Gingerbread Chai

Emilie sent me some of this! Thanks a bunch, girl!

This sure DOES smell and taste like Gingerbread AND Chai! Nice!

The spices are at a nice level and the gingerbread tastes like GINGERBREAD!

Neat flavor combo!!!! Not something I would drink daily but a nice break in the action.

Stovetop preparation: 6 oz water, 6 oz milk, 2 tsp tea, a spoonful of honey.

I am tempted to take the cardamom out of here to use on my sweet potatoes later. I went to the store and found they want $11 for a jar of cardamom LOL Instead I’m gonna do curry powder. Anyway, yeah, I just realized I should have gone to the Penzey’s up the street.
Derp.

I almost feel like I put too much honey in here. But that’s okay, it definitely tastes like a gingerbread cookie!

I used to hate getting 52teas Chais because I never really understood how to make it right…stovetop is the way.

Thanks JoonSusanna!

This is my first 52Teas blend! Thumper taught me not to say anything if I can’t say anything nice, so I’m having a bit of a tough time getting the words to flow, here. It’s especially tough given how beloved 52T are to the Steepster family. I’m going to go ahead and leave off the rating, for now, and take the blame for this poor first impression.

My little sample bag says to steep in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. 3-5 or 2-5, I forget which. But I always pick the longest steep time, because I always want the strongest, most robust flavour possible. This time, doing so resulted in an undrinkable brew.

The dry leaf’s fragrance is sweet in kind of a generic way. If you’d blindfolded me and waved the bag under my nose, I would’ve said “sweet,” and I probably would’ve said “black tea.” I wouldn’t have said “gingerbread” or “chai.” The brew smelled more like I expected: now I could definitely smell chai, and as the tea cooled I could smell gingerbread more and more.

My first sip of unsweetened tea caught me a little off-guard. It tasted like black tea with cardamom. Not chai, and not gingerbread. It was a little bitter, too. So I added honey, and that made it palatable, but it still tasted like black tea with cardamom. I’m sad to say that now that the tea’s cooled a bit, it’s become unbearably bitter, and I’m going to have to pour it down the drain. Really sad. (On the other hand, the Universe is probably doing me a favour: I’ve already drunk some black tea today and shouldn’t be having any more.)

I shan’t rate this until I’ve tried the stovetop method. Crossing my fingers that I can get the same great taste out of this as most of the others who’ve reviewed it!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope everyone has lots of whatever it is that makes you happy on this special day (and every day).

On to the tea that sits before me!

Um… YUM!

This is delightful. You can read my full-length review of it here:

http://sororiteasisters.com/2010/12/25/on-the-12th-day-of-christmas-from-52teas/

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it! I hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday.

I love the spicy gingerbread aroma coming through as this tea steeps. I wish I cold write more about the taste, but as I have come down with a decent head cold, I am not able to taste much of this tea. I think I will stick to spice or herbal teas in hopes they may clear my throat and nose.

I’ve had this tea for a while, but I’ve never really properly tasted it. I received it as one of the iHeartTeas rescued teas.

I know the real proper way to do chai is with a stove, but I usually don’t have time or access to a stove, so oh well, I just have to do it my own way. I decided to try this in half water, half milk. Without sugar, the spices were waaaay to strong for me (I’m a spice wimp, sorry!). Sugar really brings out the flavors here though. I’ve actually never had gingerbread cookies, so I can’t say if this tastes like them or not. Whatever it tastes like, it has a good flavor. It seems a bit more spicy than your average chai, but not overwhelmingly so with sugar.

I know I know I am a day late but better late than never right?! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Our day as you can imagine with a 3 year old and a 1 year old was CrAzY! The past two days have been a bit of a whirlwind! I did open the sample pack on Christmas morning but then got sidetracked and never got to make it and then we were off to my in laws the remainder of the day. So I am enjoying this today in anticipation of the a Big snowstorm that is supposed to hit us this afternoon (i think). This is nicely spiced and I can taste the gingerbread…yummy! I added a little rock sugar and that complimented this cup nicely! Now off to the grocery store for bread, eggs and milk LOL!

Adding this in- my kitchen smells absolutely wonderful after making this tea!!!! I am bumping up the rating on this tea because I am wanting more and am going to try resteeping. But I am wishing I had more in my sampler. Might have to place an order for this one.

My thoughts are too scattered to review this tea properly. Sipping at my desk, watching the relatively insignificant wind and rain we’re getting in central nc. Wishing every one of my friends and family members in md, pa, and nyc were as far out of the path of real danger as we are. In fact i wish they were all right here safely under my roof. I need to stop looking at all the news and finish my work. Stay safe steepsters!

(I’m logging this from the notes I made this morning…)

Merry Christmas!! As per usual on Christmas morning, the kids are awake before the parents (in this case, me and our 10-year old chocolate lab). Trouble loves Christmas, and immediately went to the stockings to find out what Santa brought him. Then he started sniffing through the presents under the tree. He’s the cutesy.

I, of course, immediately started up a pot of tea. I opened the last tea of Christmas sampler, and was so excited. Excellent choice, Frank. I love gingerbread-flavored things, and it’s chai!

Gently spiced, slightly sweet, and perfectly gingerbread tasting. Delicious, and absolutely perfect for this white Christmas morning (2 inches so far). And also very nice with our traditional breakfast: pancakes!!

(second steep was just as good, maybe even better!)

