White Ayurvedic Chai

The strangest thing happened to me this afternoon-I had a huge craving for a chai tea! I’m not normally the hugest fan of chais, but for some reason I had a craving for one and so I decided to brew this one up. I steeped this one for the recommended two minutes and it literally tasted like water, so I threw it back in for 5 more minutes. That’s how I usually steep whites, and this one isn’t really a particularly high quality white OR a straight white OR a straight white blend-along with the host of other ingredients there’s some green tea in this!

Regardless from my “Teavana overblends their teas” rant, this one is actually really good! I’m bumping up my rating a little, mostly due to my craving. This one is slightly sweet and has a good spicy bite lurking behind it. This is really yummy!

I’m going to a VERY large mall this weekend (the King of Prussia mall right outside of Philadelphia-it’s the largest mall in America in terms of retail size), and they have not one but two Teavana’s there, so I’m definitely planning on picking up some stuff. I’m hoping that they’ll have some stuff on sale in the store because that would be very nice on the wallet! I’m definitely planning on picking up a tiny Yixing because they’re relatively inexpensive and I would like one just to try. I’m also planning on getting some more of the Cha Yen Thai tea (it’s soooo good, so thanks to The DJBooth for turning me on to that one!), some tins, and a scoop. I’m also THINKING about picking up some of the Body + Mind tea and some of the Samurai Chai blend with this one in it. What are your opinions? Likes or dislikes? Thanks! :)

This is my first EVER teavana tea from my first EVER swap from oOTeaOo!!! First swap note. Yay! Thank you for giving me all these neat teas I can’t wait to try!

Observation 1: I prepared this tea myself. This tea was steep at 150 degrees F for 2 minutes as instructed. The blend is very pretty and smells a lot like cinnamon. The liquor is a deep amber color and also smells of nothing but cinnamon.

Observation 2: Naked, I taste the cinnamonn and white tea. It is very spicy and clean tasting. I suspect I should steep slightly longer than instructed or perhaps add more tea.

Observation 3: With sugar, this tea is very light. Somehow, the sugar seems to detract from the spice. I cannot taste any of the green tea; still just white tea and cinnamon.

Observation 4: With milk, I don’t even knnow how to tastefully describe this. Its gross. It tastes like milk aand something funky… like blue cheese maybe?

Observation 5: With milk and sugar: Just don’t do it. Trust me. I thought my milk was stale, I went to the fridge to investigat and my milk doesn’t expire for 10 more days.

I resteeped this later in the afternoon. It cam out very light. The cinnamon scent was still very prominent, but the taste wasn’t. It now has an after-tase reminiscent of spoiled milk..

Overall, blegh. I never say that about a tea, not even that horrid raspberry herbal of doom deserved a “blegh.” Will not buy and do not want to drink. Shame to see a tea go to waste.

Boyfriend review: Interesting combination…

This one just makes me swoon from its perfection.

I’ve been savoring every cup from the 2oz I bought a few weeks ago and the last week has been torture as I rationed out the last small amount. I’m not joking when I write that if I could strap the tin to my head like a feedbag just to breathe it in, I would. This morning I caved and ordered 8oz to be here by the weekend, so in celebration of that purchase I just brewed some up from the last remaining.

Man, this is sublime. I brewed 16oz using 3tsp of tea and 1tsp of rock sugar, steeping for about two minutes at around 175 degrees. That went into mugs with rice milk—2/3 tea, 1/3 rice milk. Perfection.

Thanks to a toddler in the house, I drink almost exclusively out of travel tumblers. This is one grand exception: it smells so wonderful and is such a pleasure that I want the full experience of my most treasured stoneware mug to warm my hands and thrill all my senses.

This is my desert island tea, no question.

(So many reviews mention blending this one, and maybe I’ve just not yet developed a sophisticated enough tea-palate to get it, but there’s nothing I’d change in this one.)

another one bites the dust… this I am not too sad to see go, it’s okay but a little sweet for me

Redhots.

That’s the first thing that you need to know about this particular chai: it tastes like redhots, those little pebble-shaped candies that are cinnamon and sweetness and altogether too easy to eat in mass quantities. If you like redhots, you’re going to probably find it difficult to dislike this chai. I love redhots, myself, so all’s well, but I still find that I prefer to take this tea blended with something else. While I wouldn’t call it one-dimensional, necessarily, I would say that the flavors in this one aren’t so complex that it makes a muddy mess of other chais when added to them (or even just other teas), so it seems pretty ideal for that purpose. Alone, the cup is not quite enough to keep me interested, and I think that eventually the sweet red-hot taste does get a little bit overpowering. As with everything, your mileage may vary! Sometime soon, I’ll have to give this a try without milk to see if I can’t pick out the fruit and herbal flavors they mention, as most of the time I think the milk crushes them utterly.

I’ve had this one for a few weeks. I bought a couple ounces with there being 30% off. I have had this one mixed with the Samurai Chai that Teavana used to have as one of their samples. I have to say that alone this one is ok. The initial flavor is good but after steeps is where this one gets better. The initial steep unless you brew it with the Samurai does not have a whole lot of flavor. That might be the lemongrass? However in the second and third steeps the peppercorns come through more. It also cold brews quite well. Crazy enough this one is better went the Samurai is mixed with it. Unfortunate that this one doesn’t stand out by itself since it’s one of Teavana’s most popular blends. I do like this one and will probably keep it in cupboard in the regular rotation.

I finally trapesed my butt into Teavana yesterday. After the ridiculously hard time my youngest gave me while school shopping I thought I deserved a tea break. I went in knowing I wanted something hot and fall like, it’s a little more soothing I find. I smelt a few and I guess from the stress I don’t even remember what I had or how it tasted.
I did however bring some of the white Ayurvedic chai home. I had it this afternoon, the dry notes smell exactly like cinnamon hearts. Once steeped it keeps this smell and it tastes just like them as well. Like their blend that I have I find it to be very light on flavour. It’s a little on the sweet side, but it’s manageable, however as it cools it becomes far too sweet and is basically drinking a cup of cinnamon hearts, just not as flavourful or hot.
I don’t think I would re-purchase this, not even to keep me warm this fall.

I saw this sitting on my parent’s shelf. I know they haven’t drank tea in a long time since they bought a Kuerig, so I decided to claim this one as my own! This is a fairly decent tea, but I don’t like the aftertaste. It isn’t the best. I am not sure what it is. Maybe the spices overpower the white tea too much. Perhaps I will like this tea more down the road.

Andrea sent me this and I can see why she likes it. It is sweet with a fragrance redolent of cinnamon, cloves, and apple. I can barely taste the white tea base, but it is there and adds its own note. It was a nice calming drink for a difficult afternoon meeting. Thanks, Andrea!

Grabbed a cup of this iced from Teavana while shopping with the kidlets, in an attempt to spice this cold to death.

Yep, just as yummy as the first time, and I love the bite to it.