Prepared this one on the stovetop because I felt like a nice milky chai after being somewhat disappointed by one yesterday. I added honey instead of sugar this time as it just sounded good tonight.
This tea was an impulse purchase, I added it to my cart with my advent calendar to reach the free shipping threshold. I didn’t have a chai in my cupboard and the tin was so gorgeous that I couldn’t resist!
Anyway, the tea! It has a good blend of strong spices and definitely holds up very well to this preparation. I get a lot of ginger, it’s probably the strongest note here. There are also strong clove, cardamom, and anise flavors. The cinnamon adds a nice sweetness and compliments the other flavors well.
I will say, this also has quite a strong pepper and cardamom kick at the end of the sip. Is that just a usual thing with chai that has pepper in it? It’s definitely more palatable than the Chico Chai I had last night, but I would prefer it a little softer if possible… I guess I’ll have to perfect my recipe!
Flavors: Anise, Black Pepper, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, Licorice, Spicy, Sweet
This is one of the few from Kusmi that has somewhat intrigued me.
I have little chai experience, so I can’t really comment on how it is compared to other blends unfortunately. :P
Always room to try more teas then! :)
Yep. Chais from certain regions of India add black pepper.
I usually add fresh mint leaves and brown sugar to my chais. It’s interesting to play around with chais.
I sometimes add dried oranges during the boiling process tone down the spices.
Yum, mint sounds delicious. I have the Vahdam advent calendar this year, so I assume there will be many chai blends to try! :)
Oh! excited to see your reviews on some of that. Vahdam has really great turmeric blends and I have tried some of their chais and they are some of the best! I have tried a lot of chai brands and theirs is the real deal!!
I’ve not heard of Vahdam, but now perusing their website because I love how many chais they have!
@anutea – I think I’ll be hard-pressed to keep up with my calendars this year, but I’ll try my best! I hope to write notes for all of them and do an Instagram post every day. Fingers crossed! I am a chai novice so I’m excited to expand my horizons a bit.
@Courtney – I know! I don’t actually have any experience with them either, but the calendar was so pretty I couldn’t help it… So it should be a good “crash course” to explore some of their teas. :D
On the discussion of chai, I feel I should throw out that my favorites come from a small Portland-based tea shop that few people seem to have hard of called “Tea Chai Te” (they sell online!) that make a ton of their own chai blends, ranging from more traditional to very unique!
Thanks Alita, I’ve added a bunch to my wishlist. ;)
I’ve bookmarked Tea Chai Te for a future order too – thank you!!