These teabags are adorable; little bendy strings with the leaf, the pyramid shape leaving room for the leaves to dance, the packaging.  They’re highly engineered and very cute.

However, it’s what’s inside that counts, and as a chai, it didn’t really stand out.  Chai should be bold and brave and spicy.  This is a delicate chai.  A demure chai.  Not quite a wall-flower chai, but definitely not the belle of the ball.  Nice to drink, but not something I’d actively seek out.

What I found that I really liked using this tea for was making cocktails with it.  I originally got this idea from a class I took at a local tea shop.  They had gotten the Tea Forte tea cocktails set in, and this is a modification of one of those recipes.  This is a LOVELY decadent drink, to replace dessert when you feel like laying about and being pampered.

1 Bombay Chai Tea Pyramid
Double shot of Whipped Cream flavored vodka (can be done with regular vodka, but this adds an extra dimension of yum)
ice
simple syrup
whole milk (or half and half if you feel REALLY decadent)

Take the bombay chai tea pyramid and put in a small cup.  Pour the vodka in, let sit approx. 5-8 minutes. Remove tea pyramid. Take a large juice or highball glass, fill with ice.  Pour in steeped vodka.  Then add at least 2 tbsp of simple syrup, more if you like things sweet (you can adjust after finishing the drink).  Fill the glass with milk.  Taste, adjust the sweetness with more simple syrup as needed.  Then enjoy.

The tea pyramid can be resteeped two to three times for more drinks.  (For you, or your friends - if you want to share.)  It’s amazingly yummy.  Completely decadent.  Lovely.

You can purchase the Bombay Chai directly from the Tea Forte website.

Chocolate with tea in it…it is a delicious concept. Much better than most tea with chocolate in it, as my past experiences have told me. Before I started reviewing this chocolate by Tea and All Its Splendour, I “cleansed” my palate with a sip of some Fujian black tea. I then tasted each of the various chocolates, giving a bit of time in between each one to allow my taste buds to clear a bit.

The first chocolate was Milk Chocolate Passionfruit Green Tea. This chocolate was very fruity tasting. I did not noticed much tea flavour, but I do think that chocolate and passionfruit is an excellent combination.

Next up was the Milk Chocolate Earl Grey Tea. It certainly had more tea flavour than the Passionfruit chocolate. The typical Earl Grey bergamot flavour was not heavily present, nor overwhelming, for which I was grateful. I have tried other Earl Grey milk chocolates, and they all seemed to have far too much bergamot in them.

The third chocolate I tried was the Milk Chocolate Chai Tea. The flavour of this chocolate was very creamy, but not very chai-tasting. The tastes of cloves and peppers, especially, were fairly prominent.

Dark Chocolate Ginger Black Tea was next. Wow. I could taste the flavour of ginger before even biting into it. The flavours of ginger and dark chocolate combined to create a very sharp taste with a ginger-like lasting burn at the back of the throat. Surprisingly though, despite the description I just offered, this chocolate really was quite tasty.

The last chocolate included was Dark Chocolate Raspberry Black Tea. This one was very smooth and creamy in texture and in flavour. The fruit flavour was not as strong as the passionfruit chocolate. However, the subtle raspberry flavour complemented the dark chocolate quite well.

I would definitely recommend these chocolates to any chocolate or tea lover. These are delicious treats and the tea added to them complements them excellently.

You can purchase the Tea Infused Chocolates directly from the Tea and All Its Splendour website.

Organic herbal blend, caffeine free.

5 Minute infusion reveals a medium brown brew.

The package is really neat, a silk pyramid filled with cacao, cinnamon, fennel, licorice root, cardamom, ginger, cloves, black pepper. After the 5 minutes, the silk pyramid is full except for just a teeny bit of space at the tippy top of the pyramid. What I really like about Tea Forte is the attention to detail, the pyramid is like a work of art with a cute little green leaf that wraps delicately over the rim of my favorite tea cup.

Smell after brew time is of cinnamon and chocolate (like a really nice expensive chocolate).

First sip revealed a hot cocoa taste with melted chocolate inside. This tea would make a great dessert tea and an even better before bed kind of drink.

Rich and yummy, a dieters dream come true… all the taste of chocolate with zero calories!

This is definitely going on my shopping list, good job Tea Forte.

You can purchase Tea Forte Coco Truffle Tea directly from their website, and in various high-end establishments around the world.

Today I decided that I could not resist the call of the Tea Forte Sweet Orange Spice. Tea Forte sent us 2 of their pyramid grande – Sweet Orange Spice, and Hazelnut Truffle. I have had the Hazelnut Truffle before (yummy!) but the Sweet Orange Spice was, well, intriguing.

