Witches' Brew Chai

How is it that I’m the first to be reviewing this chai?

For those of you out there that love a good, spicy chai … you MUST try this! It’s a little bit smoky, but not too much, it’s warm and spicy and there’s a lovely licorice snap to it. It’s got a solid background of tea flavor that is rich and malty and the smoky notes of the Lapsang come out to play … and the smoke accentuates the cumin in a really nice way.

I LOVE this chai. It’s better than the gingerbread chai, Frank! Your best chai yet!

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Wednesday, April 28th: National Superhero Day Tea #2

Not quite a superhero, and also proves that I might like things that border on anti-heroes… another of my favorites is Witcher!  I have only seen the show, not read the books, but the show is great.   And a good time to open my second Frank’s pouch of Witches Brew Chai.  A solid chai – though really I’m not seeing many spices here!  It’s mostly black tea.  Less smoky with age, but that’s fine with me.

Smoke. Smoke and a flat kind of black tea behind it.

I feel as though this one really dropped the ball on being a chai – because when I think of chai I’m in line with the hearty masala chai that some brands offer, all spice and lingering warmth – and instead gave me a moderately insipid lapsang souchong mix that neither delighted my palate nor enlivened my senses.

So this, for me, was not a winner. I was able to drink most of the cup, but don’t really feel any need to make another one.

I’m so glad my past self decided to gift all but two cups worth of this tea to work friends because I think lapsang souchoung is not my cup of tea (ha-ha). Dry this one smells like cinnamon and send like it’d be a very festive tea. Steeped it tastes like smoked meat. Not my thing and quite a disappointment. Oh well. Another sipdown.

Got this tea as part of Marzipan’s tea stash sale!

This was a tiny pouch from 52 Tea’s 12 Days of Christmas advent calendar. I should have read the reviews of the reblend, because they were totally right. This reblend is a no go.

I like savory teas. I could even say that I really like savory teas. But each sip of this tea was followed by a ‘huh.’ First two sips all I could taste was strong tea and cumin. As it began to slowly cool, all I tasted was cumin. It was like licking an old jar of spice. I didn’t even get anything remotely like chai spices.

Ew. Sorry Marzi. This one is not for me, but maybe for the rubbish bin.

52teas’ 12 Teas of Christmas Day 8! (Drank Dec. 8)
Oh dear…. this one’s spicy. Like, REALLY spicy. I opened up the packet (a black with cinnamon chunks and tiny bits of flavouring or as I now know, spices), and it is POTENT. Not even chai spice; it smells more like…. doritos minus the cheese? Like Mexican spicing? Bleh….

A few more sniffs, and I’m noticing some creaminess, and my roommate pointed out that it’s smoky (it’s obvious, but I got lost in the spices apparently), and it smells like cumin. Ugh. It tastes like smoky cumin. NOT flavours I want in a tea. No no no. Apparently it’s Witches’ Brew Chai – I never would have guessed that. I’m wondering if something is off with this reblend, because all the reviews are favourable, but this is a cup of smoky-cumin-never-again. It’s too savoury, and the only noticeable spice is cumin. Dumped part of the cup; wasn’t worth it.

I know this doesn’t seem the most obvious choice for this time of the year, but I chose it for several reasons. Number 1, it was actually a part of Frank’s last (I think?) ‘12 teas of Christmas’ at 52teas before he handed over the reins to Anne (who I believe was a creative collaborator on this tea even before she was official owner?). Number 2, this is tasting note 666 for me, and it just seemed wrong writing up a Christmas-themed tea and wishing happy holidays on this note… and number 3, I really wanted a tea latte, and this seemed like a good choice. Originally I was going to use the tea I got for Christmas (more on that shortly), but I decided I should probably drink that straight for my first note before I add a bunch of milk and syrup to it.

Unfortunately the first pouch of this I grabbed was the Christmas reblend rather than the original, and while I do think this fits the brief of a smoky, savoury chai blend, I much preferred the original which was much sweeter with the cola-forward ginger note I find in a lot of Frank’s chai blends. This reblend is heavy on the cumin, and heavy on the smoke. I thought it might work well as a latte as I really enjoy the Adagio Sherlock blend (a similar lapsang chai) in latte form, but unfortunately this missed the mark. It has a strange sourness to it which I can only assume comes from the cumin, which there was a lot of in my spoons this evening. It’s followed up by a lot of clove and a stubborn lingering smoke. It’s not awful – just not quite what I was after this evening.

I received this tea from Marzipan in her 52 teas sampler. It’s very different from any other Chai that I have tasted before.

This was a “Smokey” chai. I did taste a bit of smoke flavor. After adding a bit of almond milk and some honey it was perfect! So good that I drank two cups.

I am a huge chai fan, and this one was pretty good. It is smokier than most of the others I lean toward, and has the added layer of anise. However, I am not a huge liquorice fan. If you are, this one will be right up your alley.

Oh, the irony has not escaped me. A witch making a tea named Witch’s Brew. LOL. Yes it would be a lot more appropriate for it to be Halloween or at least Fall (Most people seem to agree that Chai’s are definitely a Fall tea.) But I had an urge for a black tea to start off with today (I woke up around 10:30 but for some reason could not get myself off my behind to the kitchen to make tea before now.) and this is what my hand fell on.

Smell wise-Very Licorice-y. In fact when I was sniffing it last night I kept thinking it smelled like the licorice flavor Jujubees, which I have not eaten in years due to various things (Like preferring other candies like JellyBellies.)

Tastewise-I am not a huge fan of licorice and the last tea I had that had licorice was kind of weird and a bit gross. But in this….I like it. I’m considering going against my earlier plan of drinking the rest of the samples I had pulled out to have yesterday, today and tomorow and having a cup of Butterbeer, which I did not care for the few times I had it, but want to try again because otherwise I should give it away or pitch out-just taking up space in my cupboard otherwise.

So, if Frank were to reblend it, I would seriously consider buying a bag.

LOL. Since I read the tasting notes and description and ingredients in this tea and noticed that it has Lapsang Souchong in it, I am now thinking I taste an after taste of LS, I wonder if I really do or if it’s the power of suggestion?

**Note**1 About my calling myself a witch, no not talking down about myself, it is how I identify more or less, though I usually prefer Pagan or Spiritual with Pagan inclinations ;) Just for clarification, ya’all!

**Note**2 For future references, should drink this kind of fast as it doesn’t taste that great cooling down, which seems to be a characteristic of Chai blends.