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November 03, 2004
Chai Organic Spiced Black Tea
Name: Chai Organic Spiced Black Tea
Kathy's Rating: 5.5/10.0
Company: Tazo
Origin of tea: India and Ceylon
Price: ~$5/20 bags (52g/1.8oz)
Tea form: Crushed black tea leaves and various spices in tea bags
What they say: Organic Tazo Chai is an aromatic, sensual experience that comes from many exotic parts of the world. Rich Indian and Ceylon black teas are combined with spicy, sweet cinnamon, Madagascar cloves, and other spices from the Malabar Coast of India.
Preparation method: Boil water and pour over tea bag. Steep for 5 minutes.
Review: This is an extremely robust chai blend. I'm a big fan of chai, and will confess to drinking it most mornings for breakfast. However, the chai I drink is a concentrate sweetened with honey, which I blend with soymilk in an approximate 40:60 chai:soymilk ratio, depending on how much caffeine I need. This chai tea that I tried today is a bit overwhelming for me. Although I usually like my tea on the strong side, Tazo organic chai tea has black pepper as one of the ingredients. Yes, you read that correctly. Black pepper. Oh, and if that's not spicy enough, there's also ginger root and cinnamon bark. Whew! I'm definitely not a wimp when it comes to eating spicy foods, but I'm not sure I like my tea spicy. I did appreciate the cardamom and cloves that were also part of the mix. I could smell the cardamom in the tea bags from five feet away - I'm not kidding. I'd say if Tazo left out or reduced the black pepper, this would be just about perfect. Actually, if you're the type of tea drinker who likes to add sugar and milk, which I rarely do, this tea could come out pretty nicely.
Posted by Kathy at November 3, 2004 06:33 PM