Tazo Chai

So it appears I am on a morning chai kick. Go figure. I think it may also be attributed to the slowness of my cast iron pot to produce boiling water (therefore, I go downstairs and make a chai tea while I wait.. hours.. grr)
Annnnyways. I do like this chai. Having drank the Republic of Tea chai yesterday, I have to say… I enjoyed it a lot more. A lot more.
This is a good enough substitute though. I don’t mind it and I feel like it is rather balanced with the spices. The black tea base is just not that good, and it shows.
Today I boiled up 2 cups of almond milk (unsweetened) and tossed two silk saches. After letting it simmer for a good 10 minutes, I tossed in 2 tsp of brown sugar. I like brown sugar as the I think the molasses makes everything taste better. I can taste it in the chai and it is delicious. Like adding another layer of flavour besides the slightly spicy ginger and lovely cardamom/cinnamon.

Because my roommate works at Starbucks, this is a tea I can drink for free (as she gets either a pound of coffee or a tin of tea per week). Therefore.. I will keep drinking it. I would not buy this though.

It’s much easier to bring tea bags to work than loose leaf. There’s never a lull and no one likes an over steeped leaf.
Today in the mad rush I was in I grabbed a couple bags of this and ran out the door. Around 3pm I hit a wall and decided to brew up a pick me up. Started the kettle, dropped a cube of plantation sugar in my cup, opened the fridge. . . No milk?!!!!!!!
French vanilla international delight coffee creamer… Doesn’t sound too bad with Chai.
Only problem encountered was the fact that this tea is overwhelmingly gingered. I got punched in the mouth with ginger.
In the end it tasted like ginger snaps, but I couldn’t decide if I liked it or not so I wont rate it yet.

Yum, hit the spot much better than that Red Rose from yesterday, mostly because I could taste the tea! I’ve always liked the Tazo chai though; it’s a pretty classic chai in my opinion. Had it with milk & sugar this morning (so a bit of a backlog).

Tea backlog from last night: I was watching the Olympics late last night and wanted something spicy. I was feeling lazy and just wanted to use a bagged version of anything I had in my cupboard. So I grabbed one of these and then decided that 2 teabags would really spice things up. It was pretty peppery. I should add that I was using a pottery mug that was intended as a beer stein, so I suppose 2 teabags wasn’t that over the top. I added a big clump of honey and a whole lot of milk, and it was good enough. It’s not the best, but not the worst either.

I can’t believe such a Chai head like myself has not yet had a cup of full leaf Chai at Starbucks…until tonight!I had some time between my mad dash to the bookstore (got the LAST textbook on the shelf for my class!) and my lecture. I was going to get my usual Earl Grey, but since I already had some Earl Grey Supreme today, I wanted to try something different. I remember a few people raving about this Chai so I thought it would be the best alternative.

And – YES! YUM! Again, I’m amazed that you can get something so unusual at a shop that’s on every corner. This chai is so delightfully licorice-y!!! Nicely spiced, a nice tea flavor, but the licorice really makes it stand out to me. It’s very different than any of the chais I have at home, and I really enjoyed it. It is going to have the honor of my Earl Grey Alternative when I’m at school, because ooof – that Awake tea does not do anything special.

Hello out there! I’m going to be doing a bit of backlogging to catch up with my trip last week. (As much as I can, anyway: there was one tea that I looked at and thought, “No need to write that down! Surely I couldn’t forget a tea named ____ from the ____ company!” …Yeah. So, does anyone know of a maté tea in a teabag blended with several flavors including probably coconut from a well-known company?)

This was one of the teas available in the office, so I had it plain with hot water. It was tasty and sweet, but the problem is that I apparently use this exact blend of spices when I make tea eggs, so I kept expecting to the tea to taste like hard-boiled eggs. Of course, it doesn’t taste like hard-boiled eggs, nor should it, but the cognitive dissonance put me off what would otherwise be a rather pleasant cup of well-it’s-midafternoon-and-I-need-some-tea-at-the-office tea. It didn’t get too bitter when oversteeped, although it did get almost too strong.

Had a bit too much to drink last night at a party I helped throw, and then had to get up super early this morning to make it to my volunteer shift. Factor in menstrual cramps, walking through the freezing morning cold to get to my job, party clean up duty, a ton of catch-up homework I have to do, and an nerve wracking interview this afternoon, today just might be the worst day ever. So, I heated up a cup of chai, hoping it would make things a little better….and, I didn’t even get to drink it because I had to go and clean up after the party. I just got back, and now I have a cold cup of chai sitting on my desk. Sadness. Well, it still tastes okay, but it’s not quite hitting the spot. The spices are coming through surprisingly well, considering I only steeped it for 3 minutes and used a lot of milk. Lots of cinnamon. It doesn’t seem as special as I remember it being. At least it’s a lot better than that Adagio Aries blend monstrosity.

