Saigon Chai

This is one I’ve been wanting to try, so I grabbed it on my recent order.

It’s a decent chai, although not my favorite. It does remind me of fall, as most good chais do. And it’s very cinnamon-y, which is a nice enhancement to chai. I love the pink peppercorns – a fave of mine. There’s just something missing with it that makes it not as promising as others. I can’t put my finger on what though.

Maybe I’m just being a chai snob. I’ll keep at it, maybe this one will get better. I’m not saying it’s terrible – it’s still a great wake-up tea!

It’s like the Coco Chai Rooibos except without the light rooibos and the creamy coconut. The latter of the two is the deal breaker. Also, no cloves.

The main spice is cinnamon, and good cinnamon at that. Ginger is the second main flavour I detect. Those two items create a nice spicy sweet profile. I’ve never had Assam so I cannot pick it out too well in this blend.

All in all, not bad. Although, I’m not sure if this will ever be my go to chai. Cinnamon isn’t usually my favourite spice and I’d rather it share center stage with something else.

It’s delicious when steeped partially in hot milk (as are all good chais).

I love the visual mix of ingredients – the little peppercorns are awesome!
Brewed up this smells incredibly of cinnamon. Full disclosure: I am not a cinnamon person.
Flavor-wise this was fairly thin and somewhat cinnamon heavy. I ended up adding milk and sugar which tempered the cinnamon and actually made it taste more interesting.
Not the best chai I’ve ever had (I’m looking at you, Thai Chai!), but still drinkable.

I was disappointed by this yesterday, and then I was disappointed that I was disappointed. I made this in my little tea for one set, and before I added the hot water, I added a bit of soy milk and a touch of sugar. I only let it steep 2 minutes, as is my habit with black teas. It turned out weak. I was so, so sad! I actually didn’t finish drinking it.

I have enough for a couple cups left, but if it doesn’t improve its performance soon, this one many not be a rebuy.

It’s my third sipdown today! Good thing too because my Verdant order just shipped! I’m so excited! (Also, I better start earning more points again. I’ll probably want another order for the fall.)

This tea is ok. Not great. Nothing to write about. :P

I love cinnamon. And good cinnamon teas. This tea has a strange cinnamon smell. Doesn’t do it for me, in fact, really turns me off. I tried to drink a few sips, but it wasn’t worth it with all the other yummy teas I have to choose from. I didn’t dump it though. My mom was coming over to watch the kids so I can get some stuff done and I saved it for her. Her first comment, “This smells great.” So as always, to each their own!

I think I might like this one better than coco chai rooibos, but I will not buy any until I use up the coco chai… I have NO ROOM left on myshelf! lol

My friend and I purchased this (iced) to sip while we tried to decide how to spend my $20 gift card I had received from a student… so many decisions… ahhhhh!!

I noticed how all the different elements were complimentary, and that this tea was actually very pleasent iced! I can’t comment more about it because I bought it early this morning, and with the crazy day I have had running around helping co-workers get their sites ready for Summer Camp as well as my site, my impression of this tea is somewhat muddled.

But I will say it will be purchased!

Heavy little tea, isn’t it? I tried this once before at David’s Tea as a sample and enjoyed it, but wasn’t totally sold. There was something off about it, but I decided to chalk that up to my preferred brewing parameters being very different than DT. So, I decided to give this a shot a week or two back when I realized that I haven’t bought (or even smelled!) any of their chais yet.

I steeped up a little cup of this tonight in my gaiwan, then enjoyed it in my koi cup. I love seeing green cardamom and red peppercorn in chais, and those were both present in this brew. It smelled lovely and I was looking forward to a nice spicy cup of chai. Thankfully, I was rewarded!

The cinnamon is very forward in this one, but the tea doesn’t taste thin or watery as I find some chais can be. It isn’t my ideal chai, but it is definitely good. I don’t have the skills to differentiate specific flavours, but it is a nice semi-mild chai. I am really enjoying this one. It would be lovely on a sunny day while sitting in my window with a slight breeze and a good book. Not that Mother Nature is giving me any of that today…but I can still enjoy a good chai, whatever the weather.

If this were a little lighter, I would strongly consider a large scale refill on my small bag, but I think I will continue perusing the chais available to me in the meantime and return to this if nothing better presents itself.

This has a nice spicy scent. I do love the spices in this. Nice blend of cardamom, ginger, and cinnamon. The flavour is mostly cardamom, which is good. And goes really well with soy milk.

It’s all about the cinnamon. The smell of this tea tickles the nose a bit, it’s a dry cinnamon smell…and somehow it reminds of incense. I’m not really sure why, sometimes my brain doesn’t give me all the details on things. But I deffinately get a bit of an incence-monk-temple sort of vibe from this one.

Somehow this tea always surprises me when I steep it. The color always turns out cloudy for me, and I’m sure a tea probably isn’t supposed to be thick…but somehow it seems like it has a bit more body to it than other teas i’ve tried. It’s sort of like comparing a bud light beer to a guinness, I suppose. Thise one would deffinately be the guinness.

The taste, however…comes off more like soggy cinnamon water than tea. The great smell of this just seems to dissapear after steeping, and perhaps just doesn’t have the bite I’m looking for in a chai.

