 | "Mellow, mild and subdued... I enjoyed this chai tea quite a bit, it just wasn't quite as spicy as I'd anticipated."
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Indonique’s Spiced Chai was a delicious, sweet, and creamy treat. I prepared the chai just as directed on Indonique’s website by heating on my stovetop 1/2 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of water, the chai tea blend and sugar. The bits of tea leaves in the blend were fairly small, and were complemented by spices typically associated with chai: cardamom, cloves, and black pepper (which differentiates this “Spiced chai” blend from Indonique’s other chai blends). Since cardamom, cloves, and black pepper all have very strong, distinct flavors, I was prepared for a very spicy cup of chai. It turns out that the tea’s spiciness level fell far short of what I expected, although this isn’t necessarily a completely bad thing (as I have had learned that over-doing it on cloves and cardamom an really ruin a cup of chai). The black pepper flavor was virtually undetectable, and I must admit that until I read the Indonique website (which was after I drank the tea), I had no idea that black pepper was even an ingredient in this tea. As I sipped the creamy blend and thought about how I would review this tea, a series of similar words came to mind: mellow, mild, subdued, subtle, smooth. I think that perhaps the 1:1 ratio of milk to water really affected how much the spices came through. Perhaps preparing this tea with 2:1 ratio of water to milk would have allowed for the spicy flavors to come through a bit more. Unfortunately I used up all of my sample on my first cup, so I was unable to actually experiment further with different rations of water and milk. I did enjoy this tea, but wish that the clove, cardamom, and pepper flavors developed just a bit more. Still, I think that this blend has potential to please a wide spectrum of chai lovers, because it seems to me that one can adjust the amounts of milk and sugar to produce the spice level to one’s personal taste. Even though this chai was just a bit too mellow for me, I thoroughly enjoyed it and can say that Indonique’s Spiced Chai is a high-quality blend. I would definitely be interested in sampling more of their products.
— To purchase Indonique Spiced Chai, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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