Rooibos Vanilla Chai

Tea: Rooibos Vanilla Chai
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Price: $7/4oz
Vendor Description: Masala chai spices in a South African red rooibos base with a hint of vanilla. These spices will dance on your palate while the creamy vanilla rooibos will sing to your soul. Naturally caffeine free for an anytime treat.

Leaf: The leaf for this chai consists of some dried fruit pieces, ginger, cloves, and rooibos of course. There is a very sweet and bold aroma and a definite vanilla feel to the aroma. There is a rather high other to rooibos ratio in this chai mix.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5oz, 185F, 7 min

1st Infusion: This tea has a light murky color to it. It has a sweet vanilla aroma. The flavor is strong and lightly bitter. The clove portion of the flavor is quite prominent, a bit too prominent in my opinion.

Rating: 3/10

Conclusion: The cloves somewhat did this tea in. The flavor was too rich and drowned out the rest of the flavors in this tea. To an extent it felt like I was drinking a mainly clove infusion. This reminded me of the Coco Chai from Mighty Leaf, but instead of the sweetness from the coconut there was a lot of clove flavor here. I prefered the round sweetness of the coconut, but if you prefer a stronger, sharper, and stiffer chai, this is probably a good choice for you.

Thai Chai

Tea: Thai Chai
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Price: $7.00 / 4 oz
Vendor Description: Silky sweet coconut and playful bright lemongrass highlight this seductive black tea chai blend. Let the aroma draw you in and you’ll swear you hear it beckoning…come closer, just take a sip.

Leaf: This is a traditional orthodox black with some ginger, lemongrass, and coconut. There is a very thick and heavy aroma to this tea. The lemongrass portion of the aroma reminds me of thai food.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 5oz, 5min, 208F

1st Infusion: This infusion has a lightly murky brown hue to it. There is a distinctive sweetness to the aroma, probably partly due to the coconut. It still has a good chai aroma to it. The flavor is light and lofty. It is not a very deep flavor, but more uplifting. It has no aftertaste and the lemongrass component feeds in a nice crispness to it.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: There is nothing terribly spectacular about this tea. Coconut is a nice addition to most chai blends i'm finding, but i'm a bit torn on the notion of the lemongrass. Thai chai tries to be a balance between a sharp lemongrass and a round and sweet coconut addition. Nothing terribly spectacular, but no great faults here either.

Chocolate Chai

Tea: Chocolate Chai
Vendor: Adagio
Price: $6.30 / 4 oz
Vendor Description: We've taken one of the world's favorite indulgences, chocolate, and combined it with the exotic flavors and spices of Masala chai to create the ultimate treat. Chocolate flavored Ceylon black tea blended with cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon. Make it extra rich by preparing with hot milk.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea has a very noticeable cocoa aroma. It reminds me more of cocoa powder for hot chocolate than it does a chocolate bar. As is typical with chai this tea is studded with some cloves, ginger, orthodox black tea, and there are a number of small brown bark like chips in the mix.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 5oz, 208F, 5 min

1st Infusion: The infusion is lightly brown, lightly murky. It has a lightly sweet aroma. The tea itself has a light tea flavor and a light chai flavor. It is nicely bodied, and feels like a good chai mix overall. There really is not much of a chocolate flavor to this mix that I can tell though.

Rating: 3/10

Conclusion: After trying the Apple Spiced Chai, this was a bit of a letdown. The chai mix itself wasn't bad, it paired well with the black tea, but this tea fails to live up to it's namesake. There isn't a noticeable chocolate flavor to it. When compared against the Wegman's Chocolate Chai, this tea falls on it's face. It's priced quite reasonably though and makes a solid chai, just don't expect it to be like a cup of chocolate milk crossed with some chai.

Spiced Apple Chai

Tea: Spiced Apple Chai
Vendor: Adagio
Price: $7.00 / 4oz
Vendor Description: The classic combination of apples and spice are supremely enhanced in our Spiced Apple Chai. A lively blend of black tea, Masala spices and bright notes of crisp apple will delight your senses.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea smells sweet like apple cider. There are cloves, dried fruit, and ginger in the mix. the aroma of the dry leaf is just fantastic. I get tempted to just put this tea over a flame just to bring out the aroma so I can smell it. The black tea in the mix looks very characteristic Adagio tea, orthodox black tea.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 5oz, 208F, 5 min

1st Infusion: The color of this tea even reminds me of apple cider. The tea has a warm aroma of cinnamon and cloves mixed with the sweetness of the apple. The infusion is surprisingly cloudy. The flavor is very light, but yet very similar to a traditional chai. There is not much apple flavor in the actual tea itself. There is no bitterness or astringency to this tea. It has an overall lightly sweet feeling.

