Apple-Vanilla White Chai

What quick shipping! I received this in my mailbox today, and just had to open it right up. This smells so deliciously of cinnamon and sweetness. And yes, it does look Christmasy with the greenish leaves and pink peppercorns.

The flavor is very spicy, but not so much that it overwhelms the white tea base. The cinnamon is similar to the liquid red hots feel the Red Hot Cinnamon black tea had. I think I’m tasting a bit of apple in the swallow, but I’m not sure if I’m just wanting the sweetness I taste to be the apple, knowing that it should be in there.

Well, if it’s any attest to how good this tea is, I finished it before I was done typing this review:) I can’t decide if I want a second cup of this, or to move on to another new tea. We shall see.

Recently, I’ve become a fan of chais, after avoiding them for years. I used to go without tea if all that was available was a chai blend. Meghann sent me a sample of Frank’s Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Chai a while back, and I’ve pretty much been trying every chai since (though I really, really like the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake Chai and think a decaf version would be awesome…).

Meghann tucked a sample of this into my box for me to try. Since I’m fairly certain I’ll be placing a 52teas order this week, I wanted to try it out to see if I needed a pouch for myself.

And I do. The spices are front and center, but are by no means overpowering. The vanilla adds a smoothness to the blend, and the apple a crispness. And I can still taste the white tea base. It’s both festive and soothing…gently waking me up (or is it lulling me back to sleep?). Yes, a pouch (or two) of this must be mine. Thanks, Meghann: best box of tea ever!

Thanks LiberTEAs!

This is pleasant enough and I must say I enjoy it but perhaps for other reasons…

what I mean by that is I like that the spices are subtle and work with the white tea much better than I thought. The Apple is the prominent flavor but I’m not getting any vanilla, really. The peppercorns linger a tad but it’s not distracting.

Overall it’s alright…I enjoy it…wondering what it would be like with (more) vanilla tho!

Thank you Meghann for a sample of this tea!

Is it Thanksgiving or Christmas yet? That was the first thing I thought when I saw and took a whiff the leaves. Its a blend full of color and texture. I kept staring at the blend before I put it into my teapot. The colors… red and pink… dark and light greens and white… the cardamom pod that I wanted to crush (I like crunchy sounds…) but didn’t. The texture… fuzzy, smooth, hard, soft…

Ok the smell is so appetizing. It is sweet and spicy, and it isn’t offensive or overwhelming.

The taste is light, sweet, and spicy. The steep is a very light yellow. I can definitely taste the cinnamon and other spices; the vanilla added warmth to the blend, and the apples, despite the light taste, added sweetness.

In my boyfriend’s cup, I added some sugar since he almost always drinks his teas with sugar. I tried it, and it isn’t that bad. This tea doesn’t need sugar or milk though :) YUM!

This is a decent offering from 52Teas but not my favorite. There is something a little off balance with it, but I can’t quite put my finger on it… going to need to spend a little more time with it and see how this relationship develops.

I got to try this one on always lovely Tea Tuesday. Yes, lucky me, I live here in Wichita. :) I had it naked and iced. I enjoyed the “spiciness”. The cinnamon, cardamom, and vanilla meet you first. Is there a lot going on in this tea? Yes. Is it an enjoyable lot going on? Most definitely.

For me, the apple was a little lost in there. It was detectable, but not easily. And as mentioned, it is sweet (but not overwhelmingly so) as is, yet I wonder if adding sugar would help bring out the apple?

Steep Information:
Amount: 10 tsp
Water: 1200ml at 185°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: spice (cardamom, pepper), vanilla
Steeped Tea Smell:apple, peppery, vanilla
Flavor: sweet, cinnamon, peppery
Body: Light
Aftertaste: spice (pepper, cinnamon)
Liquor: Translucent golden yellow

Too bad I don’t have a stovetop at work, I bet this would be nice made that way.
Nice this way as well though.

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2013/03/06/52teas-loose-leaf-white-tea-apple-vanilla-white-tea-chai/

FINALLY reviewing this! There are several reasons it took me so long. For one, I didn’t order any so I had to wait til I got to WA. 2nd, I wanted to make sure we had enough (ended up NOT being a problem… there was 3/2 pounds and we didn’t even use half of it lol) 3rd, after seeing and smelling that much of one tea I needed a break. 4th, I really wasn’t in a location to have good control on my water til I got home. 5th, I’ve been suffering serious jet lag/post vacation depression and just not feeling well in general since getting home on Tues. And last- the Beckners get home from their honeymoon tonight so I thought it would be good to save it and celebrate:)

Ok… on to the tea. Served as packaged: 1tsp/teabag (there were 2/favor) plus one honeystick (again, 2/favor)

The tea itself is, as someone said, very Christmasy in appearance. The aroma; however, is off. Almost… potpouri-ish…? But that could be just from smelling such a large amount of it.

