African Chai

Very sweet and very spicy are the first things I notice when appreciating this tea. The leaves and spices are a beautiful combination of colors…pardon me while I ogle this tea for a moment. The aroma blends earthiness, floral (mostly rose), pepper, and fennel notes with little hints of licorice and coriander for a powerful yet subtle aroma. It reminds me of the spice bushes I had in my yard when I was a little girl.

The spiciness has increased! Very peppery, which I like, also very earthy, which I also like. For all that is smells very spicy it is also very mild. Nothing really over powers your senses so you can just inhale the aroma and enjoy it. This chai smells mouthwatering.

My first impression on this tea is ‘what an unusual chai’ the spices blend together but no one flavor sticks out. This is just a personal preference, but when I drink chai I like one flavor to be king while the other flavors play as courtier to it. The fennel gives a wonderful mouth tingle (always a favorite) and mix that with the pepper, sweetness, and spice warmth and you almost get a chai that feels like a palate cleanser. I do feel like there may be too many spices or just too much going on because the flavors become muddied. Just as a contrast, Ben had a taste and really enjoyed it, so I do not think this is any fault of the tea just a preference thing. The chai becomes sweeter as it cools and gains a level of richness. I am curious to try this as an iced chai at some point.

This isn’t “Chai Ho.”

This is “Chai Whoa.”

You are getting spices that you’ve never heard of before in here. In the dry leaves, where the ginger attacks your olfactories like an eager-but-inept makeout partner, the aroma is peppered with the rich layers of fennel and cinnamon. This smooths way out in the cup as the latter takes over completely: “Ginger, stop embarrassing yourself.” “Yes ma’am.”

The very first sip is a call to throw away your sugar. That cinnamon joins forces with safflower and rose petals to form a band called Natural Sweetness. Unfortunately, this means that the ginger gets left behind–maybe there wasn’t enough room in the van. You can still smell it in the aroma, but as you drink up that dusky ochre liquor… Full review here: http://snooteablog.com/2013/10/01/snooty-tea-review-justea/

After being in India for 2 month I have to say that this chai tastes nothing like Indian chais. But it’s not supposed to, since it’s an African chai. So it has a bit of a different feel to it than the usual Indian chais I drink, which makes it a nice alternative.
The base of this tea is the Kenyan Black from Justea. See my review there for details of the base tea. I’ll focus more on the spices here.
First of all the spices are very balanced, nothing really sticks out (which I like a lot). Maybe the fennel seeds and the licorice. But all the spices blend in very well with the base tea. This gives a nice complex taste.
The mix of spices and the sweetness of the tea is fantastic. There although the taste is more in direction of fennel and licorice, there is also pepper and cloves, mixed with the maltiness of the base tea.
I tasted the tea just as is with a bit sugar and its good. However, I think the full potential comes out when drinking it with milk. I haven’t tested it simmered in milk, which would probably THE thing to do and its the way that it’s done in Kenya (and India).
The steeping time is a bit longer for me, since some of the spices need a bit of time to develop their full potential. But maybe that’s just my personal taste, I tend to like longer steeping times.
The overall rating of this chai is pretty high, it beat’s most of the chais I have tasted so far. However, I do like the Masala Chai from the tea guy (who also created this chai) a touch better. Therefore not the full 100 points.

A great combination of chai spices and malty black tea. Straight up, you taste the maltiness of the black tea, followed by the spices with a sweet aftertaste. Added milk and sweetener, the tea becomes more flavorful with the spices melding better with the black base.

Grabbed this sample from the last TTB. This chai is much too mild for me. It’s not spicy or super flavorful. It’s just sort of light and sweet. It’s decent warm, but not something I need again. When I drink a chai, I want to taste bold spices, but instead I get mild, bland spices. I shared this cup with my sister, who also commented that it was weak.

Sipdown! (27 | 374)

This was an okay chai, but not my favorite.

It’s a bit strong on the clove, and there’s also a lot of fennel. I don’t mind fennel and anise flavors, but here it’s just a bit too much. And for some reason it comes off a bit soapy to me? I’m not sure why, there are a few rose petals but I can’t imagine that’s enough to make a difference. There’s also not enough black tea here for me, I can’t really taste it under the spices.

Anyway, it’s not terrible or anything, just not the chai for me I guess.

