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.

Darjeeling Green

Tea: Darjeeling Green
Vendor: Tea Chai Te
Price: $5.00 / oz
Source: Makaibari Estate, Darjeeling, India
Vendor Description: From the Makaibari Estate, this tea has a golden color with a mild fragrant Darjeeling taste.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea looked a lot like a normal black Darjeeling. I don't think that I would be able to tell the difference between a normal Darjeeling and this if they were placed side by side. The size of the leaf was smaller than I normally see, this wasn't rated so I don't know what the grade for this leaf was.

1st Infusion: The liquor for this tea was a normal red color, which makes me wonder what about this tea makes it a "Green Darjeeling". This tea though has a very different flavor than a normal Darjeeling. It has a very smooth sweetness on the tongue, but it not very full bodied. The flavor sits primarily on the tongue, and leaves with a medium sense of astringency. The flavor doesn't really remind me of a green tea at all, just something different.

2nd Infusion: There is a small sharp bitterness on the tip of the tongue from this tea. This is followed by a sense of bitterness that is felt throughout the whole of the mouth. There isn't really much left of the flavor but a rather general black tea flavor and bitterness.

Rating: 2/10

Conclusion: I'm not sure what makes this tea "green" at all. It tasted like it was a mix of Darjeeling and a more mundane black tea. I would suggest sticking to a regular Darjeeling especially considering the somewhat high price of this tea.