Category: Review

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Dessert by Deb’s Peaches & Cream Chai

Peaches & Cream Chai by Dessert by Deb
Black Tea / Flavoured
$6.50 for 25g

Peaches & Cream Chai came to me as part of the bimonthly subscription box from Dessert by Deb.

First Impressions

Peaches & Cream Chai comes in a familiar package. A matte gold pouch came in my bimonthly subscription box, with a colourful label across the front that has the fun polka dots. Peaches & Cream Chai is a part of Dessert by Deb’s Little Country Kitchen Collection.

Peaches & Cream makes me think of a few things. The bicolour corn, for one, and also literally ripe peach slices with a dollop of whipped cream. Just a pleasant little summer time dessert. I will also take strawberries with whipped cream, or blueberries with whipped cream – just saying.

Peaches & Cream Chai consists of organic: black tea, natural peach essence, ginger, peaches, toasted coconut, cardamom, and calendula petals. The dry leaf is nice to look at, and it has a strong aroma to it that is a blend of ginger and peach.

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends preparing Peaches & Cream Chai with 212°F (100°C) water and to steep for 5 to 6 minutes, and also included a recommendation to enjoy as a tea latte. I opted to do an initial steep of Peaches & Cream Chai for 5 minutes.

First Taste

Peaches & Cream Chai steeps to a bright orange colour, and has a strong ginger aroma. Mixed in with the fragrance profile is the cardamom, and a light background of peaches. The flavour itself is strongly ginger and cardamom, with the peach and coconut mingling in the background. It’s got a light sweetness to it, and the qualities that I enjoy in a chai (cardamom, primarily).

A Second Cup?

I did attempt to resteep the leaves, but found that the flavour wasn’t as strong as an the initial steep. I would recommend Peaches & Cream Chai for just the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Dessert by Deb’s Peaches & Cream Chai. The flavour was enjoyable, and the peach flavour adds something quite nice to a traditional chai flavour profile. It has a lot of pep to it, and a nice brightness to my cup. I would have this as a tea latte for sure, as I think that’ll add that ‘cream’ quality for Peaches & Cream.

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Lipton’s Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea by Lipton
Green Tea & Black Tea / Flavoured
$9.99 for 285g (15 sachets)

First Impressions

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea was an impulse purchase of mine at my favourite Asian grocery store. Since it’s opened a location in my area, I’ve had a fun time just going down the tea aisle and picking up something new-to-me to try every time I go grocery shopping.

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea intrigued me because I often see a jasmine milk tea as an option on boba tea menus, but I haven’t had the opportunity to get it yet because I often prefer any milky teas that I drink to be of the black tea variety, so why not try it?

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea comes in 19g sachets (15 in the package). The powder of Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea consists of: sugar, creamer, whole milk powder, green tea powder, maltodextrin, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, and black tea powder. There’s not much of an aroma to the dry powder.

Being a fan of the little details, I like that it forms a picture when you put two of the sachets side by side.

Preparation

Lipton recommends preparing it hold or iced – using 85°C (185°F) water and 180mL water for a hot preparation, and 50mL water for an iced preparation (just load up the glass with ice).

I opted to try it as a hot preparation.

First Taste

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea mixes up quite easily with hot water, dissolving easily with a quick stir. The aroma is very strongly sweet floral – very over the top, with a very strong jasmine aroma. The flavour isn’t as perfumey as I had expected, based on the aroma of the tea. The flavour is lightly floral, creamy, and very sweet. I find it a bit much (on the sweetener level).

A Second Cup?

As the powder is part of a drink mix, there are no second preparations with the same mix.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Lipton’s Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea. While I can appreciate a nice jasmine tea from time to time (it’s one of my favourites!), I found this tea drink powder mix to be very sweet and very floral in aroma that it was hard to get around that to enjoy the drink itself. I might be persuaded to enjoy it more if it wasn’t as sweet. I will try it again with a more diluted preparation, or more heavily iced – and hopefully enjoy the rest of the sachets.

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Chatime’s Original Milk Tea

Original Milk Tea by Chatime
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.99 for 200g (10 x 20g sachets)

First Impressions

I am still in search for the perfect tea product to have on-the-go that has everything in it that I love (for a milk tea or tea latte), without being too something. Too sweet, too bitter, too expensive. There’s so many things that could go wrong.

Chatime is a popular brand out of Taiwan that happens to have brick and mortar locations. It happens to be a popular option for my fellow nurses to order in when it comes to food delivery services. so when I spotted a familiar purple on the shelf of my favourite Asian grocery store, I knew I had to give it a go.

The bag contains 10 sachets of the Original Milk Tea powder. Each sachet is 20g and contains: sugar, creamer, black tea powder, and artificial flavour. There’s also a “may contain” warning for gluten, tree nuts, egg, and sesame (in case any of those are allergens/concerns for you).

The powder itself is kind of a light brown, like a milk tea, and doesn’t have a very obvious aroma to it. It does smell sweet though.

Preparation

Chatime recommends making Original Milk Tea as cold or hot preparations.

For a cold preparation, combine 60ml of hot water with 1 sachet, then stir until the powder dissolves. Add 60g of ice.

For a hot preparation, combine 120ml of hot water with 1 sachet, then stir until powder dissolves.

I opted to do a hot preparation, and I used water heated to 93°C (200°F).

First Taste

Original Milk Tea mixes up to a light brown colour. It has an aroma that creamy and black tea. The flavour of Original Milk Tea is surprisingly not as sweet as I was expecting, especially considering sugar is listed as the first ingredient. The black tea has a touch of astringency to it, and the sugar balances well against it. The creamer in the mix adds a nice amount of creaminess to it, without overpowering the black tea flavour. If I had been making it at home from scratch, I probably would have made it sweeter.

A Second Cup?

As Original Milk Tea is a drink mix powder, there are no second cups with the same powder.

My Overall Impression

I liked Chatime’s Original Milk Tea. It’s a very convenient method of making milk tea on-the-go, especially seeing as how I have access to a hot water dispenser at work. I like that it’s not too sweet, because it allows me to add some sweetener as I see fit. The flavour is good, and the slight astringency remind me a lot of the milk tea that you can get at Hong Kong-style cafes. Original Milk Tea is priced nicely, especially if you compare it to what a tea delivered to you would cost ($0.90 per serving versus $5+), making Original Milk Tea an affordable option.

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