Tag: DavidsTea

Organic David’s Chai by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Organic David’s Chai comes a fairly familiar looking bag by now – sealed, resealable, silver pouch. The dark blue label on the front helps to identify it at a glance as a black tea (not going to lie, I do like colour coding my teas because it just makes it easier to organize…). David’s Chai is described as a warm & spicy classic. I’m as much of a fan of chai as the next girl, so lets get this started!

The aroma from the dry leaf is lovely – plenty of spicy notes and I can make out the majority of the ingredients. I can really smell the cinnamon and ginger. David’s Chai consist of organic: black tea, ginger, cinnamon, anise, star anise, cardamom, black pepper and clove buds.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Organic David’s Chai in 95ºC (200ºF) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted to follow the steeping instructions and did an initial steep of 5 minutes.

First Taste

David’s Chai steeps to a really pretty golden brown colour. The aroma is warming with all those spice notes wafting up from my fancy mug. It’s quite inviting, which is one of the things I love about a nice chai. The flavour is a lovely blend of all the spices – although I can make out the ginger, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom specifically. It has a nice smooth texture to it, spicy notes and really warms me up from the inside out.

I could see this being a lovely chai blend candidate for getting that infamous double boil preparation on the stove top for a more traditional chai preparation method.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped David’s Chai once, for 6 minutes. I found the flavour to be pleasant, but not nearly as warming as the initial steep. I would personally do just one steep of David’s Chai but I could see some people enjoying a second steep of the same leaves.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Organic David’s Chai. I found to be quite a pleasant experience from the dry leaf, to inhaling the aroma of the steeped tea, to drinking it. The blend of spices was quite nice and enjoyable, which is what really made it delicious. I would recommend adding sweetener if you prefer your chai a bit more sweet as it isn’t very sweet (I personally would use honey, but agave or granulated sugar would work just as well).

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

Maple Chai by DavidsTea
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

I got Maple Chai samples from my local DavidsTea locations as part of their sneak peek to promote the new chai blends (I might have made a few purchases…). So I decided I should probably give them a try especially since so many people were talking about this blend online. Each sample is 5g and good for one cup. There’s no mention on the packaging directly that I can find about it being compostable or recyclable, which is unfortunate.

Maple Chai has a great aroma to it. I can pick out the ginger, cinnamon, apple, brown sugar, and cardamom. It’s really inviting with all the warm spices in it. It’s a pretty dry leaf, but I don’t really smell the maple in it which I find to be disappointing given the name of the blend. Maple Chai consists of: black tea, apple, ginger, brown sugar, roasted chicory root, orange peel, cinnamon, maple sugar, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, natural and artificial flavourings.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Maple Chai in 95°C (200°F) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted to do a 4 minute steep.

First Taste

Maple Chai steeps to a golden orange colour. There’s a pleasant aroma, but I don’t smell the maple. I do smell the warm spices in the blend – primarily ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom. It has a nice sweetness, a nice robust flavour behind it that I believe to be from the black tea. The brown sugar comes through nicely, and goes well with the spices. It’s a smooth tea, no bitterness when steeped for 4 minutes.

I did attempt Maple Chai as a latte, and found that it was greatly improved – I also used maple syrup as sweetener to get some maple flavouring in there.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Maple Chai twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour didn’t really improve, resulting in a weaker tea each time. I would suggest steeping Maple Chai for just the initial steep.

My Overall Impression

I  thought that DavidsTea’s Maple Chai was just okay. There was a lot of hype about this black tea blend, so I was quite eager to try it – it was great that it was available to shoppers in the retail shops. I do hope that DavidsTea continues to give out sneak peek samples, because it’s a great way to create hype about a new blend that they’re proud of. While I liked Maple Chai as a chai, I was disappointed that there wasn’t more maple flavouring in the tea because that was the part of the name that I thought should have been better reflected in the flavour. Definitely try this one as a latte though, and maybe use maple syrup as a sweetener, as it works nicely as a latte despite not having a lot of maple syrup by itself.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.