David Rio

After trying the Tortoise Green Chai, I ordered some and to get free shipping, I added this as well. :)

I’m not sure I can taste tea at all. That said, I can taste spices and definitely fruit. It goes together well. Sweet, yes, but not sickeningly so. I still probably don’t need more than one cup of it at a sitting.

Made with 7 oz. water and 3 tablespoons chai mix per package instructions. Curious to try with milk. I didn’t think this was too thin, but thicker would be good, too, I’m pretty sure. ;) I’d order it again if I was out somewhere and they had it, but I might or might not replace it in my cupboard when this supply is gone. Jury is still out on that.

I had this as a chai latte at the DFW airport on my way to vacation last week. I was looking for some breakfast before the flight and this jumped out at me. It was excellent. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a green chai, much less a powdered one. The guy making it told me he was also putting Japanese matcha in it but who knows. He was a little hard to understand and it was early in the morning. :) He did give me the extra that wouldn’t fit in the regular cup in a little tasting cup and gave me a medium for small price. I had asked for a small and he either misunderstood or he was bored because he made a medium and then told me he was charging me the small price. Not gonna complain about that. :)

At any rate, this was thick, rich, sweet and amazing. I’m going to have to keep an eye out for some. It was best hot, but cooled off to lukewarm it was still good, though the aftertaste got stronger and wouldn’t have been my favorite part of it.

UPDATE: The dude who made this for me did indeed add matcha to it. When I made this at home tonight, it was not green and it tasted different. Still had an odd bit of aftertaste, but not as creamy and not green. :) Tried adding some matcha powder I got from Teavana awhile back and blech. I think I need to figure out how to mix matcha before I try this again. That and I’m pretty sure I just don’t care much for matcha when it tastes like matcha. :)

A friend bought me a container of this since I’m a chai fiend. I really like it. It’s NOT spicy as the name implies. Rich and flavorful, it’s a favorite of mine in the late evenings.

No notes yet.

This tea is a perfect blend of spices and creamy flavor. Chai spice teas usually make me think of autumn and are great for that season, but David Rio’s vanilla is definitely an autumn and winter tea. It’s not overpowering and perfectly sweet as is without sweetener (or sugar, if you go that route).

This is the very last sample from our tea swap with Krystaleyn. Le sigh. I shouldn’t be sighing, I have a box of samples to get through sitting right next to me.

This would be totally awesome iced I think. It’s pretty good hot but all that berry action makes me think it’s perfect for a refreshing drink on a hot summer day. Blueberry seems to be the strongest flavor here with a pomegranate sidekick. There is some thing a little different with this blueberry. I think it may be that acai berry showing up here. Very good berry mix. I can’t really taste the green tea but that’s okay berry drinks are awesome. Thanks again Krystaleyn!

This was the last sample from our exchange with the always wonderful Krystaleyn!

Although this isn’t something I’d normally pick out on my own, I’m glad I got a chance to try it. It may just be the years of being a “counter-culture” nerd, but I’d probably immediately gloss over something labelled as “Organic Power Fruit Tea”. It’s just too many trendy buzzwords at once… instantly puts me back in the shoes of being an angsty teenager who hated anything popular. I’ve grown past that, I swear.

The star of the show on this tea is definitely the blueberry, with a little bit of pomegranate flavoring, and a little of what may be acai. In all honesty, if it didn’t say it had green tea in it, I would have thought this was just a fruit infusion. Not that this would be a bad thing.

The tea is sweet with just a little bit of a tang, but not too much, just enough to round out the flavor. Done a little bit differently, I could really enjoy this tea. Oooh, I bet it’s good iced!

This blend of David Rio’s chai is without sugar and caffeine and I can taste a big difference between this Flamingo Vanilla version and his original Tiger Spice Chai blend. A BIG difference. I don’t like this one near as much as the other (which earns a sold 100 from me, along with only one other tea). We bought this because my mother wanted to try my tiger chai but wanted one without the caffeine. Unfortunately for us, we cannot find the version of David Rio’s which is only caffeine free (which is called Giraffe Decaf Chai, in case you are interested), so we bought this one instead. It was a big disappointment for me because I have a long history with the Tiger Spice blend (it was the original chai tea blend from Borders back before they brought in Starbucks!)
I won’t be buying this one again, and neither will my mother, but I would try the Giraffe one.

Love, love, love, love, love this ‘tea’. I used to work at Borders and this is THE EXACT blend of the original borders chai ‘tea’. I use tea in quotes because I never make this with water (and neither did Borders). I make this tea just like I do with hot chocolate — heat up a mug of milk and add in this chai blend, stir and enjoy the guilty pleasure of it. I don’t drink it a lot because even using 2% milk, this is too fattening for me. The blend of this chai is utterly perfect: It is not too sweet and each of the amounts of the various spices (cinnamon, clove, cardamom and ginger) are perfectly in tune with each other. I will constantly have some of this in my cupboard. Love!