First Merry Christmas to all. Now as for the tea I am not sure how I felt about it. I have never been able master the art of of chai making, which is pretty sad since that is what I saw and made growing up. When I was a kid I made it for my parents but didn’t drink it myself. After I got older and moved away I didn’t make it anymore and apparently it isn’t like riding a bike. Nevetheless, I will say this was ok but with proper preparation I am sure it can be better. All the spices tasted pretty mild and I am not sure if I got a gingerbread flavor to it. I scored it higher because I am pretty confident it was user error in preparation.

This is another blend that I missed out on the first time around but managed to pick up thanks to Rachel. It’s not a tea that’s really suited to being drunk plain with very fine broken tea leaves and lots of ginger and cinnamon making it too harsh without some milk added to it. But it really does taste like gingerbread and it practically screams autumn/cold weather/holidays to me. I’d love to do this up as a latté – I’m betting it would beat out Starbucks’ artificial syrup-laden version any day. ;)

So, I think I’ve found my perfect chai. And in typical me style, said chai is no longer available. I broke open my gingerbread chai to enjoy with my peanut butter and crackers (great pairing, actually!) It’s so good! It smells great, it tastes great…It is, obviously more of a gingerbread chai than a spice chai and that is what I like. I’ve had 4 or 5 smaller cups from this steep so far, and am so happy with it. I wonder if I can re-steep it? Hmm, will try this later. Frank, if I decide at the end of this pouch that this IS my chai, will you blend me a pound? What does that cost? I remember you doing a pound of peanut butter something for someone..

Anyway, this tea. I don’t know what to say. It’s like hot gingerbread. I prepared it like regular tea without any milk, since I’ve been failing at stovetop chai lately (I think a combo of too much milk and too short steep time are doing me in, since I hate milk). There are spices here, sure, but no one spice is domineering the rest. There is just a nice taste in my mouth much like eating gingerbread. The beau even seemed to enjoy a sip and he HATES chai. So great! God, a gingerbread man would go good right now..

Backlog from Thanksgiving morning!

I really should know better than to try a new tea on vacation. The attention to detail that I would normally give it just isn’t there, you know?

Anyway, I got this from my iHeartTeas order (thank you so much Rachel!) wherein I also picked up my French Vanilla Black Assam. Since I like gingerbread I figured I’d try it. And the smell of the leaf was promising – I got whiffs of ginger cookies and the traditional chai spices – cinnamon, mostly, but I could visually pick out the cardamom pods, and the black tea was in small pieces – just like the Yogic Chai blend I love.

I added my usual splash of milk to this – but I can’t really give you specifics on steep time/water temp aside from that I think it was boiling, and I think I let it go for 5 minutes.

I also am pretty sure I’m going to have to tweak this, because I wasn’t too fond of what I got. The ginger was there, but it was more of a medicinal ginger in taste. And the black tea was astringent even through the added milk. I think this definitely has potential, but I also think that I will have to wait till I get home (tomorrow afternoon) to really be able to rate it fairly.

So, until we meet again, gingerbread chai….

Ahhhh… This makes me happy. I like a bit of clove in my chai, but I was elated to see it missing from this blend after the Gingerbread disaster from Adagio. It’s not a chai, but it was all clove. Seriously. Like drinking perfume. Well… like not drinking perfume… because I couldn’t finish the cup. Do you know what it takes for me to not finish a cup of tea? Ok, I’m done now.

Made this a latte this morning. 2tsp/8oz water/8oz Smart Balance milk/8min. Lol just noticed the 8 theme there.

Spectacular… I can actually drink this! lol. I don’t like gingerbread, but I can definitely taste the gingerbread flavors and enjoy them. Not bad.

This is probably as close to the perfect tea surprise for this Christmas morning as I could get. This has a great spiced gingerbready flavor. It reminds me of Adagio’s gingerbread tea, which I haven’t had in a couple of years but a really liked as well.

First of all, thanks to iHeartTeas for rescuing this! Secondly, I’m on my hunt for the perfect chai, which I could make at home, at least.

I love the whole cardamom pods in here. The dry leaf smells very gingery, with a cloud of generic spice singing in the background.

The first time I steeped this, I did it in a tea ball for around four minutes. It tasted not nearly as gingerbready as I had hoped. Mostly ginger, but no gingerbread. I had one cup with light soy milk and one without. The milk made the ginger stand out more.

Then I prepared this on the stove. Let it simmer for a little over fifteen minutes. Unfortunately, the results were disappointing. The tea overall tasted a little charred, and when I added the soy milk, it really didn’t do anything for it.

I’m not going to give up on this though. I will happily use up the rest of my pouch, experiment, and hope I can draw out the other spices. Or maybe I’ll get mega brave and add a bit of sugar.

Merry Christmas all
Dec. 25
First I have to say that I really dislike gingerbread. I’m not rating this tea for that reason. I don’t feel that my dislike should in anyway distort the ratings for this tea when so many others do like the taste. I could only manage one sip but I do have to say that my granddaughters loved it.

Ooh. I did this on the stovetop with milk but I get the impression that it would be good just steeped in water, too. Delicious. I almost sweetened this while I was at it but I’m glad I didn’t as it’s really nicely balanced. The spices are nice, prominent but not out of control, and there is an awesome sweetness, too.

This is a really gooooood tea. The spice and sweet flavors are very balanced with the black tea. I like it as a chai with milk and a lite sweetening. It really is a nice treat anytime of the day or evening.

I got this in a swap from Emilie.

I made this on the stove!

It definetly smelt like gingerbread… & even had that almost dry taste/feeling that real gingerbread has. I feel there is something amiss with it though. It’s still good & I will drink it, I just can’t place what is off. Maybe it’s one of the spices.