Chocolate Phoenix Chai

Better late than never…this blend is almost gone and I’ve been sitting on this first ounce of tea for a couple of weeks without tasting it. Then I saw the notice that only a pound was left so I ordered some more. It’s time to taste and review this Chai!

I’ve been tasting Chai’s lately from various sources, looking for different tastes and flavors, socking a few away for the Fall and Winter. I was sitting at my tea bar discussing this with Eric the other day. "Eric, every Chai I drink either has too much pepper or too much cardamon or the wrong kind of cinnamon that makes the Chai bitter. I think I need to make my own Chai, " I said. “That’s what I do,” he replied. And we both sighed.
Eric works at a tea shop! He’s tasted lots of Chai samples.

The only Chai’s I’ve liked so far are one from Butiki and the Verdant Chai blends.
(Some companies have Chai’s I can’t drink because they add Rooibos which I’m allergic to…so it’s not about not liking them, I can’t drink them!).

This brings me to the sadness of this tasting. An experience of a wonderful Chai that I should have ordered long ago but didn’t.
A Chai that is exactly what a Chai should taste like.
Wah! Sniffle! Stomp my Feet! Tantrum!

I threw the directions for brewing this Chai in smaller 8oz steepings out the window. I DISOBEYED VERDANT’S INSTRUCTIONS! Now I think I have to do a Verdant confession or something. Not sure.

So, what I did was make a whole pot of Chai…(yes I did indeed). I brewed 32 ounces of golden delight…honey spiced glee for me!

I poured 1 cup…warming my whole mouth with saffron and a mixture of cardamon, coriander, sweet vanilla and caramel. Luxurious!
I sipped for a bit…and could not wait.
This was not tea. I had to change how I was thinking about the whole experience!

Suddenly, I traveled to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in India, http://youtu.be/dDY89LYxK0w becoming one of the characters draped in bright flowers. With Hindi music throbbing in the background (which I like), I added cream to my next cup of tea and honey in large amounts. YES! This was the way to drink this CHAI! WOW! Taste EXPLOSION!

The next cup I just added some honey. NO WAY! Nah!

Milk and honey…that ‘IS’ the proper way to enjoy this fine Chai. I’m not kidding. I’m going to steep the leaves in milk…to make the flavors even more silky and creamy and warming and cocoa vanilla.

The cardamon wasn’t overpowering and the chocolate from the Mi Lan was like the ‘Chocolate XXOO Love’ Bar’s produced here in Colorado.
Thick and Rich!

So why sad…wah! It’s gone…when I’m done with my stash…GONE!
I’m requesting a repeat next season from Verdant! This was a treat!

Goodbye My Chai Love! http://youtu.be/RUCiGqAHx4g Monsoon Wedding

I’m really curious. Has anyone participated in Earth Hour today?

Let’s get this straight. I’m über picky about chai. Deathfully picky. In my home city, there is this chai bar owner who took six years to perfect his recipes. He imports all his spices from India and they’re packed with flavour, depth, and complexity. So naturally, most stuff I try pales in comparison to his genius.

I figured Verdant would give him a run for his money. Sadly, for me, this chai misses the mark. Not what I would even consider a chai. It’s thin and lacks depth.

Sure, the cardamom is punching you in the face and the marigolds have declared war on said cardamom, but the base is lacking. The ginger is present but blends in almost too much with the marigolds. No chocolate or vanilla.

I’ve had this without any additives, and with a bit of coconut milk and honey. The latter produces better results, but it still lacks depth and complexity.

The second steep brought out the ginger a bit more, maaaybe the chocolate, but there is still an imbalance.

I’m going to have to try subsequent steeps with this sometime. Glad to say I experienced this though.

I got my gaiwan a few months ago, but I’ve been waiting to use it. I’m not exactly sure why to be honest—I think I was waiting for the “right tea” to break it in. One that would benefit from gaiwan-style brewing but wasn’t high maintenance enough for me to worry about totally ruining the steep. As soon as I sniffed the dry leaves for this, I knew it was the right choice to start out my gaiwan journey! I’m sure it isn’t at all typical to brew a chai this way, but I thought it would be interesting to see what flavors came out on different steeps.

