A while ago I had really enjoyed steeping a teabag of Tazo’s “Pumpkin Spice Chai” along with some straight houjicha, finding they complimented each other very well. I finished up the Tazo teabags before the houjicha, but when I went back to my local grocery to restock, they no longer had the Tazo “Pumpkin Spice Chai” so I grabbed a random other chai from what they had available, which was this one. And I found, as I do with most grocery store chai options, that I hated it. It uses waaaaaaaaaaay too much spice oils/flavoring rather than whole spices for my tastes. I sometimes do okay with the cinnamon flavoring used in teas with those sweet “cinnamon candy” sort of blends, but here it just comes off as really artificial… and the clove and cardamom oil tastes really strong. I like clove in tea (I realize it is a polarizing ingredient in chai) but this just punches you in the face with it.
Needing a way to use up the teabags (I hate being wasteful of food I’ve already spent my dollars on), I’ve been using them up making tea pop. My first batch turned out pretty awful because my CO2 canister was at the bottom so it didn’t fizz up properly and made the tea really bitter, so a fresh CO2 canister and a little added sugar syrup later and it’s servicable in pop form. Still a little clove heavy, but it works much better as a fizzy carbonated cold drink and I can use up the teabags four at a time making the base coldbrew. One more liter to go to wash my hands of this chai!
Flavors: Artificial, Cinnamon, Clove, Spices
Preparation
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Isn’t it ironic that we can be so intent on swilling-down as fast as possible those teas & tisanes we dislike, in a drive to rid our cupboards of them, that we end up ignoring those we treasure, often allowing them to fade away into old age before we get to enjoy them at their prime‽ ‽ Whereas if we let the overly pungent or strongly artificial ones settle down for a few years, they might be improved by the treatment! Not true for everyone’s stash, I’m sure, but for some of us the better approach might be to drink-up our favorites first! I’ll try to make that my new approach now!
Isn’t it ironic that we can be so intent on swilling-down as fast as possible those teas & tisanes we dislike, in a drive to rid our cupboards of them, that we end up ignoring those we treasure, often allowing them to fade away into old age before we get to enjoy them at their prime‽ ‽ Whereas if we let the overly pungent or strongly artificial ones settle down for a few years, they might be improved by the treatment! Not true for everyone’s stash, I’m sure, but for some of us the better approach might be to drink-up our favorites first! I’ll try to make that my new approach now!