This is my current favorite chai mix, I like sweet and this has the perfect mix for my taste buds. It’s easy to add to (I stir it with a cinnamon stick), and isn’t overpowering. I love it!

This tea is fine. Nothing spectacular. Nothing is really needed to the dark, dark colored tea to make it palatable, but I did add a scootch of raw sugar. This tea is fine to carry in your purse and make your own tea at the gas station when you stop with your own mug and their hot water. Maybe one of those flavored shots of creamer would help it.

I am enjoying this for the first time. It’s a beautiful dark cola color with enough of it’s own sweetness to need none added. I love that in a tea. I’m sitting in a coffee shop in a town I’ve not been to in years, in fact, last time I was here this was new. It’s a thrill to see it thriving and offering decent, albeit not loose-leaf, tea. This would be a great tea to carry in my bag for the road as the light flavor needs nothing added. It is not a strong tea and I don’t know if I just didn’t steep in long enough or it is simply mild. Regardless, it is a pleasant afternoon tea.

No notes yet.

No notes yet.

I made this up with half hot water, half milk to make it a bit thicker since the last David Rio chai I had (made with just water) I found to be too watery. The end result is surprisingly fruity-tasting – mango isn’t normally something I’d associate with chai, but in this case they go quite well together. The spices in the chai are rather tame, partly so they don’t drown out the fruit I guess, but I can still tell that this is tea is a chai. It’s not too sweet and I think adding the milk was a good move because it made the mix rich and creamy without adding too many extra calories. Yummy!

I absolutely adore this stuff. Adore it. Tonight, I got it blended perfectly: no chunks of powder that didn’t get dissolved, just the right temperature. I really, really want to try some of the other flavors by this company. This is a vanilla, warm latte-like chai that’s DECAF!! Oh, yeah.

No notes yet.

Nom, nom, nom.

The bright pink of this packaging called to me to find out what it was…chai tea!! Then I looked at the name…Flamingo?! They also had Orca Spice and the Tiger Spice chais, and for a moment I had a very hard time deciding…until I read that this one is decaf. Decaf!!! I had to get it.

It is an instant chai powder. I mixed according to package directions, 2 TBSP to 6 oz hot water.

I could get down on this stuff. It’s rich and creamy, strongly vanilla, but I can still taste the tea along with the spices. If you like really spicy chais, I’d say this one isn’t for you. The spices are definitely there, and well-balanced, but not strong/spicy enough for a true chai afficianado. As for me, I’m going to definitely be checking into the other flavors (there’s a Toucan one with mango on the website)!!

One of the random teabags that Dan sent to me. I really like this one, can’t say as I’ve had a good apple-flavored tea before. This was juicy and slightly tart, very much like a Gala or Pink Lady apple, though not tart enough for Granny Smith.

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 and 1/2 tablespoon powder
Water: 1/3 cup boiling water
Additives: 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk
Served: Cold, hot dumped over ice cubes

Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: coconut, sugar
Flavor: really sweet, then black tea
Body: Full
Aftertaste: sugar
Liquor: dark orange

I enjoy having thai iced tea and coffee while out so I couldn’t resist this when I saw it in the store.

Images: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2010/06/david-rio-instant-powder-black-tea.html

This is the best flavour I have ever tasted, it is elegant and afrodisiatic, it turned me adict to it

When I was in Vancouver for the Olympics I stopped by the Blue Teapot, which is a tea shop that’s sort of an old favorite of mine, located in the Lonsdale Quay. The owner had gotten in a bunch of new merchandise in anticipation of the tourist influx and he was selling some of the David Rio chai mixes.

I’ve never tried any of David Rio’s teas but having some experience with Oregon Chai and Second Cup’s chai mixes (which can be diabetic coma-inducing) I asked the owner to tell me which one he thought was the least sweet of the bunch. He pointed out this one and since I thought it sounded interesting (I’ve never had a green tea chai latte) I got it.

Okay…the cute name might have been a factor aswell. ;P

I was expecting something a little bit like sweetened matcha…yeah. When I opened the package the powdery contents inside were a pale yellow colour and they smelled like one of those vanilla pudding mixes.

The ‘texture’ of the tea in my mouth feels a little off. The package instructions say to use hot water but I think I’d like this better with milk instead. It’s just too thin with water. It tastes sweet but not sickly sweet, thankfully. I can distinctly taste the vanilla and the spices which are a good mix – I do wish I could pick up more of a green tea flavour though. It’s there, but you have to look for it in each sip.

It’s not bad, I might buy it again if I come across it and it isn’t too expensive, but it’s not anything that’s likely to become a regular staple in my cupboard. I prefere whole-leaf chais anyway.

Did they discontinue this wonderful green tea? It’s a very perfumed tea, with bright blue cornflower blossoms and bits of dried wild papaya and pineapple. I’m a sucker for cornflower. I’m always so amused by seeing blue (!) leaves in my tea or bits of dried fruit. Sweet and fruity, and very delicate.