep you from freezing in your bed. However, sometimes my roommate and I decide that we can last through the cold nights and try to avoid jacking up the bank-account-draining heat for as long as possible (we usually make it until mid December…or until our mother’s come to visit and yell at us to put the heat on). Anyways, in our everlasting fight to stay warm we turn to the more economic and student-budget friendly option of sweatpants and tea…lots and lots of tea! However I should note that this may not be the more economic choice for long if I continue to explore all the new tea shops/websites that steepster has opened my eyes to.

Well this morning I had a craving for some stormy night (tis the season) and while I was searching I noticed a small bag of Saigon Chai which I picked up on Sunday and still have yet to try. As a result, I opted to make one tea in my steeper (Saigon Chai, in case I was not a fan)and the other in my timolino (so I can take that with me to school).

When I opened the bag of Chai tea I was quite excited because I could smell all the various spices and I could already feel them starting to warm my bones. So I boiled the water and got ready to have my nice morning cup of deliciously spicy chai. However, despite the delicious smell of the brewing tea I felt disappointed by the taste. I can’t quite put my finger on what I am not happy with (perhaps too much peppercorn/cardamon and not enough cinnamon for me) but I am definitely glad I didn’t make this to enjoy through class. Ultimately, I don’t hate it but I doubt I will be drinking much more of it either. Into the swap bucket it goes!

I think I might like this one better than coco chai rooibos, but I will not buy any until I use up the coco chai… I have NO ROOM left on myshelf! lol

My friend and I purchased this (iced) to sip while we tried to decide how to spend my $20 gift card I had received from a student… so many decisions… ahhhhh!!

I noticed how all the different elements were complimentary, and that this tea was actually very pleasent iced! I can’t comment more about it because I bought it early this morning, and with the crazy day I have had running around helping co-workers get their sites ready for Summer Camp as well as my site, my impression of this tea is somewhat muddled.

But I will say it will be purchased!

This has a nice spicy scent. I do love the spices in this. Nice blend of cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon. The flavour is mostly cardamom, which is good. And goes really well with soy milk.

It’s all about the cinnamon. The smell of this tea tickles the nose a bit, it’s a dry cinnamon smell…and somehow it reminds of incense. I’m not really sure why, sometimes my brain doesn’t give me all the details on things. But I deffinately get a bit of an incence-monk-temple sort of vibe from this one.

Somehow this tea always surprises me when I steep it. The color always turns out cloudy for me, and I’m sure a tea probably isn’t supposed to be thick…but somehow it seems like it has a bit more body to it than other teas i’ve tried. It’s sort of like comparing a bud light beer to a guinness, I suppose. Thise one would deffinately be the guinness.

The taste, however…comes off more like soggy cinnamon water than tea. The great smell of this just seems to dissapear after steeping, and perhaps just doesn’t have the bite I’m looking for in a chai.

I was madly in love with David’s Tea when I first started on my tea advernturing, but now I think the relationship is cooling a bit. I just can’t seem to get it right lately.

Normally I’m not big on chai teas and the spices but there comes to a time when you get tired of the same old and want to try something new. I picked up a tiny bit of this tea as a sample last week and finally decided to try it today.

Smells like cinnamon, looks really nice, i see a good mix of everything: assam, ginger, cloves, peppercorns, and cardamoms. I’m happy there is no anise, I hate that stuff Not terribly strong, and not terribly spicy this is really easy to drink (for me at least). It does remind me of the Coco Chai Rooibos, but i think this one does a better job with the black tea… actually… some coconut might be good with it.. Happy with it so far, might add some sugar next time in to see what the difference is but I think I wouldn’t mind getting some more of this to drink from time to time.

Drank this one up without even logging it.

Pretty straightforward chai. Didn’t get much from the peppercorns, honestly. I liked that it had them and cardamom added, plus ginger—always my musts for a chai. Only picked up a small sample, and never once made it the proper way as I hadn’t the time.

It seemed like it would have made a good one, although otherwise I never found it particularly strong.

A pretty basic chai. I thought it seemed a little weak but I have been experimenting with a new mug and having trouble with getting a tea strainer that will fit in it (this new mug has a 3.5" diameter, too wide for my normal tea strainer) I actually used the infuser from my teapot and I think the infuser resting on the bottom of the cup kept gravity from making this tea as strong as I would like it.

I did not notice anything unusual about this chai, maybe more cinnamon taste than most chais I have had.