Yogic Chai: Original Masala Chai
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
A truly authentic blend of Assam black tea, Indian spices and herbs…This tea delivers in all areas. It’s organic, flavorful, and healthy. Your senses are immediately awakened by the powerful aroma produced by the dry tea, spices, and herbs. The organic ingredients consist of: Fair Trade Assam (CTC), cinnamon, green cardamom, cloves, and ginger. Preparing this chai is a joy from start to finish. The fragrance of the Masala Chai is present throughout the preparation of the tea. The aroma helps to build the excitement for the moment when you finally get to drink the Masala Chai.
I tried to deploy a traditional method of preparing the tea. I used a range burner, small pot (usually making two large cups), and a strainer. I used one teaspoon of Masala Chai per cup (approximately 6-10 ounces). So, you start by filling your favorite cup with water (as a measuring tool), than you pour the water into your pot. If you’re making two or more cups, repeat the process as necessary. Now, set your burner high enough to start heating the water to a boil. I put the dry tea, spices, and herbs in the water almost immediately and let the water come to a boil. Once the water starts to boil, turn the heat down to avoid a mess. Let the chai simmer for about 1-3 minutes. Add milk during the simmering time to allow the ingredients to simmer together. As always, you can add your favorite milk substitute or no milk products - it’s all up to you. After the tea simmers, you can strain the tea into a serving pot. It can be messy and challenging to pour the chai directly into your cup from a pot while holding a strainer. Lastly, pour the chai into your cup and sweeten the beverage using your favorite sweetener. Again, you may like it without sweetener - I know I do. Having said that, I also like to load a cup with sweetener (syrup, brown sugar,etc.) when I’m in the mood for something really sweet. If you want to use your favorite tea maker with a built-in strainer, that’s fine.
In the end, you are going to be left with a very fragrant, flavorful and beautifully balanced cup of Masala Chai. It’s obvious with Masala Chai, you have to enjoy the ingredients listed above. The organic spices and herbs in this blend are more than just writing on a box. I highly recommend Yogic Chai to anyone that enjoys chai or to anyone looking for a fun, flavorful, organic, black tea.
Visit Yogic Chai - Traditional Spiced Chai
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Herbal (Caffeine-free):
Royal Golden Yunnan is a rustic black tea that I thoroughly enjoy. I feel like I should be sitting around a campfire enjoying this tea on an expedition of some uncharted territory. It’s great to drink something that immediately takes you somewhere in your mind. It’s a peaceful tea mixed with adventure. The scent of the dry tea leaves reminds me of a mix between tea and tobacco. Royal Golden Yunnan has a very intense traditional Yunnan black tea flavor with an earthy accent, faint smokiness, and a light note of cocoa. The tea has attitude and that’s what I’m always looking for in a tea. The complex flavors help me concentrate and center myself by focusing on the tea. It’s amazing how peacful drinking tea can be when you actually stop and pay attention to what you are doing. You’ll be taken on a journey of flavors as the tea warms your body and calms your mind. The Yunnan Province is well-known for it’s superb teas and great tea traditions. Drink the Leaf continues the tradition by offering an excellent variety of Yunnan tea.
The simple pleasure of having your expectations exceeded is one of the joys I get from drinking a wide variety of teas. I’m not the biggest Earl Grey fan in the world, but I’ll drink it and usually think it’s ok. Like most flavored teas, the quality of the tea leaf and the balance of the flavoring is key. If you are new to Earl Grey here’s some background from a previous blog of mine:
At the World Tea Expo, I found a brand of tea that I’ve never tried before called Stassen. The Stassen Group is a premier corporate conglomerate in Sri Lanka that offers a wide variety of products and services. Obviously, tea is one of their main areas of expertise. I’m trying their organic earl grey today. It’s a very traditionally packed tea bag. The tea bag was wrapped with a paper wrapper and the tea is finely cut in the bag.
Tetulia caught my attention at the World Tea Expo in 2008. I didn’t get to spend much time focusing on this one brand, but the name “Tetulia” just sticks in your head. I can’t think about it without saying the name at least three times - Tetulia, Tetulia, Tetulia. It’s just fun to say…
English Breakfast Tea: Let me start by saying English Breakfast tea is quite confusing for new tea drinkers. If you are an experienced tea drinker, you know what I’m talking about. You’ve probably established your favorite English Breakfast teas by now. Anyway, almost every account of its origin that I’ve read did relate the tea as a breakfast compliment. That said, this is an anytime of the day tea. Keep in mind it does have caffeine, but almost all black teas have caffeine. Choice Organic’s english breakfast tea is a blend of teas from Ceylon, Assam, and East Africa. The tea is organically grown and certified fair trade. This blend comes in a pyramid tea infuser. All-in-all, I felt the tea was on par with other bagged teas. The tea was very smooth, but it did require milk and sugar to bring out the flavor. With Assam tea in the blend, I expected it to have more of a kick. This tea is perfect for the casual tea drinker. If you require more of a bold flavor, this is not the tea for you.
Jade Green: I was looking forward to trying this one. I let the water cool to about 180 degrees and steeped the tea for about 3 minutes. Like the other Choice Organic teas, the tea comes in a pyramid biodegradable tea infuser, and it’s organic and fair trade certified. The tea has an interesting almost fruity flavor to it. The vegetal flavor was slightly bitter for my taste, but the faint almost floral flavor helped me through the cup. I’ve had bad luck with Choice Organic’s green teas. The bitterness is just too much for me to truly enjoy the cup. Choice Organic describes the tea as:
Sweet Liquorice Mint: I don’t often take the time to drink an herbal tea (tisane), but when I do, I prefer something minty. This was a great herbal tea. It was sweet and minty. The flavor lingers leaving your mouth with a fresh minty taste. I highly recommend this tisane to anyone that likes peppermint, spearmint, or liquorice root. The tea is absolutely delicious. This would be a great tea after a meal. Not only will it leave a smile on your face and cleanse your palate, it will help you digest your meal. One of the ingredients is organic cornflowers. I cannot honestly say I detect the flavor, but I applaud Choice Organic for adding something unique and interesting to the herbal blend. Sweet Liquorice Mint is a caffeine free beverage because it does not contain tea. So, feel free to drink this one all day long. I can’t say enough about the flavor of this blend - awesome.
Choice Organic’s Earl Grey is made from Fair Trade Certified black tea, organic orange peel, organic oil of bergamot, and organic safflowers. This tea is another example of Choice Organic’s commitment to social responsibility and customer satisfaction. Their Whole Leaf organic products contain loose leaf tea in a pyramid tea bag; which gives the tea consumer a quality tea in an easy to use tea infuser.