Hot Date Chai

Brilliant chai: warm, rich, sweet flavours. Great with honey or milk, or even by itself given the sweetness from the dates.

197/365

Almost there with the T2 Hottest Hearty Brews sampler! I’m pretty sure there’s just one more to go after this one. It’s been an interesting mix – some fruity summer blends, some more wintery or chai-style, some sweet and some savoury. It’s been a good way to try a decent spectrum of T2s flavours, and to get an idea of how they blend.

Today’s choice is one probably better suited to autumn/winter, but I’m going to go ahead and finish it up anyway. Bird & Blend release their summer collection this weekend, so I need to free up some cupboard space for that!

Hot Date Chai is a blend of chocolate, chilli, and date. It’s a black tea, but it doesn’t brew up to any great strength; this isn’t one that would take milk well, I don’t think. There are a lot of cardamom pods in my sample, but I’m not too worried since that’s a flavour I tend to enjoy.

Milk chocolate is the first flavour I can taste, and it comes across really well as actual chocolate, rather than cocoa. I’ve noticed this with other T2 blends, but they also manage to make it a strong, substantial flavour – no watered down chocolate here! This sampler gives me the impression that chocolate is a flavour T2 do well, which is something to bear in mind when I’m making future choices. The chilli develops out of the mid-sip, and gradually builds to a level of spicy background heat that makes for a pleasant pairing with the chocolate.

I’m not getting much in the way of date, which is a shame. Without it, this is really just a chocolate chilli chai, which isn’t especially unique, although the backdrop of traditional chai flavours – cardamon, ginger, clove – is nicely balanced.

If this wasn’t missing the very element that would make it interesting and unique, I’d be more than happy with it. As it stands, I’m feeling the loss.