Bristol Chai

Sipdown (359)

Thank you Roswell Strange for sharing! While I was wandering around Mtl in December, I passed by this shop but was with a friend and didn’t go in. I was a bit sad about that and apparently it is permanently closed now and these chais are being sold through Camellia Sinensis. So, it is nice to get a chance to try this despite not going to the store.

Of course I made it as a latte because that’s the best way to make a chai. Plus it is sunny but very cold out and chais work for a cold day. However, I am debating if I want to brave the cold and go sit through student presentations for a few hours or if I want to just hang out in my apartment and chill. The prof told us we only need to show up for half the student presentations and I have shown up to all of them so far so I can take the day if I choose.

This chai is more peppery/gingery than I normally like. It clearly is good quality though since there is no muddiness that sometimes happens when chai ingredients are not properly balanced. However, I topped it with some chaiwala chai sprinkles which is a combination of maple sugar and chai spices. The sprinkles add a nice sweetness to this to counter the overly spiced ginger/pepper. While the balance of flavors is not to my preference, I can definitely see this being appealing to many and I am glad I got the chance to try it out. Thanks again, Roswell Strange!

The third in my review series of Bristol Chai’s products. Again, Eva is a completely different beast. Simply put, Eva is basically Bristol Chai’s answer to “golden milk”. It has a green tea base, which is fairly unusual for chai, but comes out very nicely once brewed, especially considering I’m very picky when it comes to green tea.

From the bag, you immediately get ginger and turmeric with a slight hint of green tea. Once brewed, it makes a beautiful golden liquor which turns very turmeric-forward with hints of ginger. Once you taste it, you get that slightly peppery finish which is rather nice. With milk, it turns into this golden latte which to my surprise is absolutely delicious. They call it “tonic chai” and I definitely understand why. You feel energized after drinking this! Good stuff.

This one came to me as a surprise. Like most of Bristol’s, this chai is quite interesting. It has a rooibos base, with right from the start made me wary. I am not quite fond of rooibos in general, to be honest. However, as soon as I opened the bag, a very pleasant, fruity and spicy smell filled my senses. I hadn’t looked at the ingredients yet because I like to make my idea first and right from the get go, I picked up orange, cinnamon, clove and the unmistakable smell of rooibos. Once infused, it was definitely very cinnamon and clove-forward, with the orange flavoring giving it a nice finish, surprisingly not “fake” for flavoring. The cardamom and pink peppercorn are pretty faint, I could only taste them when I brewed it with no added milk or brown sugar. All in all, a pleasant surprise. This is a chai I’d reach for after dinner since it’s caffeine-free. Definitely the best rooibos chai I’ve had.

This unusual, woodsy chai is probably not going to be for everyone. It has the typical notes of a good chai (ginger, black pepper, clove) but it adds an unexpected twist with black cardamom, adding a smoky scent and some empyreumatic flavors to the mix. It’s probably not the chai I’d reach for in the morning but in the afternoon when it’s cold and I have a chill down my spine, this chai with a dash of milk and a tiny pearl of brown sugar is absolutely delightful. My favorite chai of this season and a fantastic discovery, truly.

The next stop on my National Chai Day adventure was Bristol Chai, a Chai Bar in downtown Montreal – seems like a perfect pit stop, no!? I managed to get there about fifteen minutes before close so I didn’t have a ton of time to hang out at the Cafe but I got myself a Clark latte w/ almond milk – and it was pretty nice!

This is the first time I’ve tried Bristol Chai/Camellia Sinensis’ “Clark” blend – it’s differentiator from the rest of the collection is that it’s a chocolate chai. To me, it gave me sort of Mexican Hot Chocolate vibes – a nice, smooth chocolate note (not overly rich or weak, more of a cocoa taste than a milk chocolate/dark chocolate) with warming spices, cinnamon largely. I enjoyed it, and it seemed a bit more refined and nuanced than your typical chocolate chai.

Also – I recently learned that today (Sept. 28th) is the last day that Bristol Chai will be open!! CS will carry the Chai line through their store/website, but the physical location is shutting down. How fucking sad is that!? Does make me really happy I decided to go for National Chai Day though…

So, yesterday I met up with a coworker to go out for chai/brunch at Bristol Chai. I might be wrong here, but I believe Bristol Chai is either owned/run by Camellia Sinensis, or in partnership with them? Either way, CS has its hands in the cookie jar in at least some capacity. The bar carries five different chais, each with their own sort of “twist” to them and they’re personified by different animal characters on the packaging, with a name such as “Arthur” or “Eva”, etc…

Now, I’m not the biggest chai fan in the world – but I still wanted to check this place out at least once, just to be able to say that I have. Besides, yesterday was a highly rainy and chilly day so chai seemed like the perfect comfort/cozy drink for the weather. I think a lot of people had the same idea too, a great number of people came into the cafe while we were there to get a chai latte to go or to sit down and find some temporary respite from the weather.

