Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s Coconut Chai

Coconut Chai by Zhena’s Gypsy Tea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.99 USD for 36g (for the entire sampler)

This is a review of a tea that I received for my birthday in 2015. I won’t be doing too much digging into the costs of the gifts that I’ve received.

First Impressions

The dry leaf smells interesting. There’s the definite aroma of the spices that I know, love, and associate with Chai. And then there’s the subtle fragrance of coconut that mingles with the spices. I couldn’t really smell the black tea base, which is a bit of shame, as the spices overpower the base completely.

Coconut Chai is made up of: Indian black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom pods, whole cloves, orange peels, nutmeg, black pepper, natural coconut flavour, natural cinnamon flavour. I’m a little confused as to why natural cinnamon flavouring is used when cinnamon is already an ingredient in the tea. While cinnamon is a great spice, and I can definitely taste it in the mix of spices used for this Chai tea, it just doesn’t seem necessary to have the flavouring when the real deal is in the tea itself.

Preparation

As with the other Chai blends in the Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s sampler, the directions call for boiling water with one tea sachet and to steep for 3 to 5 minutes. I steeped mine closer to 5 minutes in hopes of getting more coconut flavour i n the tea.

First Taste

There is coconut in the aroma of the steeped tea! It blends in well with the fragrance of the spices of the Coconut Chai, I think it smells lovely. The taste leaves a little to be desired though, as the coconut flavouring sadly does not come out well in the taste of the steeped tea. Coconut Chai does have that oomph of spice that I expect (and love!) in my Chai though, so it does hit all those spicy notes properly. The tea itself steeps to a lovely reddish orange colour and it smells really good. When steeped according to the directions, there’s a mild sweetness to the tea with no bitterness or astringency. It’s quite pleasant.

A Second Cup?

Coconut Chai sadly does not steep well for a second cup, the spice level leaves something to be desired when being steeped again.

My Overall Impression

I liked Zhena’s Gypsy Tea’s Coconut Chai. I wish the coconut flavouring came out more in the actual taste of the tea rather than in just the aroma of the dry and steeped tea. Overall, it does hit all the right notes for a Chai for me, but I do think the lack of coconut makes it a tea that I wouldn’t reach for on a regular basis. The taste is great as a Chai, and it’s got a good amount of spice, but it does need more coconut in the actual tea blend itself in order to have the taste of coconut come through. As a Chai, it works great though, I think it’d taste well with the addition of a sweetener or a cream to give it some added richness.

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