Kashmiri Chai

Oh my god. I think I’m in LOVE.

I’ve been wanting to try chai, but I didn’t know how, and frankly, the process can seem somewhat intimidating. But takgoti and Auggy really broke it down for me, and I ended up using takgoti’s super-long chai special process (which I think is really close to Samovar’s, but what do I know?). Anyway, when I opened the packet of Kashmiri, my nose did a dance and then died from happiness. It’s so rich and spicy-smelling and warm and inviting. I can smell the cloves and cinnamon and cardamom. And it all smells like a heavenly mixture of wonderful.

I used the entire packet for this one, and followed takgoti’s brewing instructions, which I will type out for one serving right here:
1 cup of water, 1 cup of milk/milk equivalent (I used vanilla soy, as I’m lactose intolerant), 1 tbsp of sugar, 1 tbsp of chai (I used the entire GM packet).

Boil water and sugar together in a saucepan until sugar dissolves into water. Into a syrup.
Add the chai, then simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the milk, simmering and stirring.
When it comes to a boil (be careful that it doesn’t boil over!), turn the heat off and let it sit for a long time. Like 7-10 minutes long. I let it sit for around 8-9 or so.
Strain and serve.

OH MY GOD. The mixture smelled AMAZING cooking. Seriously. It was like this fragrant warm beverage. Everything you ever think of when you think the word “chai.” It’s got a light brown color, and it smells delicious. And the taste is nothing short of amazing. I can taste all the spices individually, but they meld together. And amazingly enough, I am tasting a tea flavor as well. I can’t pick out green and black and whatnot, but I don’t think that’s the point of chai. It’s supposed to just be a nice and spicy and warn and delicious milky beverage. And that’s what I have right here. This would probably taste better without the nuttiness of the soy, but it does add an interesting dimension. I would definitely want to try this with my Very Vanilla Silk, which tastes like a vanilla milkshake. Mmmm.

I did get more than 8 oz. of chai… it was more like 12. So I have about a half-cup that’s going into the fridge to chill. And I bet that’ll taste amazing when it comes out.

Seriously, I’m so happy that I bit the bullet and actually made this a more proper and authentic way instead of steeping it normally and then just dumping milk into it. It tastes much deeper and well-rounded as a result. Full of flavor and deliciousness. I’m having a tea-gasm here. Can I tell you how it compares to other chais? Absolutely not. I think this one overall isn’t very aggressive with its spices. It’s more mellow and comforting. The only thing I regret is that I don’t have more of this GM blend to use!

Golden Moon Tea Sampler #4 selected at random

I was glad to see that nothing too delicate came up—-I was worried that this “pick” might be “white tea’s baby’s breath with airs of ethereal ephemera”. I do like a BIG taste and I fear that all subtlety is lost on me.

I would call this an “average” chai. It’s tasty,and spicy, as Chai should be, but not overwhelming. There is absolutely nothing to complain of, but I don’t find anything so memorable that I’m sitting up and wanting to proclaim the excellency of it.

I think that Golden Moon is for the advanced drinkers, the Zen drinkers, the sophisticates. Somebody said someplace that boddhisatvas could roam through hell as if it were a playground. And I think that advanced minds can really appreciate Golden Moon and its nuances. As for me, I can roam through a playground as if it were hell!

Golden Moon sample No. 28 of 31. The Kashmiri Chai at last! Made on the stovetop, sample packet = one cup of chai.

This is the fourth chai blend I’ve tried on the stovetop, and it’s so interesting to think about the differences between the various blends. The Rishi is quite peppery. This one doesn’t have pepper. I generally like pepper in chai, and have found some blends lacking for the lack of pepper. For whatever reason, I don’t find this one lacking. In fact, I think I may prefer it ever so slightly to the Rishi (not enough to rate it differently), or at least like it around the same, even though the Rishi is much spicier. Ok, but wait. I liked the Samovar chai best of all, and it has pepper.

