Chocolate Chai

The chocolate note is… interesting. I’m glad I made it with milk and sugar on the stovetop because otherwise I think the tannins would have been overpowering. I think I like it, but I’ll have to have more to be sure.

I am not a fan of this chai. The bitter aroma carries over to the taste. Very little chocolate to speak of. Mostly it consists of cinnamon and mild spices. But not a great blend as you would expect in a chai. I am willing to trade this if anyone is interested.

I had a cup of this at a baby shower over the weekend. It was less chocolatey than I would have expected, given the name, but still quite good. I bet with creamer and sugar it’d be even better!

For those that aren’t big on matcha, here’s another drinking chocolate I just made:
1/3 c. milk (chocolate or plain)
3TB drinking chocolate mix
1 heaping teaspoon of your favorite chai
1 packet (individual serving) instant coffee
1TB spiced rum creamer (pumpkin spice would also be killer)

Heat milk til bubbles start forming on the surface and add chai. Steep for 5 min and strain. Add chocolate mix, instant coffee, and creamer. Mix completely, pour into your favorite bowl, and drink up!

I’m drinking this mixed with Adagio’s caramel, cream, and honeybush vanilla. They were all sample sizes and I mixed the sample sizes together to get more distance out of each one.

The reason I’m drinking this is because I have the flu, and my taste buds don’t work, so I figured it’s a perfect time to sip through the teas I’m not super fond of or just simply don’t drink that often. This is my tea of choice for this right after a nice steaming cup of Theraflu, which is the only thing that got me to my desk at work today.

Another from my swap with Michelle. I still like this one, very mild chai spices, and a very soft chocolate which is more just a touch of sweetness, but its tasty. Goes well with the softer black base.

Drank this last night around 11pm (oddly enough slept like a baby after). Not as chocolaty as I thought it would be with a name like Chocolate Chai. I could smell the cinnamon spice and that was the taste the carried through from first to last drop. It wasn’t bad, but it was also nothing to write home about.

I prepared this with frothed milk and sweetener. The cocoa flavor is very mild, but definitely present. Drinking a second cup without milk made the flavor less noticeable. It reminds me a bit of Mexican chocolate, except, of course, for the calories.

Backlog from yesterday! I was given a small bit of this a while ago, and steeped too much leaf in too small of a cup the first time around, and it had way too much of the Chai spice we all usually LOVE.

So, I had to wait to re-try it, since at college I don’t have a lot of my tea stuff with me, like my mugs and good strainers. Now that I’m home and able to steep it right, I did and OH MY GOSH I WANT MORE IT’S NOT FAIR THAT IT IS ALL GONE!

This tea was so, so yummy. It had the Chai spice, but it was delicate, and it had a very creamy chocolate flavor, subtle on the first sip, strong on the aftertaste. Very, very good. It had the right balance of spicy, creamy, and sweet, it smelled good pre-steep, and after steeping, and it was just great.

I really want more…

This is an ok chai. It needs more of everything actually. The flavor is quite muted to me. I like my chai a little more robust than this. Glad I had only ordered a sample and not a full order of it.