At least a year ago, a colleague at work handed me a packet that had this in it. I never found the right time to give it a try, and so when I was looking around for a sipdown candidate I thought I’d do this because it looked like it was a single serving.
Actually, it has two tea bags, and enough chai spices to evenly split between two servings. So it will be a great sipdown candidate for the NEXT time.
This tea is interesting in a lot of different ways. First, it appears to be a white label with my company’s name on it in front of Epicurean Delights. I’m not sure exactly who Epicurean Delights is, but I think it may be a catering company in our area.
Second, the tea is in two bags, the mesh pyramid kind not the paper kind, and the spices are packed separately. Two large sticks of cinnamon, about four cardamom pods, about the same number of cloves, and two very odd looking things I can’t identify. They look like carved cinnamon — they’re the same color, but they don’t smell like cinnamon. They don’t smell like anything, really. But they look like flowers.
I finally figured out this was star anise. Thank you, Google!
Third, this isn’t at all what I expected. I expected strong spices, but this is really subtle with the chai spices and quite nice. I put half the spices in with the teabag in 195F water. I was planning to take the teabag out, but I left it in and the tea never turned bitter. I mostly taste the cinnamon and cloves along with a buttery green oolong, though there is a “freshness” that cools the tongue and that may be the anise.
The chai spices do sort of subdue the floral aspect to the point of disappearance, though.
It’s a pretty, light yellow clear color, and in a clear glass it is really enjoyable (or as No. 2 would say, “satisfying”) to look at the whole spices in among the bagged leaves.
Definitely a one of a kind experience, and it gets points for being better than expected and for being lovely to look at.
Flavors: Cinnamon, Clove
I’ve seen some Epicurean Delights catering trucks around the city.