Rating: 9/10

Conclusion: This is a fantastic chai mix. I also tried it in a more traditional chai milk/honey mix and it came out more akin to a traditional chai. The one thing I would like to see more of with this tea is a stronger apple flavor. The aroma just doesn't pair well with the lack of actual apple flavor in the tea. Aside from that it's a great chai that may very well be finding a regular spot in my tea stash.

Coco Chai

Tea: Coco Chai
Vendor: Mighty Leaf
Price: $8.95 / 4oz
Source: South Africa
Vendor Description: Coco Chai rooibos tea is a handcrafted, caffeine-free chai tea made from South African rooibos blended with shredded coconut, red peppercorns and aromatic spices including ginger, cinnamon and cardomon. This twist on a classic chai tea will surprise with its intoxicatingly aroma and spicey but sweet flavor.

Leaf: This is a rooibos based chai blend. It has a mix of coconut, peppercorns and cardomon. There was also some ginger in the mix that I saw. There is a very sweet and distinctive coconut aroma to this tea. It has a much bolder aroma than most chai.
1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 12oz, 5 min, 195F

1st Infusion: The tea had a golden brown / light reddish hue to it. Again the distinctive coconut aroma was easy to pick out. The flavor was sweet and flavorful, it felt like just the right amount of rooibos flavor in comparison to the flavor of the spices. There was no bitterness or astringency to it. The flavor was just at a right level for making htis without using a milk/sugar mix for this chai.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This tea is a good value. The suggested mix was to use less tea than I would normally have used for a test, and it turned out to be a good amount. The price by itself is quite good for a 4 oz bag. The flavor was well balanced. That said it lacked having a little bit of distinguishing characteristics from other chai aside from being rooibos based. A more prominent coconut flavor might be interesting.

Pumpkin Chai

Tea: Pumpkin Chai
Vendor: Tea Chai Te
Price: $2.50 / oz
Vendor Description: All the spices in your typical pumpkin pie are called upon here to recreate the same effect in liquid form. This chai has cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, clove, nutmeg and black tea.

Leaf: The leaf consists of small orthodox looking black leaf. There is a noticeable amount of clove in the mix. There are lots of small other bits added in that I couldn't as easily identify.

Infusion Mix: 6 oz milk, 6 oz water, 6g chai, 2tsp honey, 3 minute boil

Infusion: The chai has a very sweet chai aroma to it. The cloves are very prominent and the flavor is very sweet and milky. There is not much of a pumpkin flavor, but there is a light amount of pumpkin in the aroma

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: This doesn't show the pumpkin side of the chai very well. Aside from that it feels like a clove dominated chai. Most of the flavoring feels like the milk and the honey, as opposed to the chai spices and the tea. Personally I would prefer a bolder chai that is less dominated by chai.

Chocolate Chai

Tea: Chocolate Chai
Vendor: Wegman's Food Markets
Price: $26.99 / lb

Leaf: This tea had large chocolate chips in it along with pieces of coconut. The leaf seemed larger than that of the Masala Chai. The mixture has a very sweet aroma to it.

Mixture:
4 oz water
4 oz milk
1 tsp honey
1tsp leaf mixture

Infusion: This infusion gave off a warm milky cinnamon aroma. It was very sweet smelling with a chocolaty brown color. There are small flakes which float to the top. The flavor is just as it looks, it is light and chocolaty. It reminds me of a light mix of hot chocolate. The coconut flavor blends in quite well with the chocolate and gives a very enjoyable sense of sweetness.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: If you are looking for a warm chai drink this is a good one. Especially good if you are a chocolate fan. What I didn't really like about this tea though is that that all of the additives to this are really hiding any tea flavor that would have been there to begin with. Between the milk, honey, chocolate and coconut I didn't really notice any tea flavoring. But if you don't mind that about your chai, then this may be a good one for you.

