Chai

This is what happens when I make Indian for dinner: I have chai for the next few days. I agree with everyone about the heavy clove in this. It took me a few times to get used to it, but that was a couple years ago now. So it’s been in my cupboard ever since. I know that it’s not my favourite chai that I’ve tried, but T2 is the most convenient tea company for me, especially given Australia’s insanely tight customs regulations. I simply wouldn’t be able to order chai from overseas. Well, I suppose I could order it; I just wouldn’t recieve it. Ideally I’d like to make my own masala chai blend, but I want to make sure I could find the freshest spices before I laid out the money gathering it all together.

In any case, I made a concentrate to go through the next few days. Then I filled my cup with 1/3 chai and 2/3 milk (spoiling myself with whole milk today) a little honey and a little sugar. Despite the way that sounds, it’s not very sweet, but just sweet enough. I finish it off with nutmeg that I freshly grate over the top while the tea is still moving from the stirring. When the nutmeg hits the surface it magically spreads out, looking like a swirling, spicy universe in my cup. What a nice way to start the day.

This is actually my last pot of this tea. Dry it has nice dark leaves with large pieces of clove, whole cardamom pods and star anise. It smells spicy. The wet leaves take on more of an anise (licorice) smell. When tasting no particular spice stands out, I personally think it could use a little more ginger. For me it is a good chai but not a stand out.

I tried using this tea for a traditional chai where you heat milk with the tea on the stove. While spice mix was good it took an very very long time to infuse and even then it was much to weak. There is simply not even black tea in the mix for a satisfactory cup of chai.

This Chai is flooded with cloves and as a result the remaining spices and tea itself are drowned out. It tastes more like an undefined assault of cloves and generic spice than a black tea that has been mixed with different spices. It could do with less cloves and more cinnamon and ginger.

I have made this with milk and honey and also tried it with vanilla soy milk and honey (by warming the milk on the stove and having half milk half boiling water) I would recommend the vanilla soy milk and honey as it seems to allow more of the spices to shine through.

After trying this several times it has left me wanting to mix my own Chai as the proportions of spices really do seem off.

I would recommend this to coffee drinkers wanting to ease off the coffee and have a go at tea as it certainly doesn’t taste like ‘tea’ and can be made nice and milky.

delicious on a cold day to lift the spirit, deep and rich spices with a smart balance.

Yum yum yum! So warm and lovely and aesthetically pleasing – full of spice and heat. The only better Chai I have had is a house blend, freshly made to order, so this is brill!

I have gotten used to it now, but when I first tried it, the cloves in this chai just overwhelmed me!
It was somewhat unpleasant at first, but after a few more teaspoons of honey, I enjoyed this blend just fine. Picking out a few cloves probably wouldn’t hurt, though.

Beautiful aroma starts it off well. Has a strong flavor but it doesn’t hit you or linger to long. This is my first T2 and the beginning of my exploration of teas. So easily impressed off the bat. But do enjoy it!