I was pretty sure I was going to order either Scarlet or Clark as my drink; the first is a rooibos based chai with orange and the second is a chai with chocolate. Even Winston seemed appealing because of the high level of clove in the mix. However, at the last minute I remember that my boss had told me that if I ever stopped by Bristol Chai I should get Eva – in his opinion, that’s the best option. Now, Eva is the chai with a green tea base, as well as a whole lot of turmeric in it. So, it’s pretty outside what I normally enjoy in a good cup of chai. I went for it anyway though, and ordered an Eva Latte.

I was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed this; it’s not super obviously green since there’s a lot of strong spice notes that cover up an nuances in the base of the tea. What that leaves is essentially a very turmeric heavy chai, with a fair bit of cardamom and ginger notes in the body. It works though; by some miracle all of those spices clicked together for me and made a very smooth, pleasantly spicy and warming cup of chai. Now, I wouldn’t go out any buy it since I think a big influence on why this worked for me today was the weather outside – but I definitely felt satisfied with the order I had made.

We also grabbed food, and I went for a grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized onions, leeks, and dates – and while it was incredibly rich, it was also so good. Like, my experience thus far is that Montreal’s Sandwich game is on point. So many great sandwiches…

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/Br8dQQtlJKu/

So yeah, that was my experience at Bristol Chai! I guess at least somewhat surprisingly, as an outspoken Chai skeptic, I would go again! I can always order something outside of chai, as they do offer Matcha Lattes or London Fogs – and the food/aesthetics were super awesome. Really nice spot.

I know it’s a weird weekend when I unironically just really crave a good Chai tea.

This is pretty much just a “classic” feeling Chai spice combination, and I’m gonna blame the cold/rainy weather for this spontaneous chai craving. I added a smidge of maple agave, and it was pretty perfect. Thick/full bodied and intensely warming with heavy notes of ginger and cardamom. Man, I love cardamom. The subtle maple sweetness was a nice touch too.

A bit gingery/peppery for me to get REALLY into it, but this was still bold and flavourful and quite a lovely cup of tea to be sipping on during a cold and rainy day – and that was exactly the situation I was experiencing when I drank this last Saturday.

I’ll, begrudgingly, admit it folks – Chai teas are kind of becoming more enjoyable for me.

So, I made Turmeric + Chai tea eggs yesterday for a birthday party that I was attending that was “pot luck” style. I wanted to do a tea egg because it doesn’t require a lot of equipment or ingredients that I would have needed to go out to specifically purchase – which works well for me since I basically own nothing cooking or baking related at this point since moving…

But, they are a cool conversational piece as well and if done well have a striking appearance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a turmeric style of tea egg, but I thought it just seemed like a really obvious addition to the recipe since turmeric has such a pigment colour that is KNOWN for staining/dying things. That’s exactly what you want in a tea egg, right!?

I talked more about the process of making these on instagram and I don’t really feel like retyping all of it here, so if you’re curious how much I used of which ingredients you should just check out my instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bra7Ua_l8wK/

You can marvel at how fucking BEAUTIFUL the eggs came out at the same time; because holy shit were they ever beautiful! Probably the most visually striking tea eggs that I have ever made – dark, defined marbling with a golden tinted hue from the turmeric.

They were also REALLY well received at the party too! My experience bringing tea eggs to parties has been really hit or miss, something people get weirded out by them or just view them as a fancier looking version of a boiled egg. However, I think with all the really involved and well made home cooked foods that were brought to this potluck (as well as all the people who work for a tea company) this was the perfect audience to really appreciate the culture/tradition surrounding tea eggs and to appreciate time it takes to make them as well. I made a dozen, which we cut in half to make them more shareable but also so people could sample them if they were skeptical/didn’t want to commit to a whole egg. By the end of the party, every single one had been eaten – and people were vocally upset we had run out of eggs.

I received more compliments on them and how beautiful they looked a delicious, savory and well seasoned they tasted at this one party than I have probably received as a WHOLE prior to now. Several people asked for the recipe. It was all very flattering!

So hooray for turmeric chai tea eggs!