Currently sipping this down after a couple coffees and black teas have made me a jittery, studying mess. Actually very happy with this cup. Details to follow (post-midterm!).
30 Tasting Notes
After having this tea for quite a while and sort of forgetting about it I’m having another cup. Unfortunately my previous assessment stands: This tea seems rather bland. Mind you I just steeped it in water in a mug rather then the stove top method so that might be to blame, but I put a decent amount in, and left it for almost 10 minutes and still…not a whole lot of flavour. It doesn’t taste bad in any way, just very weak. I certainly don’t find it among the spicier of my chai blends, despite the large chunks of various spices I can see in it.
Drinking with a splash of cream and a teaspoon of honey to give it some substance. Maybe I’ll try the stove top methods next time.
I bought this tea very excited – I love chocolate, I love chai, what could go wrong? Apparently quite a lot considering I couldn’t even finish the one box (and my maxim is waste not, want not).
Honestly it just came down to the fact I didn’t (couldn’t) like the taste – much too “chocolatey” and barely any chai. And I put the quotation marks in there because it didn’t taste like chocolate, or even close to. I knew they were going for a chocolate flavour, it had the bull-bodied richness of chocolate, but unfortunately tasted very dusty to me…after I’d take a sip I’d find myself rolling my tongue around trying to figure out/get rid of this strange after taste. All in all, yuck.
I picked up this tea from a small teashop in Vancouver’s Chinatown after being offered a sample and being impressed with its strong flavour (being a person who often finds fruit flavoured teas smell lovely, and don’t taste like a whole lot). While it is called Plum Green Tea I’ve always associated the taste more with green melon, and after serving it to several friends I can say this is definitely a love it or hate it flavour. This is a tea that required no additions, especially not sugar/honey, I find the plum flavour to be sweet enough as is, and becomes especially strong as the tea cools.
I find this is one tea you don’t want to over-steep as it can quickly develop an overpowering bitter note that along with the fruit taste can cause unpleasant mouth-puckerage. Mind you I also tend to forget what sort of tea I’m making and pour boiling water over this poor green tea which might account for the tendency towards bitterness. This is a nice tea for people who enjoy green teas, strong fruit teas and especially sweet melon/plum flavours.
I snagged a box of this tea after a friend’s Singaporean exchange student housemates left it behind. The variety I have doesn’t seem to be exactly what I found on the company’s website (my kind is called “Mild & Spicy Masala Chai” and has a different box), but hopefully the taste is comparable.
This is a very nice if slightly unusual chai. I was pleasantly surprised when I had my first cup at the delicate, almost fruity aftertaste (I’m sorry if my descriptions are a little imprecise, my taste buds unfortunately don’t communicate in words). This definitely isn’t a spicy/hot chai like many I’ve tried, I think the overriding flavour is actually cardamom rather then a more cinnamon/pepercorn/clove spicy taste (just conjecture, I don’t know that much about the individual chai spices).
Tastes best with some milk and honey for sweetening, although I find the milk isn’t as important in this chai as some others because of the more delicate taste. I haven’t found over-steeping to be a problem (I often carry around a travel mug and just leave the tea bag inside and it never seems to get that bitter aftertaste).
I’ve tried many, many types of chai tea and I keep coming back to this one as my daily standby. I like my tea full bodied (which this one is) but I don’t tolerate bitter well, and I find this tea rarely if ever gets that bitter flavour, even when I accidentally leave the bag in for 10 minutes (isn’t tea supposed to improve memory?). It has more of a full-bodied, warm flavour then a really spicy chai flavour with the vanilla being very noticeable.
I find it tastes best with a bit of milk and honey to sweeten it up, though it needs rather less sweetening then other chai because of the vanilla flavour and aforementioned lack of bitterness. The only thing that makes me sad is that since Celestial Seasonings has revamped it’s packaging this tea has disappeared from most of the grocery store shelves around here! I’ve been forced to hit up Wal-Mart for my fix.