I was madly in love with David’s Tea when I first started on my tea advernturing, but now I think the relationship is cooling a bit. I just can’t seem to get it right lately.

Normally I’m not big on chai teas and the spices but there comes to a time when you get tired of the same old and want to try something new. I picked up a tiny bit of this tea as a sample last week and finally decided to try it today.

Smells like cinnamon, looks really nice, i see a good mix of everything: assam, ginger, cloves, peppercorns, and cardamoms. I’m happy there is no anise, I hate that stuff Not terribly strong, and not terribly spicy this is really easy to drink (for me at least). It does remind me of the Coco Chai Rooibos, but i think this one does a better job with the black tea… actually… some coconut might be good with it.. Happy with it so far, might add some sugar next time in to see what the difference is but I think I wouldn’t mind getting some more of this to drink from time to time.

1 TB for 500mL water, 1 packet stevia, no milk

Well now, this is more like it.

I’ve pouted before about the relative not-spiciness of anything labelled ‘chai’ from David’s Tea. I’d found two exceptions — Chai Guarana and Cinnamon Rooibos Chai. I’d forgotten about Saigon Chai, which I’d ordered and quickly finished several months ago. I just brewed up a sample received in my last order.

The dry leaves look intriguing, especially with the peppercorns and caradamom. The aroma carries a very deep cinnamon, not at all the festive and playful cinnamon of Christmas cookies or chewing gum. Assam is the base, which is as it should be, harumph. ;) The Assam does not dominate, but neither does it get lost like China black teas can under chai spices.

I find a bit of sweetening brings out the spices and their heat a bit more. Still not a hot chai — lags behind David’s Cinnamon Rooibos Chai for heat — but at least it’s not cold and damp chai.

Ginger. Caradmon is good, but I am finding that I always want tons of ginger in chai. No ginger in this one. But the cinnamon is wonderful. Extra points for the bliss-me-out Vietnamese cinnamon.

A pretty basic chai. I thought it seemed a little weak but I have been experimenting with a new mug and having trouble with getting a tea strainer that will fit in it (this new mug has a 3.5" diameter, too wide for my normal tea strainer) I actually used the infuser from my teapot and I think the infuser resting on the bottom of the cup kept gravity from making this tea as strong as I would like it.

I did not notice anything unusual about this chai, maybe more cinnamon taste than most chais I have had.

I got this as a sample with my last order from Davids Tea and finally decided to try it. The dry smell is very promising. Peppercorns, ginger, cinnamon with a touch of cloves, mmm nice strong spices. At first it tastes like cloves. Then of cinnamon and ginger with a touch of peppercorn in the after taste. This chai is ok. Nothing really special. I was expecting more peppercorn and ginger. Well in general I was expecting more from this tea. The smell was so promising, I am disappointed in the taste. Maybe next time I will steep it for longer. I have enough of my sample for one more cup, hopefully that one turns out a bit better.

Hmmm, I’m surprised by all the mentions of heavy cinnamon as I get more of a cardamom/ginger/pepper flavor from this. Also mine looks nothing like the picture – it’s all green cardamom pods with bright red peppercorns and long leaves. Interesting.

This is actually one of my favorite chais, I really like the flavor of it. Somehow the peppery cardamom blend just really pushes my buttons. It does taste better if you steep it a bit (maybe 3-4 minutes?), and it tastes great on the second steeping as well.

Drank this one up without even logging it.

Pretty straightforward chai. Didn’t get much from the peppercorns, honestly. I liked that it had them and cardamom added, plus ginger—always my musts for a chai. Only picked up a small sample, and never once made it the proper way as I hadn’t the time.

It seemed like it would have made a good one, although otherwise I never found it particularly strong.

I’ve only had this tea hot and its delicious. I would recommend this teas if you like spice teas. the only problem with this tea is then you over steep it, the cinnamon overtakes this tea. this tea is great in the mornings when you want to wake up :)

Edit: I found this tea amazing and i will be re-purchasing this one :)

Day 79 of my 101 days of DAVIDsTEA challenge.

2.5tsp in my two cupper.

It smells SO FANTASTIC — like a spice cake. And this comes out a bit in the taste a bit as well. Buuut…. it oversteeps easily, and doesn’t resteep well.

I think that it would’ve tasted great if I’d had the first cup with milk in it — it was a little strong on its own, but it was too strong for the milk the second time. I’m going to have to try it again — perhaps as a milk tea and see how it tastes that way. I think it would be much improved.

I picked this one out of the three available in my local store because the pieces were whole, rather than … well, pieces. It’s a little bitter, so would probably go really well with some sugar and milk (or, as suggested, sweetened condensed milk). Having just added that, I like it more, but I’m going to experiment with the steeping time. It still seems a little too thick.

I’ve been searching for a loose leaf chai with this particular taste for quite a while and as much as I like the other chais available at DAVIDsTEA, they just haven’t quite managed to do it for me. This one, however, tastes just like the first chai tea I was introduced to.

I tried this one iced as their tea of the day and then ordered a sweetened one to go. The agave nectar added an extra taste to the tea that certainly didn’t go with the spice of the chai; definitely will be sweetening this one with sugar if I decide to add it to my collection.