I have to wonder…am I losing my taste for chai?

I meant to bring several teas with me to Tony’s last night, but got sidetracked, so digging through his cupboard, I found this. It’s pretty tasty, in my opinion. I wish I had some almond milk or creamer with me.

I had this for lunch at work today. I was happy they had Tazo tea. I thought they only carried Lipton. This is pretty good and hit the spot. :)

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Additives: none
Water: 12 ounces hot spigot water
Steep Time: a little over 5-6 minutes, enough time to get to train stop from store and take out bag
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Smell: cinnamon, clove, ginger
Flavor: ginger, pepper/cardamom, cinnamon, clove, black tea
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: ginger pepper burn, followed by a warm cinnamon and a slight bitter tinge probably from oversteeping
Liquor: dark brown, maybe a little red tint

Probably should not have gotten this so late as now I’ll be up all night, but I couldn’t resist. I do think it would be better with some honey and creme so it would be a proper chai, but if you ask for that they give you the concentrate (my favorite Starbucks drink-Chai tea latte!). I think this would be a nice tea to make chai at home with.

Post-Steep Additives: none

I was reminded by Cofftea that I had a bag or two of this still in that neverending sampler pack I have. I am used to the Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks, so this was different for me to have it “plain” (no milk). It was such a perfect blend of spices for this clear wintery day and perked me up for the last half of my shift. I didn’t miss the milk at all! And the flavor was consistent through two steepings. Spicy, like a peppery flavor, and well, there’s just something about chai that is delicious. But to be fair, I was having a lot of pepper with my lunch and snacked on a few (ahem) gingersnap cookies today, so maybe I was in a chai kind of mood. I thought it maybe could have used a little sugar, but never got away to get some. But I enjoyed it just the same!

I’ve always enjoyed Tazo’s chai, despite not beeing terribly thrilled with their other teas. This chai just has the right mix of spices for me – I can distinctly taste the cardamom and cloves and the faint prickle on the tongue that’s the black pepper and a bit of heat from the cinnamon, finished off with the faint licorice taste of the anise in the back of my mouth.

Maybe I’m biased – this was the first chai I ever tasted, though it was in the form of a Starbucks chai latte I seem to recall. But I also think that this is a good cuppa, particularly for a bagged tea.

Unexpected visit to the parents’ leaves me with options limited to random selection that I left months ago. Note to self to replenish Earl Grey, and maybe even an infuser so I can leave some loose leaf. This tea bag chai is more than acceptable because my parents only have REALLY cheap Chinese supermarket teas which I will drink in a pinch.
I really do feel if you drink green tea for the antioxidants, then the tea quality should be a factor if only for better taste but try telling that to my mum.
Anyway, this chai is nice and strong with strong scent and flavour of cloves and ginger much like a ginger snap cookie. I’ve resteeped twice because it’s my only black tea bag left and the resulting cups were acceptable considering water temp is unknown and was steeped for as long as an IPad can distract me.

Tastes like gingerbread cookies. Surprisingly not bad at all, considering that I have disliked every other Tazo tea so far.

Over-steeped it. Now it kinda tastes like…. bitter chai. A bitter, senile, crazy old chai tea living next door. Protecting his front porch with a loaded shotgun. shudder

Got a tin of these bags yesterday when stopping for my monthly chai tea latte. Tried it tonight with hot water steeped 2 bags for 4 minutes and a splash of vanilla creamer. Had no time to run to the store today for milk and forgot on the way home. This tastes quite a bit different from the concentrate. The concentrate they serve seems to have more of a cinnamon and cardamon kick to it whereas these bags I’m really getting anise flavor as the foremost flavor with hints of the others. I really hated the first sip, but a few more sips into it it has mellowed out a bit. I like the amount of spice in this, but would prefer a different kind of spice. I’m curious to try this with some steamed milk. Maybe the next cuppa.

This is really not a bad chai tea for a teabag. Its spicy and I can taste the cardamon and cinnamon in it. Its a little peppery and smells good. This is another of my wife’s teas in the cupboard and I need to go and buy some loose leaf chai.

its good….i can only taste one note in this though. i taste the cinnamon but no other spice. this was prepared traditionally but using skim milk. it has the cinnamon bite to it which i enjoy but it has no depth its a “one trick pony” adagio’s masala chai is much better.

Another tea that first introduced me to chai and its wonderful spiciness! To me its simply wonderful on the first sip, the spices did not throw me off but instead welcomed me with open arms! I knew then chai was the perfect match for me and mostly certainly important an proper introduction to Indian cuisine which I’m madly in love for! Its just so nurturing about chai and if its sweetened with some milk its almost like heaven itself…awesome!

Super epic meh