Bollywood Chai

Dry Leaf Nose: Warm and spicy with a delicate sweetness.

Liquor: Golden liquor with a full, sweet and spicy aroma.

Flavour: Lightly sweet with a warming spice flavour. The cinnamon and ginger compliment the vanilla, while the the fennel candies bring hints of sweetness.

Sipdown (177/181)!

Well, another Chai out of the cupboard and I have to say I’m not really so sad to have it be this one. It was rather unexceptional (although not awful) in taste – especially with this last cup which had full flavours of cloves (hooray!) and ginger (nay…).

The best part of this was definitely picking out the candied fennel and eating it, though. I will miss that. However, I can always just go and buy my own fennel too.

And apparently DT is discontinuing this one too! But honestly, I can see why: they have lots of Chai blends and this is special at all…

I went to David’s today to refill some of my herbal stash since they’re all getting low and I decided to pick up 10g of this, despite my “meh” feel about chai teas. It may be wise to take this tea note with a grain of salt considering my limited experience in the chai department.

This has a creamy texture to it that I wasn’t expecting. I can taste the fennel and peppercorns and a sweetness that must be the “candied fennel”. The peppercorn scent reminded me of Hot Lips, hence the reason I picked this up. I do so love Hot Lips. The cardamom adds a nice flavour as well. I’m not too sure I can taste the ginger – thank goodness, I don’t care for ginger at all – or the vanilla flavouring. I’m thinking the cardamom and cinnamon blend together, so I’ll say I can taste the cinnamon too.

Overall, the ingredients listed can all be tasted in this tea (with the exception of the ginger, though that could just be me). I’m really enjoying my cup of it but I don’t think I’ll keep it on hand regularly – perhaps every so often when the mood strikes me I’ll pick up another 10g.

Mmmmmm. Warm and spicy with a bit of pepperiness. The tea is so beautiful to look at in the tin. I picked out one if the pink candied fennel seeds and chewed it, yum! I steeped it as suggested on the package. The liquor was very light for many chais I have tried that have a black tea base. I added milk and a very small amount of honey. The flavor is very nice and complex although a tad bit weak. I could taste the cardamom, cinnamon, pepper and ginger. I don’t like strong ginger but in this chai the ginger balance was to my liking, just enough to spice it up. The vanilla gave it a nice creaminess, I really enjoy vanilla notes in chai.
I am really happy I bought 100 g of this tea. Next time I will use a bit more tea to strengthen the favors more. I really enjoyed my first purchase from DavidsTea and I am looking forward to trying my other selections.

Hmm… I don’t really know what to say about this one. It tastes like a decent, middle of the road masala chai. Nothing really special – I was hoping to be able to pick out vanilla, but, alas, I cannot. (Although it may just be that my palate isn’t sophisticated enough to get that much subtlety, but still, I didn’t taste it AT ALL.) The ginger is identifiable, but only because I was looking for it. To me, it’s just a sort of muddled spiciness, without any one element really standing out from the rest.

HOWEVER, those little candied fennel bits are delicious! As in, I can’t stop myself from picking them out of the bag and snacking all through the day. Of course, this means that there aren’t too many that make it into my cup, but… honestly, I’m okay with that.

This is a sweeter chai. I don’t know that it is anything particularly special, but I am enjoying it right now.

Things have finally settled a bit around here: the tot, newborn, & I are slowly finding a routine, the in-laws have gone back to Edmonton, and…

The weather has been on the plus side all weekend, which means that this dreadful snow is melting! It also means that there’s a bit of flooding in our basement, but nothing major, just soggy carpet in the one corner.

However, today I’m choosing to look on the positive side, which means juggling a rambunctious two-year-old plus her 2-week-old cluster-feeding brother and attempting to brew up some stove-top chai! This tea makes a lovely chai, plus the candies mean that I only need minimal sweetener (and am now wondering if I could’ve left the sweetener out completely). It’s delicious with milk, spicy, smooth, and warming. Yum, yum! Let’s hope I can maintain this positive outlook until my husband comes home late tonight!

I am definitely not a fan of chai, and it’s one of the few teas that I usually sweeten, because that makes it a bit more bearable for me. However, Courtney sent me a sample of this one, and since my friend Scott specified chai tea… I brought this to share with him.

While it was definitely one of the best chais I’ve ever had, I’m still glad I split the cup with someone else. I didn’t even sweeten it, the candied fennel seeds provide a perfect complement to the spices. Very nice blend, thanks for sharing, Courtney!

Delightful to look at, so fun to make and I really like the taste. This is a sweeter Chai; I can taste the pink peppercorns and the ginger and the fennel and it is a treat. Not peppery and serious like other black tea chai, but sweet and fun!

When I learned that the tea of the month for April was going to be a chai, I freaked out in excitement. I love a good chai blend, but I don’t often find them.

This is a fantastic one. The candied fennel really comes through, and I taste all of the spices common to chai. The fennel adds a mentholated flavour that I didn’t think I would care for, but it’s a nice touch to the tea. This, combined with the ginger and peppercorns, gives the tea a really fresh finish.

If I had a complaint, it would be that the brew is a tad weak – but I feel this could be remedied by using more tea or having a longer steeping time. I also prefer black teas with a splash of milk, so this may have influenced my review.