Pumpkin Chai

Oh my god. I love pumpkin. And chai. This tea is beyond fantastic.
I’m normally not a big fan of candies/sugar already being added to a loose-leaf tea, because that removes my ability to drink it un-sweetened. However, the pumpkin candies in this tea aren’t over-powering and just add a small hint of sweetness.
Hands down this is my favourite chai tea EVVVVVER!!

I ordered Pumpkin Chai at DAVIDsTEA in November after smelling a sample, and oh did it smell good! I drank it as a latte (with agave) hoping it would be even better than Pumpkin Spice from Starbucks. I am a huge Chai fan and I also like pumpkin, so I thought this tea would be a perfect fit for me. As I drank it, I experienced a slightly bitter taste on top of the creamy, caramelly taste that resonated in my cup. I’m hoping the tea was oversteeped, but I have a feeling the huge pumpkin chunk that I saw while my tea was steeping, was the root cause of the bitterness. I would be interested in trying this tea again to see if it does better a second time around.

This tea is pure disappointment in dried form. Getting Pumpkin Chai from David’s Tea is like buying a Rembrandt painting at an auction house: you’re excited because it looks so authentic. Then you bring it home and guess what? It’s a fake. This tea smells excellent, like pumpkin pies baking and an assortment of spices all raveled into an orgasmic bundle of aroma. The unfortunate thing is that this doesn’t translate into your cup. The resulting tea is bland, lacking most of the flavour notes that your nose picked up from the dry blend. To me, this speaks volumes about David’s Tea’s philosophy: produce tea that smells amazing in order to make people want to buy their tea and place less importance on actually making the tea taste good.

The problem is with the ingredients: tiny pieces of pumpkin-shaped candies and bits of caramel mixed with a ton of aromatics. However, these ingredients don’t actually get extracted by hot water very well. The actual tea leaves are low-quality, so what you taste is a poor quality brew with minimal quantities of scent extracted from the other superficial ingredients.

The bottom line is that Pumpkin Chai from David’s Tea doesn’t taste as good as it smells and needs to be supplemented with plenty of sweetener and dairy in order to be halfway enjoyable. On the grand scale of tea, this blend (and most others from David’s Tea) are somewhat of an embarrassment and really shouldn’t be getting the praise they receive. Overall, this is a sad and disappointing attempt at a holiday-themed tea and doesn’t belong in anyone’s tea cabinet unless they pass by it once a day to smell it, but not drink it.

I was really excited to try this tea, and while it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, I really enjoy it. Although it smells delicious, I am not really getting an overwhelming pumpkin pie feel that other people have mentioned, although it does remind me of fall baking.
Steeped, for me, this is decidedly chai with a hint of pumpkin. I wish the pumpkin flavour came through a bit more, but I still enjoy it quite a bit. Its warming, and made me feel great yesterday on a cool day.
I am looking forward to making this into a pumpkin chai latte!

SO GOOD.
This tea tastes like pumpkin. There is nothing artificial tasting about it. It tastes like fall. Spices, that nice thick, warm, creamy scent of cinnamon and cloves and pumpkin puree.
I’m so glad this tea was brought back in the fall collection!

I have been trying to limit my caffeine consumption and as a result I have not had this tea for about a month and a half. This morning I thought I would treat myself and take it in my travel mug to work. I prepared it as I usually do and then I remembered that someone suggested adding a bit of brown sugar…..all I can say is wow, it is just so much more tasty! I did not think that was possible but it is :)

I was so happy when I saw this one back online for like 24 hours. I jumped on the occasion and bought 250g which I’ve shared with a friend.

This is the first tea I’ve tried from David’s Tea (and now that I think of it, it might have been my first loose leaf tea experience ever… yep, I really think it was) and I instantly fell in love with it. The smell, the taste, the little pumpkin candy. Amazing. It’s perfect.

I’m not usually a fan of chai tea in the slightest, but this one is a keeper, and it grew on me fast. I liked it a little at first, and now I’m a big fan.

It’s meant to be a fall tea, but I know I’ll be drinking it all throughout the cold months. It makes me feel like I’m wrapped in warm blankets even when I’m out in the chilly, soon-to-be snowing weather. Like comfort food in a cup. This will be making my Canadian winter a whole lot more bearable.

I very much like it without any milk and sugar. I’ve come to find that I like to steep it for 8 minutes or so, which gives it much more of a full-bodied black tea flavour that balances out the spices and lets the cute little pumpkin candies come into play even more.

A cold weather tea for any mood.

Got a sample of this when I ordered more Milk Oolong.
Tastes pretty good, but doesn’t have the body or spiciness I look for in chai. And because of the sugar, it’s not something I’ll place an order for.

I might have to experiment with making my own pumpkin chai though :)

I went out and bought samples of all five of David’s fall teas to try them. This is a returning tea and I had tasted it years ago, but that was before my tea obsession and I don’t remember what I thought of it. This tea was my favourite of the bunch after the samples were gone. I’m not a fan of David’s chais (or rooibos) but this one is awesome! Perfect for fall when you can’t afford a Starbuck’s pumpkin spice latte everyday!