Chai On Life

Dreadfully cold outside..
Time for a review.

Smell wise: Ayurvedic, Strong and robust cinnamon, ginger there and a whisper of coconut. Am worried it won’t be a true Chai but the smell is nice and white Chai teas are rare.

Once brewed in my perfect Breville: Smells become so beautifully balanced ..everything fits.

As for taste: Surprisingly delicate, Cinnamon kisses,warming ginger,. Still not a Chai…

If you want a true Chai …this is not it. Lovely way to start the day though. Or end a very very cold day. Do wish it was a little less delicate.

Perfect for the cinnamon shy and people coming into or going out in the winter cold .

I’ll finish the bag but not sure about it being a staple. My partner likes it though.

This is a very complex tea. It’s hard to distinguish all of the different flavors – there’s spice and there’s refreshing lemongrass. It blends wonderfully and it makes for a delicious everyday chai.

Had low expectations for this one, as I had a recollection of disliking it. AND, it has coconut, and the bag indicates to me that it’s 5 years old.

However, it turns out that not only has the coconut not yet gone rancid, I do really like this tea. Likely because it’s basically a creamy chai heavy on the cardamom, which basically spells a win for me every time. It’s rather similar, actually, to the Coconut Chai by Zhena’s Gypsy Tea that I also really like (although that tea is not whole leaf/spice, and I know what I have left of it is fading). I suspect this is no longer available, but I’d be happy to have this sort of chai perpetually in my cupboard.

I definitely like how mild this is. (I’m not a big chai fan – just trying out some of them) Anyway, this is a nice chai, I can taste some of that lemon zest and lemongrass but also the spices – which are not too spicy. The cinnamon is also nice. I really like this tea.

Sidown!

Finished this one off last night and I quite enjoyed it. Spicy with some cinnamon, it worked well with some raw honey. I’m not much of a chai person, but this was a satisfying and surprisingly Christmas-y tea.

This has been staring at me accusingly for months now. I open my cupboard to figure out what kind of tea I’d like to have, and this bag that I bought on impulse ages ago is just pouting at me, asking me why I never drink it. Every time I open that cupboard. Ugh. I almost threw it out I was so sick of seeing it. But this afternoon I needed a little pick-me-up, and I finally decided to give it a try.

I mean, it’s definitely a chai, so it’s got that spiciness you’d expect. But it’s a white chai, and a very gentle, mild one at that. Which is absolutely OK, since it makes it a bit more versatile (I like to drink most chai teas in the autumn and winter only – it’s a thing). I like the lightness of it. Very fragrant, but in a refreshing way, with a bit of sweetness. Maybe iced next time? I have enough of it, and that bag ain’t goin’ away any time soon.

This is a backlog review from forever ago. I’m not even sure when I had this one. But either way, I got a rainbow tin of this one when it first came out but only now decided to try it.

I actually really loved this one. It’s a great chai tea with some lovely flavour. I really enjoyed the fact that tea is with a white base. Usually I have chai teas and they are a black base which almost makes the teas… heavier…?? That’s really the only way I can think of to describe it. But anyways, this base makes it nice and light. It really lets the chai spices come forward without hiding away somewhere behind the strong black base.

I didn’t add anything to this one. It didn’t need it. I’m starting to realize that as much as I LOVE my black teas, I’m really really starting to love white teas a bit more. They let the flavours come through and they become the centre stage. It’s interesting how my tastes are changing. But don’t worry, I shall always love my black teas. They are so gooooood.

There’s so many other, better chai blends. The white tea came out rather bitter when I brewed it. I don’t care much for lemongrass, and that ingredient weighed heavily in the taste. Thus, I didn’t like this tea. I made one cup, and it was tolerable. This was January in the Tea of the Month Collection 2014.

I bought a fair amount of this, thinking I would really like it – but it took me a while to warm up to it! I think that was mostly because of my horrid former habit of over-steeping EVERYTHING! Now that I take more care with that, I have found I actually do enjoy this tea! It isn’t my favourite – perhaps because I tend to go with bolder flavours… BUT it is quite lovely, particularly when you want something light with some pep to it! Perhaps wouldn’t rush to buy more, but I definitely have appreciated having it!

This is a light chai. The lemongrass is definitely present in it. It has a faint heat, but definitely doesn’t taste like a traditional chai to me… Still tastes great, though. Because of the higher price I’m not sure that I would continue to buy it. I like a darker chai.