Pumpkin Chai

I LOVE this tea. You really get a lot of the pumpkin flavour, but with hints of vanilla and spice that are perfectly balanced. A HUGE thanks to LadyChai who gave a 100g tin of this tea to nerdswing and I, and as a result making lovers of this tea out of us. It’s absolutely delicious and sweet on its own. The only reason I didn’t rate it higher is because it doesn’t hold up well to additional steepings. Even the second steeping was not nearly as falvourful as the first, and the third was just hot water. But a delicious treat none-the-less, and I will definitely be keeping this tea in my cupboard consistently thanks to some (rubber) arm-twisting from the lovely LadyChai. :)

If you want a picture of what the autumn season is all about this is no doubt one of the places to start. The sweet deep flavor of pumpkin pie in a mug that is the best way of describing it. The spices and little pumpkin candies make this a very endearingly warm tea that begs to be savored slowly to get every nuance out of it. The scent itself is very alluring even to passerby’s who ask what the tea is. No matter the season this tea just fits perfectly for a “pick me up”.

The first word that comes to mind when I think of this tea is “disappointment”.

It isn’t BAD and it certainly isn’t the worst tea I’ve ever had, but it really fell flat when I tried it and didn’t live up to my expectations.

When I went to David’s to find a new tea to try, I thought I’d try a cup of the Pumpkin Chai, so I asked to smell it. When it was brought to me, I smelled it, and immediately told them to forget about the cup and to instead give me a 50g bag. It smelled AMAZING. It smelled sweet, spicy, warm, and it honestly made me feel like it was autumn all over again. The scent was just phenomenal, even better than I thought it would have been. I went home and I was so excited to try it. I wanted to see if it really was as amazing as I thought it was going to be.

It wasn’t. It really, REALLY wasn’t.

There was no spiciness, no pumpkin flavour, no nothing. All it tasted like was boring, bland, black tea. It was just… dull. It lacked all the flavours and sensations that the scent seemed to promise.

I tried it several more times, to see if maybe it was just a fluke, but nope. Each time it was the same, disappointing tea I had tried the first time.

All in all? If you like the taste of regular black tea, go for it. But if you try this tea and expect something phenomenal, prepare to be disappointed. I know I certainly was.

Oh my god, I’ve died and ascended to Fólkvangr and the goddess Freyja. Life is amazing. Life is beautiful. Life tastes exactly like pumpkins.

Very rich and flavorful with a taste that lingers on your tongue. I’ve yet to steep this just in steamed milk, as is how I often enjoy my chai, but prepared as a black tea with a bit of milk and honey added to it as you do, it’s still divine.

Mmmmmm…one of the great pleasures in life = a huge mug of pumpkin chai on a soggy Vancouver evening :-)

I’m on what feels like an eternal quest for the perfect chai. Ever since I had it made from scratch at a friend’s house a number of years ago, freshly ground spices and all, I haven’t been able to find something close to that wonderful taste. Along the way I do find real gems like this tea. With a bit of brown sugar and milk, Pumpkin Chai is a real winner in my books.

I love how the pumpkin is dominant. Too many flavoured chais that I’ve tried make it seem like the flavour was an afterthought. This is nicely spiced, although it would have been nice to have just a little “bite” to it. I normally steep this closer to the 6 minute mark, but today I was too impatient to get my relaxing time started.

Since I’m just discovering this now, it’s probably too late for me to get a tin to last me through the year. My chai search continues, but this will (hopefully) have a place on my tea shelf.

I’m really not a pumpkin lover… I think. I’ve never actually tried anything pumpkin before this tea – that’s right no pumpkin pies in this household… And before you get on my case, let me say I blame my parents and that (again) British upbringing where you stay with the tried and true and never sway from the norm… That being said, I am the adventurous one in my family – no boring every sunday is roast and potatoes, every monday is… well you know.

