Rooibos Vanilla Chai

This smells like warm gingerbread after steeping, with no woodiness or cedar chippiness from the rooibos base. The flavor gives the impression of being cinnamony but I’m not sure it really is. The cardomom, ginger, and cloves keep the cinnamon from running away with the flavor and the vanilla adds a sweetness and a mellowness. I can’t taste the rooibos, at least not very much, which makes this a successful blend in my book.

I’m torn on how to rate this because it’s very good, but I’m not sure I’d stock it. It’s a little on the spicy side for a night time cup; if I’m going to be drinking something at night I’m looking for calming rather than invigorating and I really only drink decaf options at night.

I’m going to go ahead and rate it to reflect my opinion that it is a successful blend, with the caveat that I usually would put something with a rating this high on the shopping list and I am not yet sure I plan to do that here.

I got an order from adagio, which included some rooibos samples. Those who know me will be thinking, “why did she get that? I know she doesn’t care for rooibos.” And you’re right!
I don’t dislike the flavor, it’s that one piece that always manages to somehow get stuck in my throat…akckckck

So why did I buy this (and a few other samples)? Because I’m trying to cut my caffeine back in the evening a little, but I still want to drink something.

So with this tea I did not have the “ackckck” experience, I’m grateful to say. But the tea was pretty lame.

I’m thinking a chicory chai might be interesting…hmmm…

So smoothly blended is this chai rooibos blend. I drank the cup up quite quickly. Thanks oOTeaOo for the sample of this. I will be ordering some with my next adagio purchase for sure. The spices are just how I like them, and the vanilla sweetens it just enough so I don’t need to add any sugar or any cream.

I decided on a second mug of this Rooibos Vanilla Chai. I chugged this one down so fast, and I wish I enjoyed it slower. I really REALLY like this one! I might take another cup but I shouldn’t since I’m going to sleep soon. Goodnight all!

On another note, I went on a tea shopping spree… I bought SO much tea. I have an order coming from Golden Moon Tea, Adagio, and Tipu’s… I was contemplating a purchase from Harney and Sons and Mountain Rose Herbs but I stopped myself when I realized that I had over 50 teas…

My love for vanilla and chai spices overrides the fact that this is a rooibos tea. Also, it’s two in the morning and my friends wanted tea. I figured this would be a good choice since there’s no caffeine.

While it steeped, my brother commented that it smelled like Christmas. It certainly does, especially with the orange peel, clove, soft vanilla, and cinnamon. I served it sweetened with a splash of 1% milk, which added a very nice creaminess that blended with the vanilla. Still, the spices provide a bit of a bite at the end. They also cover up any sort of rooibos aftertaste. I honestly wouldn’t know this had rooibos in it if it wasn’t in the name and description. It’s more like if vanilla masala chai and Constant Comment had a baby.

I’d say this is another rooibos that passes in my book.

Sipdown! Drank my last cup of this without sugar, just to see what the taste difference was. Turns out it didn’t actually alter the flavour that much after all. The last cup I had didn’t have any whole cloves in it, and I did notice that the lack of these impacted on the flavour for the better. I could taste the spices and orange better, which was what I was wanting from the first cup I logged.

A successful chai that I’m glad to have tried, but probably not one I’ll be restocking for a little while.

I picked up this tea as part of Adagio’s Chai Sampler and while I’m not generally a fan of red rooibos all the positive reviews made me curious about this tea. Drinking it, if it weren’t for the reddish colour of the tea, I wouldn’t be able to tell this had a rooibos base as it blends so smoothly with the spices as to be barely discernable. It’s a well mixed chai and the spices are nicely balanced if a bit heavy on the cloves. The vanilla gives the tea a surprising smoothly-sweet note, so much so that I’d say that this doesn’t need sugar at all. Very nice Adagio!

The scent of the loose tea is super cinnamony with with serious chocolate overtones and vanilla notes. I have no idea where the chocolate is coming from but I really like it.
I tried it neat first, but I usually drink chai with milk.
Brewed up it still smells mostly like cinnamon. I am slowly coming around to cinnamon but it’s not my favorite. I’ll try to to be biased :)
Neat, this has way too much cinnamon for me. I didn’t taste any of the rooibos here. With milk and sugar, it’s not a bad drink. I won’t re-order it, but it wasn’t awful (yup, rousing praise. I just really don’t like teas with too much cinnamon. If you like cinnamon, this would probably be the tea for you).

I’ve been hunting around for a caffeine-free masala chai for a while now. I always seem to want those sorts of flavors right around bedtime. So when I noticed adagio’s rooibos vanilla chai it was as if the sample button clicked itself.

I just made this using the now semi-famous, popularized by takgoti, stovetop preparation method. This is the first tea i’ve done “chai style”, so I don’t really know if i’m reviewing the method or the tea. Oh well. I used rice milk.

Note- I just realized how rambly this whole thing is.Lots of tangents going on. I’m quite tired, but I wanted to log this right away.

Rooibos doesn’t have a whole lot of flavor for me. I think of it as being sweet and earthy with a flavor that, although it’s one I find pleasant, isn’t all that strong. I think the sweetness gets overpowering before the distinctive flavor, but I might just be doing it wrong. I have a history of forgetting about rooibos (and other herbals as well) while they steep, leading to times of well over 10 minutes. When it gets too strong, it has this extreme sweetnessand syrupy quality that makes me think there’s added sugar [please note that I’m generally not a fan of sugar in tea, so the thickness is unsettling]. Anyway, the point is that the rooibos really doesn’t come through as a flavor, but instead as added sweetness and body.

The spices seem more balanced than what I’ve had before. The cinnamon is definitely strong, but so is the ginger. My sister and I took a few minutes to decide that cinnamon is dominant, but only by a little. The spices are unified, but not homogeneous. It’s just sweet, spicy goodness.

I was just thinking that the vanilla just lent itself to sweetness and creaminess, smoothing the spices. Now that I’m at the bottom of the cup, though, the vanilla is definitely present. It’s a bit too sweet for me, but my sister found it delicious. I might have tasted rooibos right here, also, but I can’t tell. I’m not disappointed in the least, since I’m interested in the spices.

The only thing I’d do differently next time is to add less sugar. I guess 1tbsp is too much for me, since I’m not a fan of soda or juice. My victims found it to be perfect, so I’m wondering if I can add half of the sugar to the pot, then tell people to add more if they want to.

I want to try everything chai-style now!

ETA- I should note that I used 2tbsp of sugar for what turned out to be about 3 servings. It wasn’t 1tbsp per cup, exactly.

I picked up a sample of this from Adagio because I’ve been looking for a non-black tea chai spice blend. Also because I love vanilla and have startlingly little of it in my expansive tea collection.

Alas, this disappoints. The clove is so overwhelming that it makes the flavor almost entirely one-note. There is a background of spiciness and a touch of vanilla smoothing out the end of the sip. Mostly clove though. Lots and lots of clove. This is drinkable, but not exactly a well-balanced blend. Sipdown!