I have a tiny gaiwan, it holds maybe 4 ounces? It’s tiny, and really meant for one person, but I split all the steeps for this with the bf. I thought it would be a fun little tea adventure to do together, even if it meant only tasting half of an already small steep. It came with a cute little set so I had a strainer (since I am not adept at holding the lid right, this was a godsend!) and a pitcher to hold water. It also has tasting cups, but they are REALLY small and the gaiwan makes 4 so I just used smaller mugs. Oh, and there’s a tea tongs holder shaped like a hand… it’s kind of weird, but I don’t have tea tongs so it’s really just decorative.

Steep 1: This steep was a bit bitter, probably because I only did one rinse on the leaves. I wasn’t exactly sure how many it would need and didn’t want to take away too much of the flavor. This was a very oolong-y steep, with pretty much no spice or chocolate to be found, but still tasty! A bit mineral, and I think the vanilla came through.

Steep 2: The chocolatey-ist steep, rich and creamy. It’s caramelly and malty, very rich, with hints of cocoa and honey.

Steep 3: Spicy! I don’t know if there is any pepper in here (I don’t think so, yet mysteriously I taste it), but that is what this steep tastes like. It’s not heat from the ginger, but is warmer and tangier. The chocolate plays a supporting role, and the floral notes were also prominent. I think this was my favorite steep, it has a good balance of everything.

Steep 4: This steep was ginger all the way. Very strong and pungent, with a nice bite. I can taste a bit of the saffron on this steep, adding an almost savory quality to it. It was also quite buttery with a nice hint of cocoa, my second favorite steep.

Steep 5: I think I didn’t let this one brew for long enough, since it was a bit weak yet I’m sure I didn’t run through all the possible brews yet. It had, you know, that generic tea taste but none of the spicy/chocolate notes from previous steeps. Okay, but not my favorite.

I have the used leaves cold brewing in the fridge, so hopefully I’ll be able to pull a lot of use out of these leaves! I’m sure I could have done twice as many steeps, but 5 took about half an hour and I was all tea’d out. It was such fun though, really interesting to go through all the steeps. I have to admit I played it a bit fast and loose with steep times: they were probably between 15 seconds to 2 minutes each. I know, I should pay more attention, but I tried to keep this tea session relaxed. I think it was a great success!

EDIT: Totally forgot to update how this was cold brewed! Well, it was definitely… unique. Not in a bad way, but I got a very strong sage flavor backed up by the ginger that made me think of Thanksgiving dinner. By this point the chocolate was all gone but it was still quite a refreshing cup.

Oh. My. GAWD! I feel like in purchasing this tea I must’ve sold my soul to the devil. This is amazing. It’s so even, no spice stands out more than any other. They have learned to live in perfect harmony. We need to take a lesson from this tea.

I’m with you on this Sil, not my fave cuppa. Thanks so much for the sample, I’ve been wanting to try this for ages!! but something told me not to order any and I’m glad I listened to my instinct.
It’s too sweet, fruity almost. Reminds me of Stevia. There is a floral aspect mixed in there to and something else I can’t place.
I’ll hold my rating til I try it as Bonnie suggests, with milk and honey.

I am, as are most others, constantly looking for that one chai, the perfect chai. It has lead me to this tea. I have high hopes for this one because of the base teas used, a mi lan dancong and a mi lan black tea. I have yet to try the mi lan black tea by itself, but I did get a sample for basing it off of this tea. But I love mi lan dancong from verdant, which makes me hopeful in itself, plus there’s the lack of so many overpowering spices. There’s only a few. Plus, the saffron, marigold, and vanilla added to make this super creamy has me giddy.

I open the package and I smell the chocolate, vanilla, and cardamom as the predominate notes. There is a bit of ginger, the heat of it almost makes this smell like a Mexican hot chocolate…yum! There dry leaves are pretty to look at as well. The mix of the mi lan teas and lots of marigold petals contrasting.

I brew this western style, 205*F at 1 minute via Verdant instructions for this. The wet leaves smell juicy and cardamom-y. I can smell the dancong and the black tea. I can smell the chocolate, the creaminess, and a fruity-floral note.

