Sticky Chai

A few months ago, we celebrated our new home by placing a massive order from B&B since it was a bucket listed tea vendor (especially for the lady love). Upon the very large quantity of teas purchased, I snagged a few that seemed interesting to me. Sticky Chai seemed intriguing due to addition of honey to the mix of tea and spices. The aroma is lovely, but muted. I love a strong spicy/bold chai with the most minimal sweetener added; however, milk is necessary.

Anyway, I made the attempt around the time of receiving this to stove top it. I noted that it was “ok” and put it in the sip down pile. And there it sat until today. I brewed it Western style at 200F for 5 minutes and frothed oat milk as the topper. I’ll note that this is the brewing method of choice since the tea, I believe, isn’t meant to be anything extreme. It’s supposed to give you the essence of chai, without the punch in the face. Which is unfortunate for me, but this will be a solid session for a local friend who advised that they like a chai, but not a bold chai. So, into the “drink at work” pile it’ll go!

I felt like a stovetop chai, so I pulled this one out to make. I started with the recommended two heaping teaspoons per 8 ounces of milk. Not sure whether they mean measuring teaspoons or regular kitchen spoons? I assumed measuring teaspoons as that’s how tea is generally measured. I heated it over medium heat and simmered it a bit, then decided the color was too light and added another two teaspoons of tea.

So… This came out weirdly savory with no sweetness at all? I don’t know if I didn’t use enough tea, so that’s why I’m not tasting the honey? It almost reminds me of some kind of pumpkin soup but without the sweetness. I ended up stirring in some additional honey to get some sweetness, which helped, but it was still a rather bizarre cup of chai. Spice-wise, I was getting a lot of fennel, maybe that’s why it went to such a savory place?

Clearly I need more practice preparing this tea, ha ha…

#tiffanys2021sipdown Tea #122 overall / Tea #38 for March

Monday 3/29/21 — Bird and Blend Sticky Chai. I enjoy this tea plain, latte, stovetop but it lost in my March Tea Sipdown Madness a few weeks ago(?) Anyway, had 2 hot/plain lattes today to finish up this package which was best by a little over 2 years ago. I’d keep this in my cupboard / purchase this in the future if it’s around in a few years when my tea stash is under control / if I ever wanted a nice sticky chai. (this is not a full sip down, I definitely have more of this in my stash)

#tiffanydrinkstea #tiffanys2021 #tiffanysfaves #tiffanyinthe614 #tiffanysteasipdown #sipdownchallenge

I rarely do a review for the same tea again (my original post on this is here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/396293 ) but after attempting this tea (stovetop style) a few times over the weekend I think I’ve finally perfected how I like it. The first time I made it, I had trouble getting it quite right, too. Since past and present Sara have the memory of a goldfish, it stands to reason future Sara will too, so this is for you, future Sara!

1) Use plain oat milk, not vanilla. Otherwise it’s way too sweet.
2) For a 16 oz. cup: use 2 cups oat milk and 3 heaping regular ol’ kitchen teaspoon globby scoops tea for a more “mild” profile; for slightly more kick, use 1 cup oat milk/1 cup water and 4 heaping teaspoon scoops of tea mix.
3) While simmering the tea, DO NOT BLINK. BLINK AND YOU DIE. (Or at least your chai will boil over that quickly… but I’m still sure Weeping Angels are involved somehow…)
4) Don’t even think about trying to use your gravity well infuser as a strainer. Just don’t do it. Goopy residue will coat the fine mesh and you’ll never get the tea out and have to use a standard strainer anyway.

It’s a nice chai, albeit a bit finicky because of the goopy honeyed leaf. Having tried a sticky chai now, I don’t think I’d ever get one again, since it is much easier to measure the leaf consistently and get more balanced scoops with dry leaf, and I can always add my own honey to the stove mixture to taste anyway. It has been a bit interesting that every cup I make seems to be an entirely different dominant spice flavor, likely due to just what happened to be stuck in my clumpy scoops that time; yesterday, I had an extremely fennel/anise cup that tasted like melted black licorice (I love black licorice, so I was fine with that!) while today, I’m not getting that at all, instead it tastes very cinnamon-sweet.

I’ve had this chai a couple of times now and it has been a disappointment every time. I have tried steeping it, boiling it in nut milk and now doubling the amount of tea to try to pull some flavor out. Chai is usually spicy and warming, filled with delightful flavors with a base of tea to carry them. This doesn’t have that. At all. I can smell a little bit of the spices as I sip, but get next to nothing on the palate. The idea of a tea kept wet with a sweetener is interesting, but the company has WAY oversold this tea as “the best chai this side of Mumbai”, which raises expectations to something this tea can not deliver.

281/365

This is the agave version (B&B also do honey and maple varieties). I made this one in a pan on the hob, as per the recommendation, using 2 tsp of leaf, heated in milk until just about boiling. It strikes me as sweet, as chai goes, and what I like about it is that some of the more unusual flavours stand out more than the more usual suspects. For example, I can taste the anise most prominently, followed by corriander and fennel. For this reason, it doesn’t strike me as a particularly spicy chai – it’s more gentle/fragrant, but I’m actually enjoying that since I feel like I’m tasting things I wouldn’t usually notice much in other chai blends. The usual things are there – ginger, cinnamon, clove, cardamon, pepper – but they’re pretty muted and remain mostly in the background.

The base tea is assam, and that’s deliciously malty (as you might expect). It works well with the sweeter overall profile, and with the agave particularly. While the blend as a whole tastes sweet, it doesn’t come across as sweetened or artificial. It strikes a nice balance.

I think, in future, I’d probably experiment with a bit more leaf, or perhaps 50:50 milk and water because I’d like the overall flavour to be a little stronger. Having said that, I really enjoyed the flavour I got here, so that’s not a criticism. I’d just like to taste more of it! I’ll return to this one with interest, particularly as the colder weather returns.

On an unrelated note, today was my first day in my new job, and I think it’s going to be okay. Obviously it’s all a bit weird and confusing at the moment, but I think it has the potential to be really nice. I have a cold at the moment, though, that I helpfully developed over the weekend, so I’m feeling pretty tired and just blah in general. For that reason, I’m going to pause my challenge for a few days while I recover, and while I get to grips with my new working arrangements. I’ll be back in a few days, though!