To Love a Chai - Review

(review by Cathe Smith)

Picture a market in Bangkok, Thailand; it is a hot and humid commerce-driven mosh pit.  Strangers are crowded shoulder to shoulder, shuffling along in a ragged single file because that’s all the narrow aisle will allow.    The air is humid and close under the umbrellas that keep off the afternoon drizzle and you know you’re sweating through your clothes with every step.  Between the traffic, the locals haggling, the hawkers advertising, and the booth blaring pirated music, your ears become overwhelmed.  With every breath, you cough a bit from the diesel exhaust, and try to avoid the overwhelming smell of the open-air butcher stalls mixed with an archaic sewer system. You know, as a foreigner, you aren’t moving as fast as you could be; your head is on swivel trying to absorb everything and maybe find a present for your mom back home.  Someone’s elderly grandmother is constantly poking you in the small of your back to keep you shuffling forward every time you slow down.

Just as you think you’re going to crack from every sense being bombarded, you find a small dimly lit alley way off to the side.  It looks okay, just darker because the buildings are closer together and less of the sunlight filters down through the overhanging balconies.  A quick side step, a gesture to the impatient grandmother with the bony sharp fingers to take your place in the crowded shuffle, and you feel an immediate sense of relief.  You straighten up from the unconscious hunch you had adopted in the crush, and as you’re taking a few deep breaths of relief you nose picks up the faint whiff of a familiar scent.  Walking down the alley a bit further, you find a small Indian restaurant with its doors open to the sidewalk.

Inside, it’s relatively empty; the lunch rush has come and gone and it’s too early for the dinner crowd.  The restaurant is brightly lit, and the owner greets you and tells you to have a seat anywhere. The tables and chairs are cheap plastic, but clean.  As soon as you sit, a cheap laminated menu printed in English and Thai is set down in front of you, and the owner waits for you to make your decision. There is no barrier between the kitchen and the dining area, you can see the owner dishing up your meal mere seconds after you order it.  Up in the corner, an old TV set plays a complicated Bollywood movie.  But what drew you into the restaurant in the first place is the scent of the masala chai; that delightful blend of black tea and Indian Ayuverdic spices, served hot with milk at a touch of sugar.

It brings up memories of going to Indian buffets back home with your friends and family; of other happy times spent in a bookshop finding your next world to explore.  And in that small hot Indian, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Bangkok you find a measure of equanimity enjoying a cup of chai.  With every inhalation of the fragrant steam, the noise and chaos becomes a bit more manageable.  In this manner, a cup of chai becomes a thing of familiar comfort even when you find yourself in unfamiliar territory.

Months later when I returned to home, I found myself searching for that perfect cup of chai-and sense of calm I experienced in that Indian restaurant.   In the United States, masala chai has become known as a “chai tea latte” when served in coffee shops.  And in typical American fashion, it tends to have quite a bit of sugar added to it which can overwhelm the other flavors of the tea. I tried different chai blends from numerous companies; one used too much clove and made the tip of my tongue numb, another used a black tea that was exceptionally bitter no matter how carefully I brewed it, while another became my favorite only to have the tea company go out of business.  

So, when Kimberly first started Viridian Tea Company, I am afraid I was a little bit of a pest asking her if she was doing a masala chai blend.  However, I knew the care and artistry she brought to her other tea blends and I wanted to experience what she could come up with for one of my favorite tea blends.

When I first received my packet of Tea Junkie Chai, it was a miserably gray day that could not make up its mind if it was going to snow or rain.  I opened the bag and took one deep breath and knew I had to try it out straight away.  I found myself repeatedly sniffing the chai blend as I made the tea and my mood lifted despite the dreariness of the day outside.  They say our sense of smell is one way to help us remember the past, and as I stood in my kitchen waiting for the water to boil, I started remembering the turns and twists through the market in Bangkok to find that Indian restaurant almost two decades later.  

Tea Junkie Chai has a base of robust Assam tea that gives the chai a delightfully aromatic background for the spices to show up against.  A first whiff of the prepared tea delights the nose with cinnamon and cloves with subtle hints of other spices.  A cautious sip makes you aware of the ginger, cardamom and pink peppercorns.  As you continue to drink your cup, you discover the vanilla that was winding its way through the cup.

Soon enough, you find your tea cup is empty and that you must go back to the pot.  If, like me, you let the leaves stay in the water, you find your second cup features the cinnamon, ginger and pepper becoming bolder.  Their combined spiciness adds a different type of warmth to the hot tea, it has a bite that wakes you up and makes you pay attention to it.  I may have still had a cold grey day outside, but the remembered the heat and humidity of Bangkok were seeping into my house.

By the time I went back for my third cup of tea, it was time to add a touch of brown sugar and some half and half to see how the blend would hold up to being used for a full masala chai (aka chai tea latte).  I was impressed at how the touch of sugar and dairy changed which flavors came through.  The earthiness of the Assam was tempered, and the more subtle flavors of the cardamom and vanilla had a chance to shine against their spicier counterparts.  Truly, it felt like a warm hug in tea form.

For a slightly different take on a hot chai, venture forth to your local liquor store and see if they stock Somrus. It is a cream and rum based liquor flavored with pistachios, almonds, rose petals, saffron, and cardamom.  I only added a scant 2 oz. to a cup of hot Tea Junkie Chai, stirred and let it cool to sipping temperature.  The experience was a fragrant and rich trip to a swank hotel someplace warm and sunny; the different flavor notes from the tea and the liquor came together in a unique symphony.

Despite living in the far north, I know that the hot sticky days of summer will eventually return. When they do, I look forward to using this chai blend as an iced tea, and even as an iced chai latte.  While such things might be considered sacrilege to some tea aficionados, a cold glass of chai with the bite of peppercorns and ginger is a wonderful pick-me-up after a day doing yard work.

In conclusion, I highly recommend the Tea Junkie Chai blend by Viridian Tea Company.  Kimberly has shown herself again and again to be an incredibly talented tea blender.

For the purposes of this review, I used a teaspoon of loose tea per 8 oz. of water when I brewed my pot.  I let the tea steep in the pot until I was done with it, so each subsequent cup was stronger than the last.  Such an approach tends to make for a better cup when adding sugar and dairy.