Caramel Chai Rooibos

This Caramel Chai Rooibos is pretty good for a Teavana chunk o’ food blend (a relative judgment). I find the various flavors to mingle together pleasingly, and there are several—it’s not just a big blast of rooibos and blaring cinnamon, which seems to figure heavily in many of the herbal blends.

I prepared two glasses in a Bodum cylinder using about four times the prescribed amount of dried “stuff”, and I let it steep good and long—maybe 8 minutes? Fortunately it was still hot when I stopped—in fact, right at my threshold “must drink” temperature. I cannot stand lukewarm beverages, so I had to drink the two glasses somewhat rapidly. The reddish-brown liquor was rather sweet, so those candied fruits may have leeched some sugar into the juice. I did not find much in the way of caramel flavor here, to be honest.

I had picked up some of this blend at the chai sale during the fall and am just now getting around to trying it. I probably won’t buy it again (at least not at regular price…), but I’ll enjoy one or two more large servings prepared as this one was—steeped extra strong and extra long.

This might be a good choice for a dieter who wants chai but no caffeine and prefers to skip the cream. I am somewhat curious about how many calories I just consumed… (not usually an issue since I favor pure teas and do not adulterate them). Well, I’m pretty sure that this infusion contained fewer calories than a soda!

This isn’t bad – I am a chai fiend, and couldn’t resist during the sale. I like having some chai that doesn’t have caffeine so I don’t have to limit myself to morning chai. This one doesn’t have a ton of rooibos – most of Teavana’s teas don’t. But it is spicy, and does taste somewhat like caramel and spice…if you add a little sweetener. I like it with milk too.

I liked this tea. The caramel is very smooth and the spices definitely come through. I added 1 tsp. of rock sugar for a 16 oz. cup because I like my tea sweet, but I think I would back off a bit on the sugar next time. For even further spice kick, I might add to Oprah chai tea. But really, it stands on its own just fine.

This tea was such a disappointment! I love caramel and I love chai, so getting an ounce of this new Teavana offering with my latest Starbucks reward seemed like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, this tea doesn’t taste like caramel at all and it doesn’t really have the complexity of a chai either. It’s more like an intense cinnamon/clove tea that assaults your taste buds with spiciness. It isn’t the worst tea I’ve ever drunk; I’ll finish what I have, but definitely won’t be re-purchasing this one.

Because I passed by a store today, I decided to stop and try this. I know it’s caramel, but the sample I had was really sweeter than I’d like. Of the spices, I seem to get more ginger than anything else. The flavour would make a good cookie though.

Really delicious! At least the way they had it prepared for sampling at the store. Definite sweet, dark, warm, almost burnt caramel flavor. The chai spices and rooibus take a bit of a backseat, but you can tell they are there.

Stopped by Teavana after having dinner in the food court. I saw the new chais and sweet gotta try a cup. Caramel is one of those vices for my sweet tooth. I went in with high hopes a was majorly disappointed. It just seems with all of their new chais they want to make sure you don’t just get cinnamon, but feel the “cinnamon thunder”. I love chai flavor, but there’s got to be a happy balance. I tasted absolutely no caramel in this tea. It reminded more of a caffeine free Samurai Chai. Good but not great the recent chai offerings from Teavana taste more like drinking a fire ball than chai. Darn sweet tooth.