The last time I had this, I liked it. But in the days after I had it I wondered whether I thought I liked it more than I actually did. It was so very different from most other things I’ve tried in tea land that when I stood back from the experience I wondered whether it was infatuation rather than true love.
Furthermore, it was abundantly clear from my last foray that I had overdone the amount of chai given the spiciness quotient of this tea. I like spicy, but as I said in a previous note, this isn’t just spicy. It is way way way way spicy. In retrospect, the degree of spiciness was probably more than I could reasonably stand on an ongoing basis. I liked the first experience but on second thought I had no real desire to repeat it.
This time around I’ve gotten closer to an optimum mix. In fact, this would probably serve if i can’t optimize it any further. Two cups of water, 2 tablespoons of sweetener, one tablespoon chai, three tablespoons Kusmi Chocolate (not the spicy, the regular). Boil until water mostly gone, then add two cups milk. Bring to boil, immediately turn off heat, let steep for 10 minutes or more. Strain and serve.
This is still at least one “way’s” worth of spicy, but it isn’t burning my mucous membranes and making my eyes water as I recall it doing last time. It’s really much more enjoyable to me this way. The chocolate in the Kusmi seems to enhance the chocolate in the chai, too. It smelled incredibly chocolatey while it was bubbling on the stove, and it’s a really delicious, creamy consistency with a lot more chocolate flavor than I recall it having last time. Which, seeing as that was what I found the major drawback of this tea at the time, is a particularly awesome discovery.
Excuse me, I must go now and enjoy my very chocolatey version of Mayan Chocolate Chai.