As usual, the Tea Forte Packaging does not disappoint. There are 6 of their signature Tea Pyramid infusers packed into one large pyramid, with the good old leaf poking out of the top I love their consistency and brand recognition.

The minute I opened up the packaging, I could smell the tea. It took me all of a millisecond to make the association between this and Cinnamon Hearts. For those of you that know what I am talking about (that traditional Valentines treat) you KNOW what I mean, for those of you that don’t – go to the bulk barn (or similar bulk store) find them, and inhale. NOW you know what I am talking about!

The tea brewed up to a nice rich dark liquor. The cinnamon scent was muted a bit, but still there. I got the hint of cloves as well. The real shock came when I tasted it. It hit me like a sack of potatoes – SWEET! Not just the “tasters” sweet, a true sugary sweet. I had to check the packaging, and check my cup to make sure there was no sugar actually added! I never, and we are talking hundreds of teas here, never tasted a tea with this kind of natural sugary sweetness! Because I am a sugar FANTASTIC, for me, it is perfect.

As I run through the ingredient list – Black Tea – check, there but muted. Definitely not the star. Orange Peels – check – background “zest”. Cloves – check, enhancing the overall experience. Cinnamon – BLAM! This is the start of this tea for sure, and I think that the combination of the orange and cinnamon is the source of the sweetness.

As I continue to sip, the sweet all appears to be upfront, but the spice lingers. Top of the mouth, back of the tongue kinda spice, not unpleasant, but very enjoyable. I know that this is marketed as a Christmas tea, but to me it screams Cinnamon Heart, Valentines day tea!

Bottom line – get it, drink it, enjoy it. There is a lot going on with this tea, between the sweet start and spicy finish, but all that does not matter, as it is just a plain old enjoyable tea. Now excuse me while I go and hide the rest of the teabags so I can keep them all to myself!

You can purchase the Sweet Orange Spice directly from the Tea Forte website.

Sweet treat time!  Opening a Coco Truffle pyramid, can tell why it was recommended to me just by the smell.  Yum in a bag! Almost smells like a chai. It is a pure herbal blend, naturally caffeine-free, beautiful as a dessert tea.

Steeped it in boiling water for five minutes and the smell of all the spices are coming through, the cardamom scent is a bit strong though.  Tastes good but a bit weak.  Steeped it for three more minutes and the blend has balanced out.  It’s brewed a beautiful dark steep.  Truffle magic, here I come. Can taste and smell the cacao goodness now, like an exotic candy bar in a cup, this is really delicious.  This is the very best, zero calorie indulgence I’ve had in awhile.  I don’t crave sweets very often but I will be reaching for this one the next time I have a chocolate crisis!

You can purchase Tea Forte Coco Truffle Tea directly from their website, and in various high-end establishments around the world.

With much fanfare, Rishi Tea has reintroduced its Chai concentrate – it is now available with new packaging, a high profile association with Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program, and a change in the recipe. The ingredients listed are filtered water, black tea, cinnamon, cardamon, black pepper, cloves, ginger, dried cane syrup, blackstrap molasses, vanilla extract and lemon juice – all organic, and the tea is also organic as well as fair trade certified. The concentrate is described by Rishi as “a microbrewed blend of energizing spices and rich vanilla infused with a full-bodied single origin forest grown black tea. Unlike other companies that use soluble tea and flavor extracts, we use traditional Indian spices that are slow brewed for more than 20 hours and ethically sourced, wild-grown black tea leaves from an ancient tea tree forest.”

Straight out of the box the concentrate was dark and slightly murky, but redeemed itself with the rich aroma of traditional Indian masala spices which according to Rishi are slowly brewed in small batches before the addition of the tea leaves – a process which takes almost a full day.

Mixed with an equal amount of milk and heated to the point of steaming, the result was a mild, pleasantly flavored latte although I did find that the molasses smell and taste was quite noticeable and took away from the “chai-ness” of it. I appreciated that the concentrate wasn’t overly sweet and the taste of the black tea wasn’t lost in the mix.

Formerly only available in recyclable glass quart bottles, Rishi Masala Chai Tea Concentrate is now packaged in a carton and can be conveniently purchased online and shipped to you. Rishi as a company has a commendable reputation for its green initiatives and it’s nice to know that proceeds from each sale support a good environmental and humanitarian cause through the Jane Goodall Institute.

You can purchase the Masala Chai Tea Concentrate directly from the Rishi Tea website.