The infusion is a nice golden color. It’s lighter than I would have expected it to be, but it’s still a rich gold. The infusion has the most spectacular aroma…homemade pumpkin pie! Oh good lord, I could sit here all day just sniffing this! I can’t get past the pumpkin pie smell to get anything else, then again I don’t want to! I love homemade pumpkin pie, it is my favorite pie, my favorite dish of the autumn season!

When I finally stop sniffing my tea enough to get a sip out of it I am not necessarily bombarded, but my tongue is trying to taste everything at once! At first there is that juicy quality from the dancong. There is a stone fruit note followed by cardamom. Then there’s vanilla, creaminess, a stone-mineral note, honey and caramel sweetness, a hint of chocolate, with the heat of ginger in the aftertaste. Whoo! and that was only the first sip!

I added a little bit of farmers market clover honey and I found it made it too sweet. The natural honey-caramel notes makes this tea sweet enough that I didn’t need to add any sweeteners. Then I added some milk. I added too much, although it did help to bring out the chocolate note more.

In the second steep I got more chocolate, more cardamom, and the ginger moved to the tip of my tongue lasting into the aftertaste. The juicy quality wasn’t quite as strong, but the vanilla and creaminess was still there. I didn’t add any sweetener to this steep, but I did add some milk, less this time. It made it taste more like a chai, but more watered down at the same time. This chai seems too light to be able to really handle milk, but that’s ok because this is delicious without any!

The third steep I’m starting to taste the pumpkin pie I had smelled earlier…this makes me happy! I’m not adding anything this time as I’m finding it better by itself. While this is a delicious chai, I am still on the lookout for one that holds up to milk well as I seem to prefer chai lattes. I do have the Laoshan chai from Verdant, but have yet to try it.

The one thing I found very interesting about this tea is that while tasting all the notes and trying to taste it as a chai, my mind and tongue kept trying to taste the dancong notes by itself! This is an excellent tea even though it’s not what I was looking for in a chai! Great job Verdant!

I’m having a cup of this now, and even though I’ve burned my tongue on it… it’s still AWESOME! I’ll try to be more specific later :D As with all my chais and most blacks this was taken with milk :D

We love chai so we had to give this one a go. I think this is a pretty good chai, but more complex than I can do justice to.

Chocolate and cardamom are the most prominent flavors for me. Ginger and vanilla play a subtle back up role. There is a caramel like sweetness that adds to the chocolate. It’s definitely malty and smooth with a full body. You know it feels wetter than normal. ha, how silly, perhaps juicy is a better descriptor.

I know there is saffron in here but as I’m unfamiliar with it, I don’t understand exactly what it is adding here. Look now we have another ingredient to brew on it’s own for personal understanding. It can be the yellow cup of death. :D

I will need to revisit the rating on this one when i get a chance to work my way through the various steepings. This morning i was in a rush so a few steepings got made and dumped into my tracvel mug heh. I must say that the smell from the steeped leaves was the LEAST pleasant smell i’ve had from verdant ever. The opened bag has a loevely scent but I don’t care for the steeped leaves. Luckily the tea itself is nothing like the smell :) This is a very light chai, i actually prefer Verdant’s other chai. That being said, I need to give this one another run through before i land on a solid conclusion.

Yay, my first of two recent Verdant orders arrived! Lots of samples, and an ounce or two of a few other things! Couldn’t wait to get started.

I used 2 tsp of tea in a probably slightly-bigger-than-it-should-have-been mug, and followed the western brewing instructions on Verdant’s website. The aroma is of quite a spiced, delicious-smelling chai, both dry and brewed.

The flavour, unfortunately, is a touch weak, and is coming off to me a bit more like spiced water than chai. I blame this on a poor leaf:water ratio. However, the spicing itself is delicious!! I can’t pick them out individually (and need to get going, not sit here contemplating for ten minutes!) The aftertaste, however, is of a rich dark chocolate.

A great blend with a lot of potential, but I think I need to put some effort into testing different brewing parameters to get the perfect mix! Right now, there definitely isn’t enough tea background for me (but since I have a nice little 1 oz. package of Laoshan Black now, I could always add a bit of that!

Ok, sadly I don’t have a lot of time to do a good review for this or a lot of other teas sadly. I need to start backlogging and just taking quick notes.

