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.