Coconut Cream Chai

Thank you to Indigobloom for sending me a sample of this tea!

I had dinner tonight with a friend at Herbivore and got the chick*n mole with rice and beans and an iced tea. I wanted to get some reading done but I’m sooo tired for some reason. I thought this might perk me up.

A lot of people seemed not to like this too much but I like it fairly well. It seems more like a dessert tea than an actual chai, however. The black tea base seems kind of sweet and I am getting a lot of vanilla here as well as the creamy coconut There’s a touch of ginger in there somewhere. I did add some soymilk to mine but I prepared it the old fashioned way, in the For Life teapot.

Thank you to DaisyChubb for sending me some of this tea. I am really glad to be able to try it.

I find myself wanting just a little bit more from this chai… The cinnamon and ginger seem to need an accomplice… cardamom or cloves or both. It just is … lacking in the spice department, and while I acknowledge that chai means tea … in Northern America I think we’ve come to accept chai as meaning a spiced tea or tisane… and this tastes seasoned but not spiced … if that makes sense.

The coconut and the cream part of this is really delicious though. And this makes a really yummy latte. I just feel like the spices were overlooked. It is good, but it could be so much better.

Hrm. I guess I really am picky about my chai. This was ok. Just!
A little too sweet for me, in a way that I’m having trouble pinpointing, and that I could have seriously done without. Maybe it was the combo of vanilla bean and cinnamon? It was so odd. Like a chai gone stale. That said, I certainly don’t hate it. and I do love that the tea leaves were processed ctc style! Certainly a drinkable cup, and loads better than Tetley :) The coconut aspect was lovely but I can see now that it really doesn’t belong in my perfect cup o’chai. Or so it seems!
Anyhow. Based on the first infusion, I’d have given this a 75. However the second steep mellowed out considerably. I really enjoyed that one! so it’d get an 85. Thus, I’ve chosen 80 as my rating.

Dry, this tea really doesn’t smell like much. Steeped, it smells like a fairly standard chai. Perhaps with a bit of creaminess.

Hmm, ok, while I think it could have used an extra minute or two, it’s good, albeit rather weak! I can taste the spices, although they are rather subtle with only 3 minutes of infusion time, but there’s a lingering coconutty creaminess which is nice. I don’t usually like chais without milk/sugar, but this one might be an exception.

Not a tea that I think I’d rush out and buy (mostly because I have tooonss of chais right now), but it’s nice! Thanks Indigobloom!

ETA: Second infusion for five minutes definitely tastes less creamy, and stronger. I’m getting an orange flavour, but that might be from something I just ate. Will have to wait another moment to try… Ok, this infusion tastes much more like a regular chai. Maybe there’s a bit of coconut/creaminess at the end of the sip, but not a ton. Not bad, but I don’t think we’ll continue to a third infusion tonight. I want to try more teas!

Another sample from Indigobloom… thank you Indigo!

This… uh… well… no sir, I don’t like it.

Something about this blend really comes across as ‘off’ to me. We gave it the full five minutes, but it is a CTC, so that may have been overkill, and be part of the problem with the overwhelming MEH! I get from this tea.

So… yeah, glad I got to sample it (thanks again, Indigo!), but I don’t think this is a keeper.

This is a kind of chai that I’ve been trying to perfect at home. Well, I need a break after all my tea-blend failures, and this one hit it perfectly.

I steeped it stovetop style, but oversteeped it a bit I think (for my liking) or didn’t add enough milk, because I like my chai spicy with spice, not bitter! It was slightly bitter (my fault) but with the addition of milk and a splash of maple syrup – this was just as good as at my favorite Indian Restaurant. I go there for the butter chicken, naan bread and chai. ah glory.

The coconut is subtle but there in the background for sure, creating an extra creamy note. I could use a bit more coconut, but I’ll judge that when I have it sans additions. Another Tealish hit!

Dry, this smells pretty coconut-y with some sweetness and only a hint of spice. I steeped it for 4 minutes, and enjoyed watching all the coconut shavings swirling around. I tried a sip straight up, and decided that it definitely needs some sweetener. Added a load of milk, and threw in a bunch of rock sugar and found it to be much nicer. I don’t know about this one. There is a scent in the mix that isn’t working for me, and I’m not sure what it is. I like coconut, but I also like a spicier chai, and this one is really bland. I’m getting lots of coconut here, and if they had amped up the spice level a bit more, I think this could be a clear winner. That being said, it is still an enjoyable cup, nice and creamy and coconut-y, so if you like a smooth, blander chai and lots of coconut, then this would be a good choice. As far as the spice levels go, I was generous with the amount of tea per water, so I don’t think this is something that could be fixed with more tea. Maybe if they had added some cloves to the mix?

Tried this one tonight, brewing it up in my glass pot. The base tea is lovely, not too harsh or astringent and great for blends. The blend itself however I found lacking. I didn’t get much cream at all, or chai. I felt like it was a coconut black, and since I’m not a big pure coconut fan, it was a disappointment. Guess I’ll go back to the coconut oolongs!

interesting coconut and spice tastes, but not much tea flavor—I often toss a black tea bag in the pot to up the tea-ness.

Not bad.