Anyway, I just want to say for know that this tea is AWESOME. I feel like I am drinking chocolaty flowers. It is good warm or cold. Warm is more tea-like in the flavor, if that makes sense. When it cools it is creamy floral chocolate with caramel. This is also a very soft chai, so anyone afraid of spice should not be worried. The spices are delicate and add a nice back drop to the flavor. I can’t wait to do a nice long tasting with this one.

Specifics
Steep: 4-5? and added 30sec each time.
Water: 16oz each steep
Leaf: about 4 teaspoons
Sweetener: less then half a table spoon per mug
Pot: Glass with brew basket

Today was a rough and long day, but I’m very happy to say that I got to pick up my Verdant Tea order! And I even nabbed it from the post office before school, which meant I got to brew some of this up in the morning (and then again when I got home, and again just now).
I love this tea. The choice of floral oolongs is absolutely perfect. The chai is delicately sweet which comes out more as it cools. I taste dark chocolate, vanilla, and spicy coriander, almost reminding me of peppercorns.
This is so delicious.

I’m a lousy employee (at least when it comes to doing desk work), but luckily, I’m a really NICE boss! I spent the morning drinking tea & basically trying to get motivated, & stayed in the tub way too long. I had a more productive afternoon, what with the gig, & some errands. I booked a funeral for this Saturday morning, scheduled a new student, & I also have a wedding on Saturday afternoon.

Being a musician is not all just sitting around, being creative, & plucking & strumming. I’m a performer, sure, but I’m also my own promoter, manager, & everything else (teacher, composer, arranger…)
The desk work is always the hard part. I have a whole list of things to do: phone calls & emails to return, website to update, bills to pay…
I’m (suppose to be) working at my desk now (“Actually, I am working at my desk, this is my break”, she said.), so a little more caffeine was in order.

I drank a cup of Chocolate Phoenix Chai last weekend, using 2 tsp & brewing as directed, & it wasn’t really what I expected, I was kind of disappointed. I really hate saying this, but it wasn’t as spicy or as chocolatey as I thought it would be.

So today I used a heaping tablespoon & brewed for 3 full minutes. Much better! This is a tasty treat! The background is dark unsweetened cocoa powder, with a gingerbread flourish. There is both a powdery feeling on the back of my tongue, & the decadently rich sensation of vanilla tinged whipped cream. I re-steeped, & the 2nd cup was tasty too! I also started a pint of cold-brew, & tomorrow I’ll let you know what I think!

Now for some administrative work…

I really like this chai. It is spicy and smooth. The vanilla notes are amazing. All of the spices work incredibly well together. There is no particular spice that dominates the rest. So good.

There were two things that threw me for a loop. First, I couldn’t taste the chocolate. I could see the chocolate pieces in the dry tea, but once it was brewed it was like they never existed. Second, this tea has a strong honey flavor to me. I quickly looked at the other reviews of this tea, and I don’t see notes about a honey taste elsewhere. Now don’t get me wrong I really like this chai and will happily finish off the rest of my tin. I just wish I knew what my taste buds were up to.

Ooo interesting. This is chocolate and chai in a very different way than I have experienced from Verdant, the natural notes usually coming from Laoshan Black, Big Red Robe or Zhu Rong Black. This is a very complex and unique. It’s stoney and savory, fruity and honey sweet and that’s not to mention the spice and cocoa which are lovely and present but my mind or perhaps my tongue is interesting in picking out the Dan Cong notes dancing around. Very nice, going to do one or two more hot infusions before cold brewing the leaves as I just picked up a sample size. It tastes like there is already milk in here, probably the vanilla, so I’m not going to do any additives. Really glad I got to try this. Well done Verdant!

For this tea I followed the directions that verdant gave with the tea. I used about 1 tsp of loose leaf and boiling water. Dry it smells of a nice chai with a hint of chocolate.

Steep 1: I steeped for 5 seconds and it turned to a nice light colored tea. It almost smells like pumpkin pie to me haha. The chai flavor is nice and light with a hint of ginger.