Masala Chai

Tea: Masala Chai
Vendor: Wegmans Food Markets
Price: $29.99 / lb.

Leaf: This chai has less of a clovey aroma than some other chai mixes that I have tried. The mix has a very peppery aroma to it. The tea leaf is very small broken.

Infusion Mix: The mix I used for this tea consists of 4 oz water, 4 oz milk, 1 tsp leaf (3g), 1/2 tsp honey.

Infusion Parameters: Boil water and milk, add tea and boil for 4 mins. Add honey

Infusion: This chai has a light and creamy chocolatey brown color to it. The aroma is very noticeably sweet and milky. The tea flavor is very well balanced between the milk / tea / sweetness. The flavor is very milky like a heavily milked black tea. There are hints of spiciness, but only light hinting. More tea may increase this flavor.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: This tea was enjoyable, but like most chai it doesn't have a very strong distinctive presence. I don't see this chai standing out more from any other chais. It seems to be a good reference chai.

Kukicha Masala

Tea: Kukicha Masala
Vendor: Yogic Chai
Price: $9.00 / 2oz

Leaf: The leaf has a dark brown houjicha mix with the strong spice aroma. The mix has a very rich aroma to it.

Brewing Parameters: 4 ounces of water, 4 ounces of milk, 3g of leaf, 4 min infusion, 1 tsp honey

Infusion: This infusion has a slightly off white milky color to it. There is a very distinctive sweet creaminess to this tea, and you can definitely taste the chai spices. There is not much of a kukicha flavor to it. The normal roasted flavor is lightly detectable in this roasted kukicha mix.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: Of the three chai teas that I tried from Yogic chai, this was the only one that was suggested to use milk and sweetener with. It provided a very smooth and creamy and appropriately sweet mix, but there was not as much of a tea falvoring to be found with it. I enjoyed this tea a lot, but would prefer a more dominant and stronger chai flavor.

White Masala Chai

Tea: White Masala Chai
Vendor: Yogic Chai
Price: $9.00 / 2 oz.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea was a very low density tea as most white teas are. It reminds me of a broken Bai Mu Dan. There is a nice spice aroma with a distinctive clove aroma.

Brewing Parameters: 8 oz. water, 3g leaf, 2 minute infusion

Infusion: The tea has a light yellow brown color to it. There is a definite chai spice aroma to it and not much of any other aroma. The tea is primarily the flavor of the chai spices and not much else. It has a very clean and open feeling, but not much of a tea flavor.

Rating: 3/10

Conclusion: This tea was primarily flavoring from the chai spices with a very subtle white tea flavor. I couldn't taste much aside from the chai spices, but I could somewhat tell that there is a the white tea flavor underneath, but the sublte flavor of a white tea could not show through.

Genmai Chai Masala

Tea: Genmai Chai Masala
Vendor: Yogic Chai
Price: $10.00 / 2 oz.

About this tea: When I first started looking through Yogic Chai's selection of Chai teas I was rather surprised to see this one. It seemed like a very odd combination in an unusual multinational way. Genmaicha is traditionally Japanese and Masala Chai is traditionally Indian. So this felt conceptually like having a piece of naan with some sushi.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea has a very strong clove aroma with a very light genmai aroma to it. It looks very much like I would imagine if I were to mix masala spices with some genmai.

Brewing Parameters: To brew this tea I brought 8 oz of water to a boil and added 3g of leaf to it and let it steep for 6 minutes. This was the recommended method based on the vendor packaging. No milk or sweetener was used for this.

Infusion: The tea had a alight brown color to it. There was a very distinct aroma of cloves mixed with roasted rice. This was a bit confusing. The flavor was short with a light sense of bitterness. The tea combines a light genmai flavor with the strong and prominent flavor of the chai spices. The flavor combines into a very smooth flavor which is distinctively chai. There is a detectable taste of ginger midway through the flavor of the tea and it finishes with a light sense of astringency.

Rating: 5/10

Conclusion: This tea was rather unusual. The tea felt very much like two separate flavors of the chai spices and the genmaicha. There wasn't much harmony between the two flavors, but each flavor on it's own was pretty good. Without sweetener and milk it didnt' feel much like a chai, but it wasn't recommended to add to this tea.