Cha Yen Thai

FOREWARNING: I just finished writing this, and it’s VERY long. So please don’t feel like you have to suffer through it. Blame it on my hankering to avoid my homework and not writing a review for a couple of days!

Did I make this tea while I was literally on my way out the door to get to my school’s girl’s hockey championship game (they won)? Yes, I did. Did I forget about it the whole car ride and when I got there I was already late so an almost full cup sat in my car for two hours? Yes. Did I drink it two hours later anyways? Yes. Did I also unintentionally leave the tea leaves out all night? Yes. Did I ignore this fact and continue to resteep them almost 24 hours later? Yes. Did I forget that my timer went off so the tea steeped for about 15 minutes? Yes.

SO MANY BAD HABITS THAT IAN IGNORED IN ONE TEA!

Anyways, this is a tea that I received in my swap with The DJBooth. Thanks for sending this along!

This is actually really yummy! Generally, I’m not a fan of Teavana for these reasons:
1.) Their blends are like…. all blend no tea. This one actually isn’t an exception… I can hardly see any tea in all of these spices, but it is still very good.
2.) I HATE their website. I can’t stand it. I can’t pinpoint exactly why, but it has to do with the colors/design choices and the fact that it doesn’t flow.
3.) I’ve only been to their retail locations like twice (there aren’t any in Vermont) and the sales people were annoying.
4.) I’m scared to order online because of what I’ve heard from the discussion thread here….
5.) Along with their salespeople, they. know. almost. nothing. about. tea. This is not true with everyone, I’m POSITIVE about that, but the few that I’ve met in person knew nothing. They couldn’t answer my questions and they thought Teavana was all that (quote on quote: “I’ve tried a different version of this tea from a different company and I love it, so I don’t want to try this. Thank you though!” [me] “That’s impossible! Teavana makes the highest quality teas in the US. You won’t find better than this” [sales person]. In fact that tea was one of the lowest rated teas by them here on Steepster).
However, I won’t say that I’m unwilling to try their teas. Personally I don’t like the company and the environment they put off. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy some of their teas.

Anyways, on from my rant.

This tea is very good. It’s pretty bold and has almost a chai-y type flavor to it. Next time I brew this up I think I’m going to make a latte! I think that would be SO good, and it would be sort of reminiscent of Thai tea.

Pretty good! I wouldn’t repurchase it, but this is very nice. Thank you again, The DJBooth for letting me try some of this!

Oh yeah, PS: The brewing parameters are for the first steep!

1 tbsp. leaf prepared latte style on the stove, using milk and brown sugar.

I haven’t had this in forever, but was in the mood for a nontraditional type of chai tonight, and remembered purchasing this a while ago. It’s mildly spicy with notes of coconut that tie in nicely.

Not bad – but not one I consider to be a staple.

Hello Steepster! I hope everyone has been doing well. I am finally back after a break. No tea was had for the past few weeks b/c I was sick and overwhelmed. If there was anyone I got behind on talking to I humbly apologize.
A friend from a class works at my local Teavana and I got this from her the other day. I wanted to get tea bags but I couldn’t resist!
The dry leaf and the liquor of this are very, very similar to the zingiber rooibos. The main difference I can tell without that tea here is the black base along with an almost anise flavor. This blend also seems to have more vanilla flavor to me. Other than that I think that I would never stock both of those teas at the same time and ultimately I would purchase depending on price comparison and if I was going to be drinking it at night.
Rating it on its own though it is very nice. Somehow I’m getting lots of sweetness that I wasn’t expecting. I think that I may blend this with a heavier base to make it have a more solid base instead of just sweet. It is trying to do a lot in one glass and has notes of nuts, light spice, coconut, vanilla and overall it can be a nice wake up cup.

I love Thai iced tea. It’s one of the reasons I am always convincing people to go get Thai food with me. Well… that and the food, which I adore. Massaman curry, oh yeah! I’ve always wanted to recreate a nice Thai iced tea, so when this was on sale for ~$1.50 for 2 ounces of course I had to grab some! Now I wish I’d gotten 4 ounces… or maybe even 8. It’s so good! Seriously, I’d be happy with a pound so I could cold brew big pitchers and sip it all day long. But alas, I didn’t think I would like it this much!

The black base is quite strong and does stand up to the flavors, which seems to be an issue with Teavana’s white & green blends which are totally overpowered by the additions. Here it’s nice and malty and brisk like a good Thai iced tea should be, with bright pops of star anise, cardamom and almond. It’s got a wonderfully exotic feel—I made it both iced and hot, and it’s perfection. And this is with 2% milk, not even condensed milk like it should be! It’s very creamy and thankfully even though it’s heavily spiced I don’t feel like I am drinking a chai blend. I mean I love chais, but that’s not really what I want in a Thai tea!

All I can say is Wow. Love this one and it will have to be a STAPLE in my cupboard for all Time. I’m literally blow away by this one. I’m not a big spice person so the light hints of spice in it are perfect. Just delish. Perfect on a bitter-bitter cold day.

Another sipdown for the day! Had a giant mug of this in the afternoon to try and clear out some of the “spicier” and smellier teas in my cupboard. I quiet like this, though i do admit that i picked out the star anise from my cup :) Not sure if i’d ever pick this up again mostly because there are so many other teas to try and so little time in the day. But it was a tasty cup of tea for this afternoon :)

The 2nd tea we drank was a 16 oz of this one, compliments of Carol Who.
This is one of the only teas from Teavana that I’ve ever really liked, & for awhile I really liked it a lot, so when Carol sent me some in my recent trade, it was a little nostalgic to see it there. It doesn’t appeal to me like it used to, & that’s ok cuz it’s a sipdown!
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Sipdown! Actually, this is one of the few sipdowns I could actually see myself replacing. I really love this tea!

I was in a hurry this morning (which is kind of usual) and didn’t take the time to add a dash of milk. It would have been better with, but on its own this is nice in a sweet, mildly spicy way. Sweet spicy, not hot spicy, that is.

So I’m going to take a moment and savor it while it lasts. Only two more school days left!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! I have my chinese new year eggs simmering in Cha Yen Thai tea!! Just posted a pic on Teavana’s facebook wall. If you can like my photo before 5pm today!!!!! I can’t wait to see how the eggs turn out…I am going to let them simmer for a while.

Tomorrow I leave for Florida and that means I have a daunting but important task at hand – deciding what teas to take with me. Most of the ones I grabbed are ones I want to work on sipping down. I figure that if they are the only options I have, than they will get drunk.

This particular tea is one of my older ones that I picked up in August. It is one I enjoyed when I first bought it but have since found other teas that I far prefer. Weirdly enough, I was reading the ingredients earlier and this boasts star anise yet I get none of that. I get a fruitiness and a bit of nut. It is good but not something I reach for often.