Steep 2: I steeped for 10 seconds, a bit darker then the previous. The chai and ginger area bit stronger as well with just a hint of vanilla and a touch of chocolately goodness :)

Steep 3: I steeped for 10 seconds again. The chai was a bit lighter but the ginger and the vanilla got stronger. The aftertaste is chocolate.

Steep 4: I steeped for 15 seconds. The chai seems to be a bit stronger then the last steep but the ginger is the same. I get less chocolate in the aftertaste this time. There is a bit of vanilla in the aftertaste as well.

Overall very good, I am a bit disappointed the chocolate wasnt that strong. I could drink this tea all day mmm so good. I need to try a chai by boiling it with milk still

I can’t believe I missed posting on my 2 year anniversary….but more than that, I can’t believe it’s been 2 years! 2 years, some $800 (I keep track, because I’m a nerd) and a whole bunch of fun.

Steep notes for this: 4 tsp. leaf, 8 oz. milk, 8 oz. water, 1.5 tsp. honey, below parameters.

I went ahead and followed normal chai preparation for this instead of verdant’s recommendations, mostly because of Bonnie’s (and others) notes. I’m sure I’ll give it a try plain, since dan cong is my most favorite oolong, but first I wanted to test out the chai part of the name.

Dry I have no problem getting the spices and dan cong notes, and the combination is really unusual. I can’t decide if it works or not, so I’ll steep it up and see, I guess! If I didn’t know to look for the chocolate I’m not sure I would have been able to get it – as it was I kind of had to hold the bag at just the right angle to get a hint of it in the smell.

Despite the steep time, the leaves imparted almost no color into the milk/water. Just a light tan, which surprised me given the amount of leaf I used. The taste was unmistakably dan cong, though – and pretty fantastic, at that!

Before I added the honey (when it was just milk and tea) was the only time the chocolate showed up in the taste, and it was mostly a bitter dark note, that I didn’t really like with the honeyed notes of the dan cong. I think adding the honey to sweeten worked out well in my case because it managed to both overwhelm that chocolate and bring out the base even more.

The spice in this is very mild and balanced. I normally like my chai with more bite, but I think the honey, peachy dan cong makes up for the gentle spiciness. I thought it worked out well, honey to complement the base, milk to complement the chai. A very unusual combination that works really well!

I took a break from doing math homework and clutching my aching belly to go to the post office. Yay!!! My order arrived!

This is the tea that won out for first try. I’ve done a 1 minute brew with 2 tsp tea and 200ml water that’s just off the boil. First impression? It’s weird. There’s a lot of spice here (Cardamom! Whoa!), a lot of complex tea flavours that I can’t pick out, and a weird sour note.

Steep 1 with sugar: added 1/4 tsp sugar, and its better. The sour note is more juicy, although this is definitely a cardamom steeping!
Steep 1 with sugar and milk: even more to my taste.

Steep 2, 3 minutes: This really is a very light tea. I don’t know why i was expecting something significantly darker. Anyways, i could drink this steep plain, but i prefer this tea with a little sugar and milk. 1/8 tsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp soy creamer, 200ml tea. Pretty darn tasty.

I’ll have to try this again with a 3 minute steep right off the bat. I’m not sure I would order this one again, though. I guess it depends on what I think of future cups!

YUM!!!! Need I say more?

OK, so this was to be my dinner tea so I brewed western style – too time consuming otherwise with cooking dinner also. I brewed with almost boiling water and for 3 minutes – used 2 heaping teaspoons for 24oz. I chose it for tonight as it feels like fall, windows open and about 60 degrees outside with a nice breeze.

The smell of this leaf is nice and spicy straight out of the bag – I knew we would fall in love. I get alot of clove from this which I love. I didn’t really get any chocolate flavor but that doesn’t bother me. Next time I will try multiple shorter steepings to see what other flavors I missed. Would be interesting iced too.

I think next time I’ll add more leaf as I like a strong chai.

I’ve been steeping this over two days and haven’t made up my mind.
Tonights steep (number three..).. tastes like olives. I looooove olives… but these are bitter gross olives. How can any olive be gross?! I don’t know, I’ve been asking this tea.

What happened? Whats up taste buddies? I just want some chocolate. I havent gotten an inkling of chocolate for any of my steeps. sigh