Chocolate Chai

This one is just full of surprises.

I thought I saw Yerba Mate in there and I was right! There are other ingredients that seem to jump out at you when you first look at it…like how BIG the Pu-Erh is – and the coconut! When I looked at the ingredients I was surprised that Rishi included dandelion root…hummm…

Well as for the taste it’s not bad. It’s one of the better flavored Pu-Erh’s I have tried and I seem to prefer it to the other Rishi Pu-Erh attempts I have tried, too.

Taste-wise:
It’s velvety and I can mostly taste the coconut and cocoa and vanilla. I can’t taste the pepper, really, and the dandelion root doesn’t really effect the overall taste – at least in my first attempt. The Yerba Mate Flavor is subtle but serves a purpose.

I can taste the cardamom more in the aftertaste, but not overly.

All-in-all this one surprised me and ended up being alright!

I got this with a chai sampler awhile back, and it’s been sitting in my cupboard because I liked the vanilla mint one much better. This one I recall being very spicy, yet a bit weak in flavor overall. But now, after the great pu’erh blends I’ve been having from Verdant lately, I thought it might be quite good with a little beefing up. I added about half a teaspoon of Maiden’s Ecstasy – a loose shu pu’er from Samovar – to a couple teaspoons of the chai. MUCH better! Now this has actual body and heft, but I can still taste all the chocolate/coconut/spice from the chai. This is very warming, now, and good for a cold windy day.

Prepared over the stove with traditional Indian manner, cooked with soymilk. My apartment smells great!

This does remind me a lot of hot chocolate and I am finding it tasty enough for my liking. There is lots of cardamom in here and also something slightly pungent (I assume the long pepper). I’m not a huge fan of mate so I’m finding that a bit distracting from the overall blend here. Overall this is very good and it definitely warming the frost from my Saturday morning as well as waking me up. :) I’m not sure I would buy it again but that’s also because I love the more traditional chai flavors.

http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2526/tea-review-rishi-tea-chocolate-chai-2/

The way I’ve learned to make chai is a stove top method. Rather than just simply brewing like tea, you do the following:

For each 2 cups of chai tea:
Take 1 cup water, bring to a boil on the stove in a small saucepan. Once the water comes to a boil, add 1 tbsp. chai tea, and 1 tbsp. sugar. Return to a boil, and let boil for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat, and add one cup milk (the more milk-fat, the more flavorful). Let rest on the stove for at least 10 minutes, and then strain, and drink.

This method of preparation takes most chai mixes and makes them amazingly flavorful. I know it’s sacrilege to boil tea, but the spices in chai cover any over-steeped flavor, and it ensures you get the most out of the spices.

So, wanting to get the most out of this chocolate chai (because really, what could be better? Chocolate and chai spice? YUM), I prepared it in the stovetop method. It surprised me. It was a very mellow cup. Like a mildly spiced chocolate milk. The chocolate flavor is at the forefront, and there’s a taste of generic spices as an aftertaste. None of the particular spices stand out, but there’s the sensation of clove, and a tiny burn from possibly a little pepper.

So, it’s very yummy, but a little less spicy than I was hoping. If it wasn’t caffeinated, I could see drinking this at night as a soother.

I wanted to make sure it wasn’t the stovetop method somehow skewing the flavor of this tea. So I brewed it like a regular cup of tea as well. And no, it does MUCH better brewed stove top method.

Prepare for something lovely. It’s a great cuppa. Just don’t expect a lot of spice, and revel in the chocolate.

Interesting one to have iced… I work at a vegetarian cafe that carries teas from MEM, Rishi, and a local supplier, Salandrea. We typically feature an iced tea of the day; however, the people opening either have no knowledge of brewing times/temperatures or don’t care for specifics. So unless it’s an herbal tea we’re making, it almost always comes out way too bitter. It’s frustrating, especially when we have some avid tea-drinkers and herbalists that come in disappointed by our preparation, simply because we cannot commit the time…

Still, I find this tea to have a slightly bitter aftertaste on top of a medley of flavors that I sometimes feel is a little overwhelming. I usually like to pick out the different components, but I think I just need to learn to appreciate the way this one just blends.

Not a big fan, but I’m willing to give it another try with better preparation.

Yum! Deliciously fragrant, spicy, and chocolate-y. Very flavorful.

It’s not a conventional Chai flavor and the chocolate didn’t really come through for me.

One of my favorites because it works so well even without milk. It is hearty and richly spiced enough to stand on its own, particularly with a long steep. The chocolate flavor is balanced by the earthiness of the pu-erh and yerba mate, with wonderful cinnamon and coconut undertones.

It does remind of chocolate, but there’s a bitter overtone or aftertaste to this that I’m just not fond of.