Spiced Apple Chai

The apple flavor is a little too subtle for me, but this is still a nice, drinkable tea, and perfect for a cold morning.

If you like apple cider, you will love this tea. That’s what I feel like I’m drinking whenever I have this. It’s not my favorite thing, but it’s interesting every once in a while. It’s kind of murky though. I like my tea to be clear.

All work and no extracurricular tea activities makes me a dull, dry, liquids-depleted girl. Insert sad, weepy, pitiful emoticon of choice here.

Tonight, however, miracle of tea miracles, I found time to brew Adagio’s Spiced Apple Chai. Yes, I keep drinking Adagio. Yes, it continues to be the most affordable pathway to my tea addiction. Yes, I monitor my pocket-money well. And yes, this tea tastes exactly like one would expect it to taste: light apple cider, mulled with chai spices. One can only imagine the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup situation which probably brought on the advent of its creation:

“Hey, you got apple cider in my chai!”
“Well, you got chai in my apple cider!”

In short, this tea is autumnal and late evening-appropriate, and it tastes good. So there. And I do b’lieve, gov’nah, that I used to write haikus about tea around these here parts, a.k.a. teakus. Let’s see if I’ve still got it:

Climb aboard the chai
tea train! Next stop: cider house.
G’night, tea princes.

Yes, I just made a teaku in which The Cider House Rules met The Darjeeling Limited. And yes, Michael Caine and Wes Anderson would certainly tell me to keep my day job.

This tea smells delicious as soon as you open the pouch. I used the instructions — 2 heaping tsp of tea/cup, boiling water, and five minutes of steeping time.

First infusion: This tasted very astringent and tart, with an appleness toward the end. After the second swallow, I added a tsp of honey. And the apple taste went away completely. What was left was very tea and slightly bitter. So I added some milk, and then the apple taste back and the tea was delicious. Very weird. My daughter liked it more than I did I think.

Second infusion: This didn’t need any additions. There was some tea and spice taste, but it only really came through with a lot of slurping.

I think from now on, I’m going to reach for milk instead of honey if the tea needs something to make it more tasty. Definitely going to do some experimentation to find out if there is some way to drink this without anything. It smells so good, surely there is some way to drink this without an addition.

I’ve found lately that most cider is too sweet for me. This tea offers a great alternative, having the wonderful aroma of cider without being so overwhelmingly sweet. This is exactly what I wanted out of this tea. I’ve found that both the flavor of the apple and the spices is quite clear, but doesn’t overpower the tea flavor either. Perhaps I got an abnormally well mixed batch?

The first time I prepared this, I added milk and sugar and really did not like it. On a whim today, I decided to try it again, this time without milk. It was much better, but I’m still disappointed by the lack of apple flavor. I’ll finish my sample tin, but I probably won’t be ordering any more.

Really, really caffeinated today. For some reason this reminded me of pine and cleaning solvent. I didn’t really focus on the tea as much as I would have liked to, but still didn’t really get the apple.

Autumy. Very pleasant. Nice balance of apple and spices.

The spices are more like mulling spices than some chai ‘whoa this is spicy’ chais. Which works for this blend.

Normally I drink chai with milk but for my first cuppa I drank it straight up and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I thought my british background would have ruined me for drinking black teas without milk but I’m reconditioning myself apparently.

When I took the cover off the tin I immediately smelled the apple. It kind of smelled like their sour apple (which tastes nothing like apple)… I wonder if they use granny smith apples?

I went against the directions and just used the common measurement of 1 teaspoon per 6oz of purified boiling water and steeped it for 5 min.

The liquour was quite dark, but not as dark as some black teas… probably because the spices took up some of the space that would have otherwise been occupied by tea leaves when I measured it.

The first thing I could smell was the apple, followed by the warm spices, then fainly followed by ceylon tea.

This tea is spot on given the title. The first thing that hits my tongue is the crispness of the apple, then the spice, but the spice doesn’t burn. I can even faintly taste the black tea.

The 2nd infusion (w/ an increase in steeping time of 1 min) is very close to the strength and flavor balance of the 1st infusion, but the 3rd one is mostly consumed by the spices. I personally probably wouldn’t do the 3rd infusion, it just tastes like a basic unflavored chai.