I am concluding that comparisons don’t really work here. This is a nice chai. It’s smooth and tasty when made on the stovetop. True, its spices are somewhat subdued compared to others I’ve had, but it isn’t as though they’re overpowered by milk, which is my prime measure. Its body is a little lighter so it’s not as chewy as others I’ve enjoyed, but it’s still nice.

This is, as I think about it, pretty much the GM Pu-erh Chai, without the pu-erh earthiness. Not that that is, or should be, surprising. It’s still doesn’t beat the Samovar in my view or even come close, but I’d happily drink it for a change of pace when I feel like having chai but want something a little lighter weight.

It’s been a LONG week. I thought I would reward myself with something and about the time I was trying to figure out what my reward would be my son comes in and request chai. I have only made some chai’s using coffeemate chai creamer and I’m out right now so I dug into my GM sampler and pulled this one out.

I made it according to Takgoti’s chai recipe and it turned out wonderful and luckily it made enough to give him a huge mug and me a dainty cup. I am not usually really crazy over chai’s but I might have to purchase this one for those days when I need a chai. See picture here http://www.flickr.com/photos/48612840@N07/4546576793/

I do not have really any other chai’s besides one or two experiences to compare this one to but it was yummy so it’s going to get a high rating.

Thanks Takgoti for the recipe! :)

Let’s just call this one “Eau de Clove.” I steeped the sample (in its entirety) in water, and clove is all I could smell and taste. The taste didn’t linger like I wanted it to, either, and the dry mouth factor is on the high side. So ya, not a fan.

That said, I’m still tempted to put this on my shopping list and order it in a small size, because I feel like steeping it normally didn’t do it justice. I don’t have the patience to make proper chai, but I feel like if I did, it would have tasted much better and I would have rated it better. I am tempted to give it another chance.

Tea amount: Golden Moon sample size, one packet.
Water amount: 16oz./~475mL
Additives: 2 level tbsp. demerara sugar.

After a month of waiting, I finally get the Groupon order with my Golden Moon sample. Sheesh. Less than stellar experience from Groupon. Though, it is a matter of managing expectations. Had, at the very start of this, someone said ‘Hey, you will get $50 off of this tea sampler if you wait a month’, I would have very patiently waited a month.

That being said, the sample itself has a nice assortment of flavors… though I doubt I’d order it if it weren’t for the Groupon sale ($10 for a one ounce sample seems exorbitant). But there was a Groupon sale, and I did order it!

This tea smells for all the world like a snickerdoodle while it’s steeping, and while it’s still warm in the cup. Very, Very sweet smelling. The drink follows this similarly, not quite cookie-ish, but still a very sweet chai. The clove taste is the most prominent flavor, but not overpoweringly clove to where you get that smokey kind of taste. For having clove be dominant, it’s well done. The ginger and cinnamon follow a bit behind… not far enough to be lost, but they definitely aren’t holding their own against captain clove.

The tea base, like a lot of chais, is kind of lost here. Although it does have a bit of astringency, which I’m going to blame on the fact that there’s a green tea in here, and they tell you to boil it to death.

So, this is a good tea. However… it doesn’t have any of the kick that I really want from a chai. There’s no pizzazz. It doesn’t really make my tastebuds stand up and go HEY! DRINK THAT MORE YOU GIT! If you want a very smooth, sweet chai… this would probably be perfect for you. I’m evidently not a very smooth and sweet kind of guy… more bumpy and bitter ;)

We got our goldenmoon sampler box today. We are swimming in samples at the moment. I totally understand having a ton of different teas in your cupboard. The more variety you have, the more you want, or some thing. I think I’ll have to do some thing like pick a sample blind some time soon.

I brewed this one up straight. I think it would be good with milk though. It’s gentle due to the lack of pepper for that extra zip. Pepper need not apply. I taste cinnamon, clove and cardamom. I love that word cardamom. I’m waiting to shout it out at a female checking out with alcohol or smokes. I probably wouldn’t shout it out, but I’d think it really loudly. I do get a bit of tea taste here. It’s pretty mild, just enough to know that I am, indeed, drinking tea. If you are looking for a gentle chai this is a good place to start.

