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This is such a complex, full-bodied tea. It makes me eager to try other Keemuns to see if they’re anything like this one.

I decided to see how long I could make this tea last – I got four good steepings out of it before there was any significant weakening of the flavour.

Not much more to say, go read my older tasting notes. :)

When I was in Vancouver for the Olympics I stopped by the Blue Teapot, which is a tea shop that’s sort of an old favorite of mine, located in the Lonsdale Quay. The owner had gotten in a bunch of new merchandise in anticipation of the tourist influx and he was selling some of the David Rio chai mixes.

I’ve never tried any of David Rio’s teas but having some experience with Oregon Chai and Second Cup’s chai mixes (which can be diabetic coma-inducing) I asked the owner to tell me which one he thought was the least sweet of the bunch. He pointed out this one and since I thought it sounded interesting (I’ve never had a green tea chai latte) I got it.

Okay…the cute name might have been a factor aswell. ;P

I was expecting something a little bit like sweetened matcha…yeah. When I opened the package the powdery contents inside were a pale yellow colour and they smelled like one of those vanilla pudding mixes.

The ‘texture’ of the tea in my mouth feels a little off. The package instructions say to use hot water but I think I’d like this better with milk instead. It’s just too thin with water. It tastes sweet but not sickly sweet, thankfully. I can distinctly taste the vanilla and the spices which are a good mix – I do wish I could pick up more of a green tea flavour though. It’s there, but you have to look for it in each sip.

It’s not bad, I might buy it again if I come across it and it isn’t too expensive, but it’s not anything that’s likely to become a regular staple in my cupboard. I prefere whole-leaf chais anyway.

The taste is fruitier and more pleasent with a reduced steeping time but I’m still getting a distinct tannic aftertaste that I don’t really care for.

Lena wanted me to be her guinea pig and try this tea for her. ;)

It tastes rather weak and watery with a bit of a slightly fake-tasting sweet berry flavour tucked in at the end. It’s not sickly sweet like a lot of iced teas, which is a point in its favour and I can definitely see this as being refreshing on a hot summer day.

I got this one from TeaEqualsBliss, it’s not Evil!Tazo Sweet Orange bad, but it’s not great either. It has almost a dusty sort of taste to it and it has a bit of a perfumy note that makes me think of jasmine tea – but not quite. It’s like the flavour goes halfway to a proper jasmin taste and then quits.

There was lots of coconut shavings in this scoop of tea so I crumbled them up a little bit before I added the water to expose more of the surfaces and the flavour compounds to the tea. It seemed to work – I could see some of the coconut oil forming a bit of a slick on the surface of the cup and the coconut flavour was more pronounced than it’s been in the past – although it still doesn’t dominate the tea. The taste is also a bit less ‘perfumy’ now that I reduced the steeping time by a minute.

This smells quite nice – like an early grey but with a creamy, dessert-like scent to it. Taste-wise there’s a bit of the sweet, vanilla-cream at the start of each sip…but it quickly gets jumped on and smothered by the Earl Grey Bravo which then proceeds to do a victory dance on my tongue. Maybe if I steep it a bit less like I do a cup of straight Earl Grey Bravo it won’t be as pungent.

I’ve always enjoyed Tazo’s chai, despite not beeing terribly thrilled with their other teas. This chai just has the right mix of spices for me – I can distinctly taste the cardamom and cloves and the faint prickle on the tongue that’s the black pepper and a bit of heat from the cinnamon, finished off with the faint licorice taste of the anise in the back of my mouth.

Maybe I’m biased – this was the first chai I ever tasted, though it was in the form of a Starbucks chai latte I seem to recall. But I also think that this is a good cuppa, particularly for a bagged tea.