Serving suggestions: Unsweetened. Instead of milk like the traditional chai, I’d steep it in apple juice or apple cider (hard or not). Maybe blend it w/ a caramel black tea?

In the past, I’d always been unsatisfied with my chais. Either the texture wasn’t sufficiently creamy or the flavor was weak. Even with cream as the milky ingredient, it wasn’t quite right. Adam suggested I try using sweetened condensed milk as both the milky ingredient and the sweetener, and I gave it a try this morning.

It did the trick.

I admit, I often like my teas both sweeter and milkier than others. As a result, I put four teaspoons (table-wear, not measuring spoons) of sweetened condensed milk in my tea, however, this is an oversize mug of tea (at least 2 cups’ worth). I’d say two teaspoons per cup is enough to create a pleasantly creamy, quite sweet, spicy chai. The unfortunate side effect of this much added flavor in my tea is the apple flavoring has disappeared. Still, I’m enjoying my mug of tea.

I just made a cup of this… it’s my first tea from my first Adagio order ever. I’m so excited, I can barely sit still. I have twelve little boxes of tea that all smell amazing. Making a decision about what to drink first was hard, but I made a good choice with this one.
It’s not super-strong. I think I might use a little more tea next time. This is pretty mild, but the apple and spice flavors are solid. I added milk and sugar, and I literally cannot put my cup down. I’m trying to sip it, but the tea is disappearing from my cup a little more quickly than I’d like. Guess I’ll just have to make another cup! :)

Very good apple and spice flavour. It tastes a lot like hot apple cider.

I won’t go too in-depth, I think many others are spot-on in their reviews.

I tried this for the first time after work yesterday. It’s exactly what I was expecting. A great blend of cinnamon and apple. I prepared it without milk originally to sample the taste, and then had a brilliant idea of adding some caramel topping syrup I had with the hot cup. It created an amazing taste that could easily become my favorite dessert tea.

EDIT: Just noticed some terrible misspellings. That’s what I get for writing in a hurry.

I love this tea. It’s both spicy and sweet, and absolutely delicious. The apple flavor is subtle, but definitely there. I added milk and honey, and drank this tea with the apple pancakes I ate for breakfast — mmmmmmm. YUM. A great start to a lazy Sunday morning.

I will admit that I cannot help but raise a skeptical eyebrow at anything from adagio after someone bought me the strawberry black + blueberry black loose leaf tea. Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out I didn’t like them. I gave it all away, and the only perk of the tea was I liked the tins.

Imagine my mixed feelings when a sample came to me for their spiced apple chai.
I love chai. I love apples. I love tea.
Would I love this?

The answer is, yup.
I mean I wasn’t sure ‘does one add milk (as I do in all my chai) to a fruit chai.
I think the answer was safely ’no’ when I made the brew it wasn’t in need.
Rather it was fresh, fruity and dare I say almost like having exotic amazing apple cider (I can’t think of a better analogy because I don’t think this one paintsthe enticing picture this one deserves, but alas….)

Know adagio hasn’t won me over utterly with this, no matter how fab.
Tea scars don’t heal completely…but perhaps I will give them another sip. ;)

I’ve just purchased a couple of Adagio samplers, which is why I have been logging about so many of their teas lately. This is a great drink for a chilly fall morning. The spiced cider flavor is really pronounced but not overwhelming. I enjoyed this with steamed milk and a touch of honey.

This is a wonderful, warm and cozy chai. The cinnamon and clove are complemented by a rich apple flavor. It smells like spiced hot apple cider that has been mulling on a stove top. I enjoy a tsp of sugar with my cup and then I like to close my eyes and pretend it’s autumn :)

Definite holiday drink. The scent out of the bag is STRONG, but in the beverage the scent is not overpowering. The tastes you’d associate with chai are all there, along with apple and cinnamon, making the quintessential holiday beverage to keep you warm without resorting to alcohol or cider.

The cinnamon will prick you a bit in the back of your throat. Nice surprise.

The cinnamon in this is wonderful! Well balanced by the apple- I could literally stick my nose in my canister and sniff for 5 minutes and be totally happy. With some honey, this tea is the bees knees.

Sarah – very good. Rating: 90