I picked this tea tonight because I am feeling sentimental this Christmas Eve. My husband has been sick for several days, mostly tired and achey and a bit of a sore throat with some upper respiratory issues. We hardly ever have chai and almost never have lattes, but I made him one a few weeks ago and he liked it, so I thought it would be a nice treat tonight.

The reason this is so special is because it is from the last samples ever sent to me by our Steepster friend, K S, before he passed on. You see, he could read between the lines and when he sent me a “you okay?” message, he didn’t believe my “I’m fine!” (I wasn’t.) So he mailed me some tea and an encouraging note.

I wanted it to be extra rich and comforting, so I heated some milk on the stove with a bit of sugar and put in the whole sample pouch of tea and spices. I know true chai is usually half milk and half water, but I am going for Christmas Eve level comfort here!

I strained it into mugs and we drank it while we listened to an old radio broadcast of It’s A Wonderful Life. It was very good, and I see more chai lattes in our future this winter, especially when we have cold spells, something we don’t see an awful lot.

I checked to make sure this company was still in business before posting. They are, and this tea is available on amazon. I like the Justea business model, providing sustainable jobs in Kenya. I hope they do well.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

A sample from Miss B, from the box that keeps on giving. Seriously, I’ve not found the bottom yet :)

This was my pre-bedtime cup, made up as a latte. I used 2 tsp of tea in half a cup of water, so it brewed up nice and strong before I added the milk. Weak chai is not my thing! To taste, it’s deliciously creamy – and not just from the milk. There are strong notes of cardamon and fennel, which are two of my favourite chai ingredients, plus a warming spiciness from the ginger and a sweetness from the cinnamon. There’s also a light background floral, I think rose, which makes this a little unusual amongst the chai blends I’ve tried.I thought at one point I could taste a hint of chili, too, but that might have been my imagination.

I enjoyed this one. It’s a warming, flavourful chai blend but not too heavy for a late night cup. The rose adds a pleasant edge reminiscent of turkish delight, and a touch of additional sweetness. It also stands up well to the milk. I’d drink this one again.

2 tsp, 4m, boiling water. Latte – 50:50 milk and water.

I’m trying to finish off some Tea Sparrow samples so I can justify restarting that subscription, lol. This was my first month since putting it on hold, and I missed out on Tisano cacao bean shells. :( Anyway, this is an interesting chai. I think when I’m in the mood for chai, I tend to reach for one of the more classic Indian blends (particularly if they have cardamom, which I love). This one is pretty different, with the licorice, fennel, and rose petals. It’s good though! I find it to be pretty well-balanced: malty from the base tea, sweet from the licorice/fennel, spicy from the cinnamon/cloves, warming from the ginger/pepper, and floral from the rose petals. That’s a lot of flavours for one tea, but it’s not as overwhelming as it sounds. :) I think I’ll finish off the rest of this sample stovetop-style and see if that’s any different.

I’ve been slacking off on my sample stash this summer. While I’ve been dutifully chugging through a couple of teas I’d acquired in massive (well, 3 oz.) quantities, I’ve mostly only been drinking tea at work. And I don’t like to try anything for the first time at work, since I can’t do much in the way of timing or controlling temperature there. I have been drinking copious quantities of iced corn, corn silk, and barley tisanes I picked up from HMart at home, so there’s that.

Anyway, now that it’s getting cooler, I’m more inclined to reach for hot tea, and today I decided to break out this sample of African Chai I’ve been hanging onto for the better part of a year. I picked this up from someone—maybe Nicole_Martin?—at one of the now-defunct NYC meet-ups. And while it’s not my ideal chai, it’s pretty good! I’m enjoying the base; it’s got just the right amount of astringency and malt for my tastes.

There’s a nice natural sweetness to this chai. It’s a little heavy on the cloves and light on the everything else for my taste, but it does taste pleasingly gingerbread-y. I’m not generally a fan of fennel or liquorice in teas, but while I do taste them they’re subtle enough not to bother me here. I was intrigued by the inclusion of rose, since I love the one other rose chai I’ve tried, but I can’t taste it here. All in all, this is a nice fall tea, and a great way to cap off my brunch of pumpkin pancakes and pumpkin butter. I’m not sure if it’s something I’d want to pick up more of, but I have enough left for another cup to mull it over.