Thank you Amanda for swapping this sample out!

I’m very cautious of chai in general. I like the warmth that it can give you, but not necessarily the spiciness. It’s the only tea blend that I religiously check the list of ingredients before swapping/ordering. If it has pepper in it, it’s a deal-breaker.

There is a certain tea vendor’s chai that I really used to like and it had pepper in it, but it was the very last ingredient. Then for some ungodly reason, when I went to reorder the blend a year later, the company changed up the ingredient list and pepper was listed at least 4 ingredients higher. Oh and did I mention when I went to reorder, I bought a POUND of it? So now I’m stuck with lots, and lots of a chai that I no longer like. Ugh! And I’m oh-so-slowly getting rid of it by mixing it with a similar but unpeppered chai. (If you want a coconut chai, PM me and I’ll send you some – probably even more than you’d want!)

Anyway, THIS tea – I was very excited by just smelling it! It’s warm and cozy like my favorite scarf and sweater on a Fall-ish day. I put the sample away, but its been calling out to me for a few days now.

I wish I could share the brewing parameters, but quite honestly I didn’t measure the milk & water. All I can say is that I used 3 grams of tea and 4 tsp of rock sugar. The rest was left to chance. I did brew it in milk first for 3 minutes. Then brewed the leaves again in maybe a third cup of water for another 3 minutes. Having done that, I’m quite happy with the way this turned out! It’s delicious – I really like the way the cinnamon, clove and cardamon mingle in this offering. It really doesn’t taste spicy, but more reminds me of a biscuit or cookie.

It’s going on my shopping list! Thanks Amanda for the sample and saving me from another potential chai-tastrophe!

Warning: I ramble for the first paragraph, if you do not care, skip right to the rating (second paragraph). Yesterday and today the northeast was hit with it’s third (and hopefully final) snowstorm of the year. So once again, I was snowed in and cabin fever is definitely setting in. In the past week or so, since the last blizzard, I have decided to “spring clean” up the house, and by house, I most nearly mean drink my tea that is almost complete but not quite there. You see, I have a nasty habit of opening dozens, hundreds, I-don’t-know-how-many, samples and packs and tins and boxes of tea and then trying it once, twice if I like it, then three times to write a rating and then never touching it again. This is a terrible habit, and every once in a while I step back and assess the mess I have made out of my kitchen and now into my living room. As I began, I have been finishing off teas so as to deplete the mess and with today’s being stuck at home, I got rid of a few teas. They were already rated, no fear, I did nothing special to them, but I am feeling accomplished as I have removed some of them.

Rating: So, now that I have finished open tea, I can go onto new samples. Yay! First up was Kashmiri Chai. The leaves are pretty, dark, and small, they are mixed with large spices; they smell slightly spicy.

First Infusion: 5 minutes, hot, no additives. This chai is very nice, gentle green and black tea blend with subtle hints of spice. I pick up cardamom and cinnamon mostly, maybe a hint of clove, overall it is very good. As with all of my chai, I must drink this hot, because as it cools the flavor of the tea is lost and the spices become overwhelming to me. This was the same for this tea, only the spices were not as overwhelming as other chai teas I have had. When I read “Kashmiri” I knew it meant the geographical region, but when I tasted it, I thought describing it like a cashmere scarf was not bad either, it is smooth and velvety, rich and intoxicating.

Second Infusion: 3 minutes, hot, no additives. I found that I did not want to oversteep for the second infusion, 3 minutes brought about an equivalent pot of tea. Slightly spiced, gentle tea, very aromatic and delicious.

Third Infusion: By this time I was looking for another way to do this, according to Golden Moon website, the tea can be enjoyed with cream and honey for a sweet treat. I did not have cream and due to the Snowpocalipse, I was not going to get any, but a splash of milk and a tiny touch of honey, made this tea extraordinary! The tea, brewed hot for 3 minutes, still had the spiced flavors and gentle tea blend, but now it had creamy sweetness added.

