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There are dozens – if not hundreds – of spicy chai tea blends on the market, and each one has a slightly different take on spicing up black tea leaves. With some, there is the merest hint of spice and with others, the spices are the main players, delivering a punch strategically designed to knock your fluffy socks off.
Whittard Chilli Chai is definitely at the punchy sock-knocking-off end of the spectrum. It’s the most sock-knocking-off chai, I’ve ever tasted. And it’s absolutely marvellous.
This blend of tea, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, chilli powder, and black pepper is a scorching hot combination of all my favourite flavours. The spices are in no way relegated to the sidelines. Black tea only makes up 32% of the ingredients with the comprehensive collection of dried spices making up more than two thirds of Chilli Chai’s weight.
There are no ‘flavourings’ (natural or otherwise) listed here either. Every spice in this tea has turned up in person, which is evident when you look at the dried tea, a colourful collection of seeds, bark and roots.
And let’s not forget the chilli. (You can’t forget the chilli, it’s right there in the tea name.) The chilli does not muck about. Its hot, fiery presence is evident in every sip and it left my lips and tongue slightly tingly afterwards.
I would not recommend this tea to anyone who is a bit ambivalent about chilli. Whittard Chilli Chai is wholeheartedly a chai for chilli lovers. I found the experience utterly exhilarating.
Today’s book is Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy. Also if you’re interested, the tea cup pictured is also from Whittard. At the moment you can get two of these here Iris mugs free of charge if you spend sixty quid on that in their online shop.