Okay, clean slate, trying the second of my Kalahari teas, Cherry Vanilla. As soon as I opened the package, the scent wafted out. The dry leaves smell almost like of those chocolate covered maraschino cherry candy bars that I can never remember the name of. Wanted to open the bag but, again, it was too dusty looking so I just dropped it into my teacup and steeped it.

It brewed up a nice, dark red color, very nice amber like you’d expect with a Rooibos. The scent is really spicy, completely overrides the initial cherry scent that I got from it. It actually smells delicious, like a caffeine free chai. I love spicy teas and am actually happy to have lost the cherry scent. First sip gave me a burst of cinnamon at the back of my tongue, a little bit powerful but that’s okay, it’s really good (did I mention that I like spiced teas?). I let it cool just slightly and the flavors from all the other spices came out almost one at a time. It’s a really good balance of spices, none are really overpowering the others now. Except for the auspicious licorice trying to sneak to the front.

I really like this blend and I tried to steep it again but it failed. Thinking the recommended steeping time for this one should be longer, closer to seven minutes.

There are ten different ingredients listed on the package. Nine great ones and one that I would love to see dropped – I don’t ‘get’ the cherry part of the blend, seems unnecessary and it’s listed as a ‘flavor’. The issue I have with unknown ingredients may seem petty but I really need to know what I’m consuming to be able to feel confident with the product. Nice blend but not good enough for a place on my shelf.

You can purchase the Cherry Vanilla directly from the Kalahari Tea website.

The dry leaf smells like cinnamon and star anise, though predominately of star anise. Through the bag I could distinguish long black tea leaves mixed with small bits of what appeared to be the ginger and cloves. I’ve never had a tea with star anise, but apparently it is a licorice type flavor, so here goes.

I brewed this tea using 6 oz. of almost boiling water for 4 minutes as suggested on the package. Taken plain, the tea tastes unsurprisingly like black tea flavored with licorice. If you like licorice, then you will like this but I’m not a licorice fan. I added milk and sugar to make it more chai-like which seemed to even out the licorice slightly. The cinnamon was also more noticeable but I could not distinguish any of the other chai spices that were included in this blend.

Overall, this is a decent tea for licorice fans who like black tea but is not my idea of a chai since the majority of the chai spices aren’t present in the taste.

You can purchase the Bombay Chai directly from the Mighty Leaf Tea website.

On the Mighty Leaf website this description is given: Bombay Chai with a melange of spicy notes conjures the steamy, aromatic delights of an Indian street market. Black tea leaves with subtle hints of Pepper, Orange, Cinnamon, Cardamom, and Clove make up our chai, the Indian word for tea. Bombay Chai is delicious when brewed fresh and blended with heated milk and sugar to taste.

Having recently given up coffee I drink Chai every day, as I find it is the only tea that has enough of a flavorful kick to get me awake and out the door in the morning.

When I tried Mighty Leaf’s Bombay Chai I found that it was pleasantly smooth and warm. However, generally Chai is distinguished by the bite of its spices, which didn’t seem particularly present here.

When I added milk I found that this overpowered the spices to the point that they were barely even noticeable. To me this tea seems to be suitable as a spiced black tea, but without knowing what it was I wouldn’t identify it as chai.

You can purchase Mighty Leaf Bombay Chai directly from their website.

From Adagio Teas Bengal Green Chai is an eastern fusion blend of green tea from China and a traditional mix of chai spices from India. It is described by Adagio as ” Our smooth China green tea with a chakra warming spice combination. Its natural sweetness and fiery kick will bring you back to center, no matter how polarized you’ve become. OOMMMMM OOMMMMM”

The loose tea presents very well, long leaves of green pekoe tea, lots of cloves, big chunks of cardamom pods, cinnamon bark, ginger root and orange peel; once brewed it makes a cup of tea that is a nice amber color. The aroma of the tea is rich and spicy and stays with the tea even after it is brewed.

I found the flavor of the cloves to be the most pronounced, almost a little too strong, but the ginger, cinnamon and cardamom worked nicely together as an underlying flavor. Overall, I liked the tea but I think that the mildness of the green pekoe was overpowered by the spices. I often add milk and sugar to a traditional black chai blend but I found that this tea isn’t robust enough to hold up to the addition of milk and sugar without losing too much of it’s color and taste.

I followed Adagio’s suggested brewing instructions of two heaping teaspoons per 6 oz cup – 3 min at about 180 degrees. This actually seemed like a lot of tea required to make a cup but I guess it has to do with the loose mix of big leaves and spice pieces – the more tea you use the more likely it is to get a consistent proportion of cloves, ginger, cinnamon and cardamom.

You can purchase Adagio Bengal Green Chai directly from their website.