When people think “white chai” most automatically assume the spices will overwelm the tea… but from the appearance of the steeped liquor, I doubt that will be the problem. The aroma is of apple and vanilla and a darker and more dull brown than I expected. The flavor is much like the aroma. The apple hits me first. It’s; however, the most authentic apple flavor I’ve encountered w/o it being candy-ish. The vanilla lends a sweetness that isn’t artificial either. The added honey makes it a bit too sweet for me. Honey is one of those flavors that I only like as an added flavor in tea. (Anyone else have flavors like that, or is it just me?). Unfortunately the best things I can say about the spices is that they prevent the tea from being bland. The base (specifically the shou mei I’m thinking) prevent this from tasting like an apple chai or even an apple cider tea. I’m rating this pretty low, but I think I might be able to boost the rating if I had more to tinker w/. I need to e-mail Irina and see what happened to the rest of the tea. Hopefully she can send me some. I’m just not satisfied at how unsatisfied I am w/ this yet.

I made this tea to enjoy this afternoon. It has been a busy and emotional day! My baby turned ONE today! We had a mini celebration at lunchtime (we have two parties planned for this weekend) So after the sugar rush while she was napping I made this to comfort me trying to hold back my tears that my last baby is one! It was such a great comfort tea! It reminds me of the holidays. Really loving 52 teas!

This one is quite interesting – I half-expected the chai spices to drown out the white tea, but to my surprise I can taste its mix of vegetale and slightly nutty notes fairly well. The chai spcies are more subtle than they would be in a black tea chai but they’re still quite distinct. There’s also a nice apple-cinnamon flavour that comes out especially as the tea cools off and even a touch of vanilla though it’s well-hidden. It works quite nicely as a mid-afternoon pick-me up when I don’t want the caffeine load of a black tea.

PS: thank you to oOTeaOo for trading with me for this one.

My tea arrived! Of the 5 I ordered, I’ve decided to go for this one first, despite being at work and having no control over water temperature. It’s definitely not even close to boiling, so I figure I’m okay enough on temp. Dry, the tea smells really yummy – strong spice smell, definitely putting me in the mind of chai, but a hint of apple that makes me think of cider. A good start! My only qualm so far is how small the package is. I’m Canadian and oz isn’t a unit of measure I ever use so I kind of imagined it being more…I don’t know that I’ll get 20 to 25 cups of tea out of this as the package claims, but that’s irrelevant.

As it steeps, I realize that a T-Sac just isn’t going to provide enough room for the tea to expand. Again, for work and experimentation it is good enough, but the volume has already doubled and I wish I could see these leaves unfurl properly.

Finally, it’s time to sip! I keep smelling this, because there is some definite familiar smell, I think it reminds me of something my grandmother makes. Apple crumble, maybe? With vanilla ice cream on top…More spice smell than apple or vanilla, but the memories it conjure all seem to include apples and vanilla. Finally having tasted a sip, I think it evokes a nice hot cinnamony apple pie with vanilla ice cream melting on top. So good! I’ve been longing for a taste like this for too long. It’s really not hitting me in the face the way I expected it to by the smell, but it’s calming me, and a lovely absent-minded sort of deliciousness. I feel the need to have this on a regular basis. Absolutely. A wonderful start to my 52Teas experience, thank you Frank! I’m saving the T-Sac to give it another steep later on, we’ll see how well it holds up to that. The mildness of the flavour suggests it might not work, but I’ve been surprised before!

ps – Why did I only order 1 pouch when 2 would have been so cheap? Gah!

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this before. I have had it a least half a dozen times. Anyway, the dry scent is really not that pleasant – it smells very artificial and kind of chemical-y. I can’t smell vanilla or apple, but the cardomom and the cinnamon are very prominent.

The steeped tea smells much better. The spices have mellowed out and I can smell the vanilla, and the apple as well, if I really concentrate (but I can also still smell the chemical-y scent, which has me worried). The tea is a light yellow colour.

The taste is not that remarkable. It mostly tastes of the white tea. The spices are very subtle, but even so, I can’t taste the vanilla or the apple, which is quite disappointing. As the cup cools, I can get a little apple, but still no vanilla. Overall, a decent tea, but not something I would drink every day.

I actually feared this was going to taste a bit too much like Teavana’s white ayurvedic chai, which I liked when I began my enormous bag of it, but a year later was ready to bury out back in the compost pile when nobody was looking.

I didn’t follow the directions and add sweetner and milk, but next time I will. First impression is a mild, spicy blend. The apple does come through, but it’s not gross to me like it is in Tazo’s rooibos vanilla blend (ooh, I want to try a pot of the two together now- maybe it’d make the Tazo less severe.)

I’d say this is a good addition to anyone’s chai collection. It’s not sweet on its own despite having a vanilla component, so you may want to do better than me and follow the directions to sweeten it. (I also accidentally forgot to set the timer for this cup, but it still tastes good even after a 10 min steeping.)

My first 52 Teas order finally arrived today. I was excited to try the flavoured matchas and the Earl Grey Cheesecake but I need to sleep soon so chose this one instead.

I don’t think I’m good at controlling the steeping of white or other delicate teas. I always forget about them or imagine the time has been much shorter than it has. So I was excited to use my new Breville One Touch, thinking it would take care of it for me. Then I realized I used about half of the amount of tea suggested. Oops!

Anyway, the spices are basically all I taste here. I can’t make out much apple or vanilla. The spices are definitely at the forefront but not really strong. I guess that could be coming from the diluted nature of this steep. Primarily what I taste is cinnamon. I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon teas. I’ll have to try steeping this stronger.

This isn’t blowing me away as I expected to happen as soon as I opened my 52 Teas package. But, I’m intrigued to try the others I ordered.