This one came in the vast amounts of samples that MissB shared with me in order to take advantage of already paid for shipping weight when she supplied me with some Sleepytime Vanilla. I gave Husband a choice of two different samples and he chose this one that neither of us knew what was. I don’t speak any French and I think he’s got a little, but it didn’t suffice to translate the name of the blend further than ‘blend of dot-dot-dot’.
Turns out it’s a chai-ish thing with cardamom, cinnamon and cocoa. Probably not super-suitable for this part of the day then. Oh nevermind.
Chai and chai-ish blends are my one concession to the principle that any tea that requires additives in order to shine is not a good tea, because slightly milked is part of the very definition of chai, and so this is how we had it.
To me it tasted mostly like cardamom and with a cardboard-y Assam-y aftertaste. I couldn’t really pick up any cinnamon at all. The cocoa was also evident but in a funny way seemed to attach itself more to the milk than anything else. It felt like a cardamom blend with slightly cocoa-y milk added to it. I would not have thought that it was even possible to have such an experience, but apparently it is.
I thought it was quite nice. A chai light, nearly, since it didn’t have the large selection of spice in it that most chais have. I believe this is part of why it’s difficult for me to be interested in chai. There is too much going on and it sometimes testes like something that should be in food rather than drink. The fact that this had just a couple made it easier for me to fully enjoy it.
Husband is also not super-keen on chai in general, but he reported that he thought this one was very delicious and seemed to be a little disappointed that we only had a sample. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly why this one appealed to him so much though.
I’m thinking it should be worth a try to add a few cardamom pods (we always have some of those) next time I’m steeping an Assam for him and see how he takes to that.
