Chocolate Chili Chai

My first tasting note… I was introduced to this obsession, er.. loose leaf tea on Christmas day when my husband bought me my first steeper. Something changed in me that day I went from being a coffee drinker to being a tea drinker. I have 15 different teas in my cupboard and it has only been 4 weeks. Okay, so lets start with this tea. I love the smell, it is peppery and chocolatey. It is my favorite thus far. I love the heat you get when you take a sip. The first thing you taste is the chocolate and then bam, you get the heat. It is a perfect tea for the cold Canadian winters.

Since it’s finally snowed in my area for the first time this winter I felt there was to be no better opportunity than to bust out this Chai, which I received as a sampler packet in my latest order from DAVIDs.

Upon opening the packet I was greeted with a highly pleasurable chocolate smell, with a small hint of the red chilis. This carries over to the finished steeped product, where the chocolate remains the most upfront characteristic. As the sip finishes you can detect the chilis and black tea trailing after the chocolate, but the chili flavor is very subtle and does not bring a ton of heat as many fans of the Scoville Scale might have been hoping for.

While not as spicy as other Chais it is most delicious and a warming alternative to hot chocolate on bitterly cold days. May try brewing directly in carefully prepared milk as I’ve done with some other Chais to see what, if anything, it does for the flavor.

I’m not a huge Chai fan but this one is great. It does have a spicy kick, and smells chocolate-y. It can be quite strong but no bad aftertaste if you choose to brew it longer.

Nice tea with a bit of a kick. Wish the chocolate flavour was stronger.

Man, I really wanted this one to be a punch in the face … but all I got was a pinch of the cheeks.

I recently snagged a 100g tin of this for 50% off (one of the Christmas tins). Not a flavour I’d normally go for, but since it was on sale I decided to try it anyway!

It smells fantastic in the tin – super dark chocolate-y with a hint of spice. I have opened it up just to sniff a couple of times since buying it. Yum.

I wasn’t sure what to expect for taste, I figured it would be chocolate-y and quite spicy – not so much. I first tried making it as a latte – I really liked it this way, it tasted a lot like black tea but the milk really seemed to bring out the chocolate as well. Not very spicy at all – a bit of a tingle in the mouth but that was about it.

Tonight I made it again, this time steeped in water with a splash of milk before drinking. This way was fine, but much weaker, like drinking black tea with a hint of dark chocolate and not much spice at all. Don’t get me wrong, it was enjoyable enough, just not nearly as strong as I thought it would be (and I was pretty generous with my loose tea!).

I’m a bit confused about this one – it isn’t really what I thought it would be (and to be fair, I wasn’t totally sure what to expect in the first place), but I like it. I don’t think it is a tea I will be reaching for every day, but I know I will drink it again (in latte form at least!), most likely on a cold night or if I am craving chocolate.

Very weak flavor. I’ve tried it hot and cold and with cinnamon like the company recommend. Either way I just got a weird bland taste with a slight pepper after taste. Finally, I decided to mix it with some Adagio Chocolate Chip. It helped make the chocolate flavor stand out a little bit more, but besides the weird pepper after taste. I get none of the spiced that’s been promised. Definitely not David’s best.

Had a sample in-store today. Seemed kinda weak, so maybe they steeped it wrong. Didn’t strike me as “feisty” or anything special

Not really a fan.. maybe it’s the spice?

This one is good but very mild, I wish the flavour was stronger. Not really spicy, just a tiny hint of the chili – I was hoping for a bit more spice.