Kashmiri Chai

After a month of waiting, I finally get the Groupon order with my Golden Moon sample. Sheesh. Less than stellar experience from Groupon. Though, it is a matter of managing expectations. Had, at the very start of this, someone said ‘Hey, you will get $50 off of this tea sampler if you wait a month’, I would have very patiently waited a month.

That being said, the sample itself has a nice assortment of flavors… though I doubt I’d order it if it weren’t for the Groupon sale ($10 for a one ounce sample seems exorbitant). But there was a Groupon sale, and I did order it!

This tea smells for all the world like a snickerdoodle while it’s steeping, and while it’s still warm in the cup. Very, Very sweet smelling. The drink follows this similarly, not quite cookie-ish, but still a very sweet chai. The clove taste is the most prominent flavor, but not overpoweringly clove to where you get that smokey kind of taste. For having clove be dominant, it’s well done. The ginger and cinnamon follow a bit behind… not far enough to be lost, but they definitely aren’t holding their own against captain clove.

The tea base, like a lot of chais, is kind of lost here. Although it does have a bit of astringency, which I’m going to blame on the fact that there’s a green tea in here, and they tell you to boil it to death.

So, this is a good tea. However… it doesn’t have any of the kick that I really want from a chai. There’s no pizzazz. It doesn’t really make my tastebuds stand up and go HEY! DRINK THAT MORE YOU GIT! If you want a very smooth, sweet chai… this would probably be perfect for you. I’m evidently not a very smooth and sweet kind of guy… more bumpy and bitter ;)

We got our goldenmoon sampler box today. We are swimming in samples at the moment. I totally understand having a ton of different teas in your cupboard. The more variety you have, the more you want, or some thing. I think I’ll have to do some thing like pick a sample blind some time soon.

I brewed this one up straight. I think it would be good with milk though. It’s gentle due to the lack of pepper for that extra zip. Pepper need not apply. I taste cinnamon, clove and cardamom. I love that word cardamom. I’m waiting to shout it out at a female checking out with alcohol or smokes. I probably wouldn’t shout it out, but I’d think it really loudly. I do get a bit of tea taste here. It’s pretty mild, just enough to know that I am, indeed, drinking tea. If you are looking for a gentle chai this is a good place to start.

Another bites the dust! Boo Hiss…After this…this one is all gone, too. I Really do like this one because of the reasons I listed before…but if you are looking for a really spice-spicy chai…this may not be for you…but it is for me, it seems. Thumbs Up!

Having this tea tonight before bed. Decided to try it black this time and still very delicious. The spices shine through very well. The tea itself is beautiful to look at in the tin. The tea is generously complemented with large whole pieces of cardamom, cloves, and so much more. It is very aromatic and fun to drink.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #9:

Well, went to the thrift store today and spent an enjoyable half hour trying out different lids. I had some initial problems since A. it had to fit, B. I would prefer it look nice or at least amusing. For example, I was mightily tempted by a lid that was shaped like a cat’s head. Sadly, it did not fit. I eventually found a Vaguely Asian™ lid from a teacup set for five bucks that actually fits quite well, so looks like I’m going to have to call off construction on the time machine.

Now let’s talk about chai. The coffee shop at the Borders near where I used to live was, when the store first opened, NOT a Starbucks. I know, right? A chain bookstore with a non-starbucks coffee shop? Inconceivable! But it’s true! Once upon a time, it wasn’t a Starbucks and it had the best chai lattes ever. It was just the right amount of spice to tea, a modicum of milk and well…these days I’d probably find it too sweet, but this was 10 years ago, so I was still sweetening my tea.

Then they got bought by Starbucks and switched over to Tazo and well…their chai is…unsatisfactory. The spices overwhelm everything and give it a really quite unpleasant taste. But we are not talking about that chai today, we are talking about this chai, and this chai, tastes like what I vaguely recall that other chai tasted like. Well balanced, smooth, and not too heavy. I kind of want to try it in all the different ways other people are drinking it. Which I suppose means I need to buy more…

Warning: I ramble for the first paragraph, if you do not care, skip right to the rating (second paragraph). Yesterday and today the northeast was hit with it’s third (and hopefully final) snowstorm of the year. So once again, I was snowed in and cabin fever is definitely setting in. In the past week or so, since the last blizzard, I have decided to “spring clean” up the house, and by house, I most nearly mean drink my tea that is almost complete but not quite there. You see, I have a nasty habit of opening dozens, hundreds, I-don’t-know-how-many, samples and packs and tins and boxes of tea and then trying it once, twice if I like it, then three times to write a rating and then never touching it again. This is a terrible habit, and every once in a while I step back and assess the mess I have made out of my kitchen and now into my living room. As I began, I have been finishing off teas so as to deplete the mess and with today’s being stuck at home, I got rid of a few teas. They were already rated, no fear, I did nothing special to them, but I am feeling accomplished as I have removed some of them.

Rating: So, now that I have finished open tea, I can go onto new samples. Yay! First up was Kashmiri Chai. The leaves are pretty, dark, and small, they are mixed with large spices; they smell slightly spicy.

