Golden Chai

oh this chai isn’t mega chai!
as far as straight chai’s go, it’s probably the most drinkable chai i’ve ever had.
granted i did steep it on the light side, but still. also after half a cup i added some agave and a creamer from the office break room. (hah i feel so clever)
i’m sure a large part of the fun i’m having with this cup is because my expectations were so low. but this moment has persuaded me to try more chais. which i think is a good lesson for the day. :)
thanks TastyBrew!! thank you thank you!

so, do we have any Steely Dan fans in the audience tonight?
Steely Dan – Only A Fool Would Say That
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTt-URVOYos

I was out n about yesterday with no access to hot water, so ended up grabbing a cuppa this. Who knew the International Centre would sell non Higgins n Burke tea!
Not bad overall, but very strong. Pretty sure my bag had an extra kick in it because after a 1 min steep it was super pungent. I added a bit of coffee cream, hoping to tone it down a bit.
That seemed to work, but then I needed a packet of sugar to balance things out. I’m not a ginger/anise fan and the sugar made things a bit more candy like.
Overall, I wouldn’t go out and buy this but would order a cup to go if there were no other options.
Oh and they did have an EB but I have exceptionally terrible luck with bagged random EBs!! All the other options were green teas and I try to never get them to go from a fast food place, considering it’d likely be doused in boiling water. shrugs

Tried this again: two tea bags in one mug, and upped the sweetener (stevia), and I am liking this tea more. The flavors are more pronounced (duh, Serenity, you are using twice as much tea). I will try the double tea bag bag approach stovetop style and see how it goes. Watch: next note will be all: I used 1/4 cup of milk and 3/4 cup water and four tea bags and bazinga!

Sipdown! I actually kinda like this one. Definitely a good option on campus, as there’s one place with Numi teas and one place with H&S. :)

Just having it with honey today, although I do really like it with milk or cream as well.

Finished up my box of this, which was among my “starter teas.” It’s very mildly spiced when drunk with milk and sweetener, which has become my preferred method when I can’t engage in the stovetop method. Too mild for me, I discovered, when it comes to chai, though without milk it has more bite. But I thank it for helping me to hone my ever growing and evolving tastes.

Another random tea bag while at training.

Heavy on the cinnamon and cardamon. I’m not tasting much of the assam. Just ok. I’ve had much better chais. This would probably be better with milk, but I don’t have any.

I’ve been at my fiancee’s house this weekend and I’ve been drinking his tea. Luckily he doesn’t mind too badly and he keeps a box of Aged Earl Grey at his house just in case I show up and want tea.

I decided that I wanted to try something different and this was the tea I picked. I have been wanting bold teas and I decided to take a risk with this chai. It was delicious! Most chais don’t taste like much to me, but with this one it was richly flavored with spice and I could taste the tea underneath.

I’ve been having a hot cocoa problem, but I think I need to find either this chai or a similar chai to get me over that. Just the strength I have been wanting with lots of nice flavor.

I’m picky about chai … so many of them taste like strong, raw spices straight out of the rack with no tea underneath. This is a really nice exception. You can taste the Assam and the spices are accentuating, not overbearing. Little sugar, little half-and-half made for a little pleasant late afternoon break.

Backlogging…see other notes…

Mainly I taste the cardamom and cinnamon, very similar to Ahmad’s Cardamom tea. I am surprised that the Assam tea does not come through more. The spices are not particularly bold; I don’t really taste the ginger or anise at all. It is a pleasant cup of spice flavored tea, but it is not really strong enough to be a chai. I drank it with half and half and sugar.