Highly recommended any of the three ways, this was a fantastic chai tea. I feel it was so good because it is not as strong as many other chais, it is well blended and gentle, so it is a good tea for people just starting to explore chai or people not so crazy about the amount of spice normally found in chai.

After receiving this sample from TeaEqualsBliss, I was super excited about trying this one. I mean really…look at those ratings! Nice! Now the down side. Last night I received bad news about a friend of the family’s sudden failing health and I needed something comforting this morning. I’m out of Almond Cookie. Boo. :( Anyway, on to the tea.

I honestly wasn’t too impressed with my 1st cup. The dry leaves and spice mix looked very appealing to begin with so I was kind of confused. Of course I added milk and sugar as I tend to do with most of my chais. After the 1st steep, the leaves were fully expanded and that’s mostly what I tasted…black tea. The spices were fairly bland and very much in the background. As much as I like spicy foods, I don’t particularly care for super spicy chais. I mean “spicy” as in “heat”…NOT the cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorns, etc. This one did not have a “spicy” feel to it, but it was still kind of lacking. Regardless, I finished my cup and decided to steep again.

Take two. Now this is better! The liquor is much MUCH lighter, so I skipped the milk and sugar. NOW I taste the spices. Mostly cardamom…but that’s cool. At least this tastes more like chai! I’m not sure if my traditional chai preparation method would improve this blend or not. In my opinion, chais need that rolling boil to crack open all of those pods and make the spices come to life. I think the black tea was either too strong for the spices or that the company used too much leaf in relation to the ratio of spices. Or maybe I just like my chais WAY to freakin’ strong. Oh well, it’s not bad by any means. Just mild.

Sorry about the rambling post. My mind is kind of scattered at the moment.

The first real chai I ever had and still my favorite! My first taste was with the one-serving sample pack, which I only got to have half of. I knew I was going to have to order much, much more eventually. I’ve been preparing it in that way outlined by teaplz/takgoti every time, and I am extremely grateful to them for sharing that on here!

This one is much more mellow than all the other spiced teas/chai I’ve had. There’s no ginger or black pepper, so no strong spicy bite in it (not that I have anything against that!). Just a very smooth cinnamon-cardamom-cloves taste in with the blend of tea, which with the milk makes for something better than any milkshake or latte I’ve ever had. As for the scent, the cloves seem strongest – especially on the leaves. I love this one as a comforting, gently spiced drink.

I decided to give this one a try since it was featured on Steepster Select yesterday. I loved that you can visually make out the cardamom, cloves, and pieces of cinnamon along side the green and black tea. The tea, itself, was good, but kind of what I expected… After trying the plain tea, I added agave nectar and almond milk (based on advice from my yoga teacher). As I drank it, I liked the tea more and more. And at the end of the cup I found myself wishing I had another sample. In that cup, I’d boil the tea and use less water so that with the milk it’d be stronger.

Pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/kashmirichai/show/

I made this with milk instead of water – simmer tea in milk for 7 minutes then strain into cups that contain a teaspoon of honey. It was AMAZING! It wasn’t a knock you over the head chai, but a gently spiced cup of warmth and comfort. I absolutely loved it.

P.S. I simmered this but have no idea what the temperature was – so take my “water temp” with a grain of salt. I just kept the milk at a light simmer.

I’m in the mood for a chai, but I’m not sure if that’s because I knew this was one of my last two Golden Moon sampler packets. The dry leaf smells really good, plenty of warm spice – and with temps here now in the low 70’s compared to the high 90’s of just a few days ago, it almost feels like I need some inner warming.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a chai without milk or cream and sugar, but for the sake of being anal about these tasting notes, I’ll have at least a sip of it as is. Good thing! After five minutes in just-boiled water, it’s not near strong enough for my taste. Back in the pot with you! A few minutes later I check on it again and it’s much better, though still somewhat meek. Time for the additives.

Now I’m feeling sorry for this tea! I really think it has the potential to be good, but I don’t think I handled the steep very well. Next time I’ll stick to simmering the tea in milk for a good long time to get all the flavors out, as I’m finding this just too weak. I’ll leave off rating it until we meet again.

