Holiday Chai

This was supposed to be a quickly brewed cup of tea to drink while I worked on school stuff. Quick it was not… After taking only a few sips of it I then proceeded to dump the rest of the cup all over myself, furry blanket, and heated blanket. Luckily none of it ended up on my laptop though. What a week but this one is one dumped cup closer to a sip down before the end of the year!

Part of my Stash Assortment. It qualifies as a black chai. The other black chais in the assortment were better blends.

This smells so strongly to me of mince pies when I open a bag, and suddenly everything in me is ready for the holidays to begin! As someone who usually puts a dash of milk in my teas, I do find that once it’s brewed up and I’ve added milk, the kind of rum-scent that made me think of mince pies (for whatever reason) dissipates, but the rest of the flavours remain strong. However, without milk, I can still detect it clearly!

I particularly enjoy that, while this is a holiday chai and it contains cinnamon, I don’t find I detect the cinnamon particularly – whereas in many holiday beverages the cinnamon is sometimes ALL you can taste. Not so for me here.

The only way I could love it more is if the rum flavour was still able to come through with the addition of milk. It’s not the most “chai” of chai labelled teas, in my opinion, but I enjoy it thoroughly. It’s a warming, mild spice experience that evokes the holidays beautifully. Hoping I can find it this winter now that I’m running out!

A sample of this got included in a recent order from Stash. I’d seen it listed on their website and was a little put off from “gingerbread flavoring” listed among the ingredients. But I have to say the smell of this cup was pretty heady. It doesn’t make a very dark cup but the aroma is quite nice. I actually smelled some apple in my cup, sort of cidery. All in all a nice chai more on the spiced cider end of things. Nice with a little bit of basswood honey.

Enjoyed this unsweetened and without milk. Not sure why I made that choice, as I usually prefer my chais the opposite. I did enjoy the balance of spices, but as expected, thought it would’ve been much better with cream and sugar. I couldn’t quite taste the rum or gingerbread. I definitely got more of a straightforward cinnamon/ginger blend.

Love this! Definitely puts me in an autumn/winter mood. The spices are just right and there’s something joyful about the entire experience of drinking this tea.

Backlog

Great spice, but I didn’t like the black tea base. Slightly bitter and astringent.

I had a box of this during the holidays and it smelled very festive, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves with a bit of rum. I liked it a great deal at the time because I was in the Christmas spirit. After the holidays however I noted just how lacking it is in actual tea flavour, it’s almost more of an herbal mix than a Chai. It’s not bad, just not very Chai-y. I recall that I slipped some chocolate milk in it a few times, which I would usually not do with any other tea, but with this, it works delightfully.

A much more subtle chai tea which has a more of a rum and all spice flavour to it.

I tried the bagged version of this, and it is just as good as it sounds. I really like the blend of flavors here. The nutmeg and clove are most predominate, which is wonderful for me because I love those flavors, and like them to dominate my chai spice blends. I tried it without milk or sugar and it was quite good, but I bet it would be even better with some milk and sweetener.