Debonair Tea Co – Persian Chai
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This ‘Persian-inspired’ chai blend has a lot going on. Most prominently, the flowery flavours of rose and lavender which do, to be honest, give this tea the aroma of something you’d pour in your bath for a long relaxing soak, or possibly burn in an incense holder.
If that sounds a bit off-putting to you, you might want to steer clear of this tea. Personally, I’m all for it. I love a bit of floweriness in my tea. The spices here (ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, and fennel) underscore the lavender and rose beautifully and add a bit of pizzazz to the proceedings. If the black tea at the base of this tea brew had been a bit more pronounced then this would have been the perfect tea for me. Sadly the taste of actual tea gets a bit smothered by everything else going on.
I know little of Persian tea so I can’t comment on how authentic this tea is. I have discovered that Persia (now Iran) has a long and noble history of tea appreciation dating back to the 18th century. Iran is the fourth largest consumer of tea per capita, with only Turkish, Irish and British people managing to put away more cups of tea per year than the Iranians. Most of the tea drunk in Iran is imported. However, Iran does have its own tea growers and producers. ‘Try some Iranian tea’ has now been added to my ever-increasing Tea To Do list.
Apparently, Iranian tea drinkers usually take sugar in their tea, and the traditional way to do this is to hold a sugar cube between your teeth and then drink your piping hot tea through it so that the sugar melts in your mouth. This sounds like a bit of a faff to me. Surely, it puts the mockers on any between-sips conversation you might want to enjoy with your fellow tea drinkers.
It wasn’t a technique I employed with Debonair Persian Chai. I just took it with a splash of milk, no sugar and fully immersed myself in the spicy, flowery, perfume-y possibly-Persian experience.
Today’s featured book is A Street Cat Named Bob by James Bowen. Because, as a crazy cat lady, if I hear the word ‘Persian’, I immediately think of cats. Bob is emphatically not a Persian, mind. Also, for the record, Debonair Persian Chai doesn’t taste of cats.
