Ruby Chai

Most of you know that I haet red rooibos almost as much as hibiscus, so it galls me just a little to say how freakin’ good this tea is. ;)

It smells absolutely wonderfuly for one thing – cloves and cinnamon primarily, with hints of ginger and cardamom. The spices are balanced very well in the flavour of the tea – nothing is too overpowering and it all meshes nicely. I can’t barely taste the tart rooibos flavour – which suits me just fine.

Nice edition to chai teas! The cloves are always the prominent taste, Rooibos has faint taste, all the spices just serve to moderate the overbearing clove that makes it too medicinal! Just add the sugar and or milk…and you got heaven!

I have never met a rooibos I didn’t like. Of course, I haven’t met many, so there’s still time. Anyway. Indian that I am, I saw “chai” and “rooibos” on a box and of course had to buy it. I’ve just steeped my first cup and know that I’ll be returning to buy more when the box is finished. This tea is yummy! Because it’s got that chai flavour, I’m tempted to add milk to it and see how it tastes; I might try that next time. The only thing I don’t love about it is that the clove is overpowering. Maybe it’s just my dislike of clove, but it’s like the loudmouth of the spices: it keeps stepping on everyone else’s (nutmeg, allspice, ginger) heads and shouting, “Me! Me! Me!”

This is a wonderful spicy aromatic drink. It takes everything I love about Chai, takes away the caffeine and adds the woodiness of Rooibos and blends it together very well. I have to try this with milk like a real chai tea!

Ruby Chai in the teabags is my favourite chai of all I’ve tried so far. I bought a bag of the loose leaf version, hoping it would be as good, but thinking it might be just powder. I’m really impressed with the contents of the bag though, it’s got loads of whole spices, including lots of cloves and lots of round things I don’t recognize, which I think might be all spice berries.

My senses of smell and taste are off today. I haven’t been enjoying things I usually love. I tried a cup of Teavana’s new black chai when I was out and threw it away because it might as well have been dish water. The cloves in this are penetrating my bunged up nose and I’m glugging this back very happily. I won’t leave a numerical rating as I can’t taste it properly, but it’s definitely clove-heavy, which suits me over stewed black tea or cinnamon.

Delicious!

This was my first rooibos based chai. It’s good. The spices are nice, and it’s nice to get the chai flavor in a caffeine free herbal form.