Chandernagor

Ohhhh, tea of teas. You are the bestest “traditional” chai I’ve ever had. It tastes so similar to the chai I used to get at this tiny vegetarian Indian restaurant that sadly closed a few years ago. Every pay weekend I used to go in and order two dishes, one to eat there and one to go. :) They had this incredible eggplant and chickpea curry that I still miss.

Today I had you while making pyrahi (Cranberry ones and peach ones! Although the dough was too stiff so I [GASP!] had to make them in muffin tins so they wouldn’t loose all the juicy fruity goodness. Gramma would be displeased.) and you were delicious.

sipdown! (and that makes 160! everything else tonight is just bonus time!) I can see why omgsrsly loves this chai. It’s different than my preferred chais but in a good way with a spicy kick that makes my mouth a little hot. It’s not overly hot, but the blend works well together. There’s not dominating clove or cinnamon presence which makes me happy even though i love both. I have a feeling this will be an order just so that i can play with it more with milk and honey etc… thanks a bunch missb!

Brewed at a really low temperature because I had a green going as well. Surprisingly, this is the first time I’ve had this, even though it’s one of the more expensive teas in my cupboard, and I’ve shared a fair amount of it with Steepsterites already. I saw OMGsrsly’s note the other day on this though, and thought to myself, “I should really try this!”

I also think her review was perfect. With a touch of sweetener, this is just like candy. Delicious, creamy, sweet, chai candy.

Ooooh… an absolutely fabulous way to ring in the new year! This is an excellent chai with a wonderful balance of spicy and sweet. Jake and I both love it, and it’s totally going on the shopping list.

Thanks so much OMGsrsly for giving me the opportunity to try it!

I did this tea not in the recommended manner but in a halfway chai manner – boiled some (unfortunately) skim milk with a tea spoon of brown sugar, when boiling added a couple teaspoons of this tea and left it to simmer for some 5-10 minutes.

And my first thought at first sip was oh, so this is FRENCH chai. I can not articulate too well why I would consider it french, but oh so smooth and refined and flavorful. But it packs some heat indeed, no matter how sweet and smooth it is at first sip.

On taste notes, it smells wonderfully at spices. In the dry tea the predominant flavours are cinnamon and cardamom and emphatically of cloves. When simmering at a boil, it´s the cloves which rule. The wet leaves, before being discarded, smelt most strongly of ginger and cardamom. The liquor (milk? tea? drink?) itself tastes equally of the cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and cloves and it´s fantastic. And the pepper finally gets its revenge in the aftertaste, with just-to-the-point heat. (If you are sensitive to chillies or pepper, better avoid this or avoid brewing this chai style). And oh so so smooth all the way, so flavorful and rich but smooth.

Another note, many people hate cloves, if you do maybe better avoid this – it´s balanced but the cloves are there. If you like cloves, absolutely get this.

If you are like me rather neutral about cloves, then do check it. I think the cloves are wonderfully used here, they bring a really exotic different flavour and seem to make the cinnamon and cardamom just so much better.

I want to try to brew this normal style, but I did love this so very much chai style brewing this normal style is not going to be a priority anytime soon.

My last serve of this until I get a chance to restock sometime in the next few months. It’s warm and spicy, heavy on the clove and ginger and with a strong black tea base that avoids bitterness. It’s got quite a caffeine kick to it as well, which is just right for an otherwise slow Monday morning. Even though I didn’t prepare in the traditional chai manner, with cream and sugar this makes a nice substitute.

I went to a Mariage Freres shop a few months ago and asked them if they had anything that might encompass all the flavours of Christmas. The shop assistant was lovely and offered two blends – Esprit de Noel and, after hesitating a bit, Chandernagor. I smelled both and went for Esprit de Noel, which has orange and is smoother than Chandernagor. I didn’t end up buying Chandernagor but I found the smell impossible to forget even long after. Fast forward to now. I wanted a tea that wasn’t an indulgence for once, a tea that would wake me up in the morning and make me instantly alert and ready to face the day. That’s when I remembered Chandernagor.

It’s a very peppery blend, by which I mean that it will tickle your taste buds and focus your mind. You can’t ignore this tea. You can’t take sips while working or thinking about your next meal. It draws you in. Chandernagor tastes as good as it smells, which is strong and interesting. I taste cloves (so divine, wow), black pepper, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom, in that order. It’s a rich tea that I prefer to drink really hot, the very nature of it just calls for a high temperature – I suspect it’ll burn you in iced form anyway.

4 minutes with milk and stevia works best for me.

Sipping down another old sample of unknown origin. This is a very nice, very smooth chai. The spices are nicely balanced, both amongst themselves and with the (Assam?) base. I tend to go for super spicy chais, heavy on the ginger, and this is a little bit milder than that, but nonetheless it’s a blend I wouldn’t mind adding to my collection at some point.

Yummmm, OMGsrsly sends great random samples. :) This is a very nice chai, spicy and warming, good for a cold winter morning.

Dexter was kind enough to send me a sample of this one, thanks! I must admit, I’m not a huge chai person. It’s not that I don’t like chai, but for some reason I never tend to reach for it. Perhaps that will change as the weather grows colder. This looks very chai-like – black tea leaves with lots of pieces of various spices mixed in. It smells quite nice, like a nice mix of the spices instead of being dominated by either cinnamon or clove. I only did a 3 minute steep, as I was planning on drinking it without milk and I didn’t want it to become too strong.

Steeped up, it smells lovely and warming. I did add a bit of raw sugar, but no milk or cream (I do enjoy chai with milk, but I feel like it’s hard to judge quality that way). Yum, this is a tasty chai. I can taste cinnamon, clove, ginger, and cardamom, but none of them overwhelms the blend. My cup is quite mild since I did a shorter steep, but I like it this way when I’m not adding milk. Yum!