First Infusion: 5 minutes, hot, no additives. This chai is very nice, gentle green and black tea blend with subtle hints of spice. I pick up cardamom and cinnamon mostly, maybe a hint of clove, overall it is very good. As with all of my chai, I must drink this hot, because as it cools the flavor of the tea is lost and the spices become overwhelming to me. This was the same for this tea, only the spices were not as overwhelming as other chai teas I have had. When I read “Kashmiri” I knew it meant the geographical region, but when I tasted it, I thought describing it like a cashmere scarf was not bad either, it is smooth and velvety, rich and intoxicating.

Second Infusion: 3 minutes, hot, no additives. I found that I did not want to oversteep for the second infusion, 3 minutes brought about an equivalent pot of tea. Slightly spiced, gentle tea, very aromatic and delicious.

Third Infusion: By this time I was looking for another way to do this, according to Golden Moon website, the tea can be enjoyed with cream and honey for a sweet treat. I did not have cream and due to the Snowpocalipse, I was not going to get any, but a splash of milk and a tiny touch of honey, made this tea extraordinary! The tea, brewed hot for 3 minutes, still had the spiced flavors and gentle tea blend, but now it had creamy sweetness added.

Highly recommended any of the three ways, this was a fantastic chai tea. I feel it was so good because it is not as strong as many other chais, it is well blended and gentle, so it is a good tea for people just starting to explore chai or people not so crazy about the amount of spice normally found in chai.

After receiving this sample from TeaEqualsBliss, I was super excited about trying this one. I mean really…look at those ratings! Nice! Now the down side. Last night I received bad news about a friend of the family’s sudden failing health and I needed something comforting this morning. I’m out of Almond Cookie. Boo. :( Anyway, on to the tea.

I honestly wasn’t too impressed with my 1st cup. The dry leaves and spice mix looked very appealing to begin with so I was kind of confused. Of course I added milk and sugar as I tend to do with most of my chais. After the 1st steep, the leaves were fully expanded and that’s mostly what I tasted…black tea. The spices were fairly bland and very much in the background. As much as I like spicy foods, I don’t particularly care for super spicy chais. I mean “spicy” as in “heat”…NOT the cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, etc. This one did not have a “spicy” feel to it, but it was still kind of lacking. Regardless, I finished my cup and decided to steep again.

Take two. Now this is better! The liquor is much MUCH lighter, so I skipped the milk and sugar. NOW I taste the spices. Mostly cardamom…but that’s cool. At least this tastes more like chai! I’m not sure if my traditional chai preparation method would improve this blend or not. In my opinion, chais need that rolling boil to crack open all of those pods and make the spices come to life. I think the black tea was either too strong for the spices or that the company used too much leaf in relation to the ratio of spices. Or maybe I just like my chais WAY to freakin’ strong. Oh well, it’s not bad by any means. Just mild.

Sorry about the rambling post. My mind is kind of scattered at the moment.

The first real chai I ever had and still my favorite! My first taste was with the one-serving sample pack, which I only got to have half of. I knew I was going to have to order much, much more eventually. I’ve been preparing it in that way outlined by teaplz/takgoti every time, and I am extremely grateful to them for sharing that on here!

This one is much more mellow than all the other spiced teas/chai I’ve had. There’s no ginger or black pepper, so no strong spicy bite in it (not that I have anything against that!). Just a very smooth cinnamon-cardamom-cloves taste in with the blend of tea, which with the milk makes for something better than any milkshake or latte I’ve ever had. As for the scent, the cloves seem strongest – especially on the leaves. I love this one as a comforting, gently spiced drink.

I decided to give this one a try since it was featured on Steepster Select yesterday. I loved that you can visually make out the cardamom, cloves, and pieces of cinnamon along side the green and black tea. The tea, itself, was good, but kind of what I expected… After trying the plain tea, I added agave nectar and almond milk (based on advice from my yoga teacher). As I drank it, I liked the tea more and more. And at the end of the cup I found myself wishing I had another sample. In that cup, I’d boil the tea and use less water so that with the milk it’d be stronger.

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/kashmirichai/show/

I’m in the mood for a chai, but I’m not sure if that’s because I knew this was one of my last two Golden Moon sampler packets. The dry leaf smells really good, plenty of warm spice – and with temps here now in the low 70’s compared to the high 90’s of just a few days ago, it almost feels like I need some inner warming.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a chai without milk or cream and sugar, but for the sake of being anal about these tasting notes, I’ll have at least a sip of it as is. Good thing! After five minutes in just-boiled water, it’s not near strong enough for my taste. Back in the pot with you! A few minutes later I check on it again and it’s much better, though still somewhat meek. Time for the additives.

Now I’m feeling sorry for this tea! I really think it has the potential to be good, but I don’t think I handled the steep very well. Next time I’ll stick to simmering the tea in milk for a good long time to get all the flavors out, as I’m finding this just too weak. I’ll leave off rating it until we meet again.