I’ve been curious about this tea, but I was afraid to actually buy a bag in case I ended up absolutely hating it. Thankfully MeghannM came to my rescue and sent me some of the tea from her collection.
It has a chai-ish scent – I can smell ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and oooh…is that chocolate?! ;) I can also smell something vaguely piquant, ie. the cayenne pepper, of which by the way there was a slight dusting in the bottom of the bag, so I shook it to mix things up a bit. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of it, but the thing I’ve learned is that a little bit of cayenne can go a long way. The tea smells quite gingery while it’s steeping with an undertone of chocolate.
The taste is significantly different from your traditional chai – there’s a bit of a spiced, chocolatey note at first…and then all of a sudden a little wave of heat hits the tongue, a mix of the cayenne pepper and the ginger I think. I’m drinking it plain right now, but I can imagine that adding milk would tone down the heat a bit. It’s not mouth-scorchingly hot or anything, though I enjoy spicy foods like curries and chilies so that might be colouring my perception a bit.
It the sort of tea to drink slowly, on a cold, wet day to warm the body back up, I think.
