Chai
June 1, 2011 | 
Author This decaf sweet coconut Thai chai is an interesting and tasty tea from Celestial Seasonings. They call it “RED TEA with Exotic Spices”, and it is indeed based on rooibos, the red tea from South Africa, but it also contains decaffeinated black tea and roasted chicory. The masala spices are ginger, clove, cardamom, nutmeg, paprika, black pepper, and star anise. The paprika was a bit of a surprise, but I’m thinking that it might be there more for color than for flavor. Natural coconut flavor and other natural flavors are also in there. For me, the spice mix was just a touch heavy on the clove, and I wouldn’t have guessed that coconut had anything at all to do with this tea. The whole red Thai thing seems to be an attempt at creating a decaf version of sweet Thai tea that has masala spices added to it. Whereas Thai tea is black tea with coloring added, the color here is all natural. While brewing, the tea looks like a bit of a cloudy mess, but once the cream is added the color shines through.
I don’t normally carry Celestial Seasonings as they’re so commonly available in supermarkets, but this one intrigued me. While I’m a bit disappointed with the coconut, this is a very acceptable tea bag version of masala chai and it contains no caffeine.
Since I wrote the above, more than one customer has come into my store, tried the Sweet Coconut Thai, and commented on the wonderful coconut flavor!
Roland at Tea & Treasure
Decaf Thai Chai
Posted in African Tea, Chai, Thai Tea, Uncategorized | 
Tags: Celestial Seasonings, chai, decaf tea, rooibos chai, spicy tea, Thai chai | 
No Comments »
Exotic Tea Bag Masala Chai
Among the samples that Hampstead Tea of London sent me was a box of tea bags labeled “Biochai”. Hampstead tea has their organic and fairtrade philosophy on their side, but many of their teas, in my opinion, are lacking in flavor punch, and the biochai was no different. When it comes to flavor and body, I prefer Twinings “ultra spice”, but even that could be improved. I decided that what one tea bag lacked the other might make up for, and so I brewed a cup of chai using a Hampstead tea bag and a Twinings tea bag together. Wow! When I added sugar and half and half, what I had was a cup of such intense and well-rounded flavor, with such good body, that it tasted like it could have been brewed in India from freshly ground spices!
Apart from black tea, both tea bags contain ginger, cardamom, and clove. The Twinnings provides the cinnamon, and the Hapstead provides the black pepper; together, that rounds out the traditional chai spices. The Hapstead also provides lemongrass, and the Twinnings adds “Other Natural Flavours” and “Natural Chai” (anyone know what that means?). So this is it, the recipe for a stunning masala tea with the convenience of tea bags.
Roland at Tea & Treasure
Posted in Chai, Indian Tea, Uncategorized | Tags: chai, Hampstead Tea, spiced tea, tea bags, tea masala, Twinnings | No Comments »
In India there is a masala (what we erroneously call curry powder) for everything from aubergine to tea, and then some.
Tea in India is commonly brewed in milk and spiced with tea masala. In the West we call this preparation “chai“, regardless of the fact that chai (or cha) is simply the word for tea in most of the major tea producing countries. So I’ll call this preparation “masala tea”.
The recipes for masalas will differ from region to region and from person to person, and tea masala is no exception; however, there will always be common ingredients. In the case of tea masala, most blends will contain cardamom, cloves, ginger, and black pepper. Cinnamon and nutmeg are also popular ingredients for tea masalas.
Tea masalas are available in Indian grocery stores; however, why not make up your own personal blend? A spice grinder and some imagination are all you need.
Roland Petrov