In a much better mood today! Yay! Since I was in such high spirits I let myself open one of my unopened, not yet tasted teas! Yipee!
I decided to go for this chai 1. Becuase I have been wanting chai 2. Because I still had a bit of latte base (that I made 4 days ago…) that I wanted to use up and figured this would work great with it!
Brand new tea opening is always so fun! I opened it and breathed in the first whiff of this tea. First thought: “Yum! Spicy Chai!” Second thought: “Wait… Where is the coconut creaminess? Where are my coconut pieces?” Turns out the coconut pieces where much smaller that what they look like in the picture (think grated cheese). Once I scooped out my 2 teaspoons I did get a hint of coconut creaminess, but not as strong as I was wanting it to be.
I brewed it for 5 minutes (as recommended) and ended up with a creamy smelling chai! This is much more like the smell that I was expecting. I smelled a lot of clove and cinnamon with notes of cardamom and pepper. The lemon grass poked through nicely when brewed. It popped up to say “I’m here, I’m here!” and lead way for the final note which was a creamy coconut.
I tasted it first plain. It was pretty sweet on its own and had a nice creamy something towards the end. Not quite coconut, but it reminded me more of butter cookies with a hint of coconut. The lemon grass was a main player along with the other chai spices, and definitely a good inclusion. Once I added my latte mix (basically just 1 part condensed milk stirred over heat with 2 parts milk) the coconut leaped out, but I lost a bit of the lemongrass which I really was enjoying. I think I almost like this plain more than with milk!
I happily finished up my Thai Chai latte and smiled knowing that I have a full 3oz of tea to drink before it is gone! : )
A good twist to a chai. Not strong enough to be my favorite but good enough to make me smile.