So skip forward in time to my introduction to David’s teas less than a month ago. I bought the fall sampler, got a whiff of this tea, tried a cup plain (no milk no sugar – ahhhh those ancestors love me for that), and liked it enough to by 100g. Then decided I really like it so bought another 100g on my last order…

Did I mention I’m not a pumpkin fan? So why do I LOVE this tea? The smell is amazing and the taste? Amazing too!

So tonight this not-a-pumpkin-lover freak made a Pumpkin Chai Latte and am in heaven. Definitely glad that I made the extra order before it went out of stock!

(For those curious made the tea with 1.5 tsp tea steeped in boiling water with a squirt or two of agave syrup added to steamed and frothy skim milk)

Oh my.
Oh my goodness.
I usually pre-amble before I taste the tea but didn’t in this case and I AM IN HEAVEN! (Which either means that I died quite recently or that I sipped the tea before typing.)
I accidentally added way too much sugar — which I’m kind of thinking may be ANY sugar — but hoooooly mackinaw, is this a tasty tea.
I’ve only tried it from the store before and it was too weak for me. I tend to throw in a lot more than the suggested tea. I likes it heavy.
It tastes like a liquid pumpkin bundt cake with that beautiful white cinnamon-bun-style icing drizzled heavily over the top. I couldn’t ask for more from this tea. Even the aftertaste is like a food.
The tea itself smells so sexy that even though I’m currently pregnant (and drinking a black tea, DON’T JUDGE ME), I think I might be having twins now. I want to grab a handful and shove it in my mouth like a snack mix. Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Put a TBSP in a 16oz steep, added a tsp of sugar and a splash of nonfat milk. Next time, no sugar.

Outside: it is unseasonably hot. Like… CRAZY hot for Winnipeg. If you don’t know where Winnipeg is and have seen the movie Fargo, that’s pretty close. We had to turn the air conditioner back on yesterday because it was 83 degrees in our house and my daughter couldn’t sleep. Unfortunately it’s paired with a wind so sharp that it makes even kite-flying impossible. Oh well.
Listening to: Lonely Island with Michael Bolton singing Jack Sparrow. Whoooole load of swears in this song, so like heads-up. (As if you haven’t heard it already.)
http://www.youtube.com/user/thelonelyisland#p/u/0/GI6CfKcMhjY

It’s almost fall… which means the decadent flavours of fall are also back! Pumpkin Chai is back at David’s Tea and it’s absolutely scrumptious. Chai is one of the few tea flavours that I actually dislike, but in the case of Pumpkin Chai, it’s amazing! The tea is more sweet than spicy, so if you approach chai with apprehension, such as myself, you may be able to handle this tea. The caramel and cinnamon are definitely the flavours that shine in this tea.

I tried this tea in the form of a latte as well (steeped with almond milk, and a tiny bit of vanilla), and it was spectacular! Probably the best tea I’ve turned into a latte yet. Yum!

I love this tea. Love. Not even a strong word here. I’ve been slowly eating away at my stash for the past year, bidding my time, and it’ll finally be back in stores next week, so I’m indulging right now!

This is the tea that got me hooked to DavidsTea. A friend was obsessed with Pumpkin chaï late coffee, and found this tea at our then recently opened Davids. She stopped by work to have us snif the can in delight. The smell is heavenly, the taste is great with the actual pumpkin coming through the slightly sweet spices… The only down side I’ve found is that as it cools down, I found the taste changes drastically. But it’s meant to be drank hot, on a gloomy day like today that reminds me autumn is just around the corner and that I’ll need to dig out my thermos travel mug soon.

So, last fall I bought some pumpkin chai. And I really liked it, so I went back to get one of the fancy orange tins. But it was early November, so they’d already run out. So I just got a regular tin, thinking I’d better stock up, ‘cause it’s seasonal, after all. Then I went home for Christmas, and the one in SF had the orange tins. So I got one.

And then shortly afterwards, I overdosed on pumpkin everything, and had no desire to eat pumpkin anything ever again.

So now it’s midway through pumpkin season, I’m easing slowly back into the pumpkin everything, and I may or may not have enough pumpkin chai to last me the next few years…

But, y’know, it’s still tasty. :)