Vanilla Chai

A hectic day and now a relaxing night and what better way can you relax than with a chai tea?

The instructions say to brew this for at least 5 minutes using boiling fresh water. That is exactly what I have done for this tasting note.

The colour is a nice golden yellow liquid that smells sweetly cinnamon. I love cinnamon.

The taste is subtle and spicy with cinnamon tones with a kick of licorice in the after taste. A very cheeky blend that catches up to you with each sip you have. After half a cup though it tastes primarily of the licorice and it over powers the rest of the flavours, I was hoping that it would have more cinnamon in there and some vanilla since after all this is supposed to be a vanilla chai.

Overall this is not for me, it’s not vanilla, it’s not cinnamon, it’s just pure licorice. Still refreshing but just not to my tastes. This one will be up for a trade if anyone is interested.

Had a mini girls’ day out today that involved going to one of the organic/local shopping centres that’s usually a bit too far out of our range to make it a regular stop and picked up a box of this because I don’t usually see it at my local bulk store.

The instructions say to brew with boiling water and steep for at least 5 minutes, but with Pukka herbal teas I steep them for as long as I want. So far that has yet to failed me, and Vanilla Chai continues that streak! I just popped one of the bags in one of my larger mugs and let it sit until it was cool enough for me. The liquor doesn’t colour much at first, but it becomes a nice light gold after the recommended five minutes.

The scent is very light and predominantly cinnamon, which is more cinnamon than you get while drinking it. It has a very spicey aftertaste, while the sweetness from the vanilla and licorice is what hits your palete and tastebuds first. I found myself getting the spice at the back of my throat and it was a bit unpleasant. The vanilla does tend to get lost under the licorice, though.

As a straight up masalla spice blend with some vanilla, it’s not something I’ve seen before. But it is definitely very spicey and probably not for passive tea drinkers.