This one is a bust. Glad that I did not purchase a whole tin- and started with the sample first. Phew! This has been a popular tea on this website, but, in my opinion, the cinnamon flavor overpowered the typical chai medley of flavors.

Liberteas’ Masterpiece Chai is a MUCH better version of a chai and still has some of the mild qualities of the Golden Moon’s version…

I probably should not be drinking this before bed, but I am so excited to try my new Golden Moon teas! (I’ll probably be up peeing every hour all night after all the tea I’ve had so far). Anyway, I made a quick/short-cut chai with this. I heated equal parts milk and super-concentrated tea and put them together with some honey. Probably not as good as the slow cook method of making chai, but this is still really good. I love the cardamon and the cloves. Can’t wait to make this the long way tomorrow morning…in larger quantities.

I opened this tea up finally. I was a little disappointed to be honest. I saw the beautiful whole spices in there, such as cloves, cinnamon bits, and cardamom pods. However, all I smelled was some sort of cinnamon spice oils. It smells too strong, and I was worried it would overpower the blend. The chai blends that I have tried never had this scent. I usually make my own blend or buy blends that are natural. This one is not natural.

Anyway, I brewed this up Western style. The blend was not bitter, which is a plus. I needed to add sugar and milk to this though. The oil is overwhelming :( I don’t recall the sample being this way. The milk and sugar did temper the oil, so I was a bit glad about that. Overall, this isn’t one of my favorites, but it seems as if it would be a great tea during the cold winter months. I will try this again but brewed over the stove top.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #9:

Well, went to the thrift store today and spent an enjoyable half hour trying out different lids. I had some initial problems since A. it had to fit, B. I would prefer it look nice or at least amusing. For example, I was mightily tempted by a lid that was shaped like a cat’s head. Sadly, it did not fit. I eventually found a Vaguely Asian™ lid from a teacup set for five bucks that actually fits quite well, so looks like I’m going to have to call off construction on the time machine.

Now let’s talk about chai. The coffee shop at the Borders near where I used to live was, when the store first opened, NOT a Starbucks. I know, right? A chain bookstore with a non-starbucks coffee shop? Inconceivable! But it’s true! Once upon a time, it wasn’t a Starbucks and it had the best chai lattes ever. It was just the right amount of spice to tea, a modicum of milk and well…these days I’d probably find it too sweet, but this was 10 years ago, so I was still sweetening my tea.

Then they got bought by Starbucks and switched over to Tazo and well…their chai is…unsatisfactory. The spices overwhelm everything and give it a really quite unpleasant taste. But we are not talking about that chai today, we are talking about this chai, and this chai, tastes like what I vaguely recall that other chai tasted like. Well balanced, smooth, and not too heavy. I kind of want to try it in all the different ways other people are drinking it. Which I suppose means I need to buy more…

Chai remains one of the most delicious parts of my morning routine. I had wanted to save the chai that came in my sampler order for a moment when I wouldn’t just be relying on it to function properly, but I’m still wrestling with my sleep schedule, and a premature waking-up at 3am this morning necessitated breaking from that plan for the sake of something soothing and bracing at the same time.

Cardamom is the star in this blend. Opening the packet to take a sniff it was the first spice that coasted out to meet my nose, and a glance inside explained why: there were two fat cardamom pods sitting right on the top. Paired with milk and made into a latte, it immediately put me in mind of various Indian desserts. Cloves are the second note, with cinnamon trailing a distant third. The tea, needless to say, is little more than a backdrop for so many forceful flavors…which is alright, in a latte. I’m not certain I would enjoy this as a straight tea, but then I’m not certain about that when it comes to virtually any chai.

It’s good. Basic. Probably very forgiving of being blended with other things. Cozy. It’s doing what I needed it to do this morning.

Smells wonderful.
I put in milk and sugar. I’m expecting tasty tea judging by the smell of it. Whole office smells indian :)
Yep not bad. Should be steeped longer than 4-5 minutes tho. Quite tasty.