Teapigs – Chai Tea
So I’m back! From outer space! I always dislike it when infrequent bloggers spend half their time apologising for not posting enough, so I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to nonchalantly saunter back in here like it’s no big deal, and I haven’t been inexplicably MIA since the beginning of November.
Today, I’m reviewing Teapigs Chai Tea. Obviously, Masala Chais aren’t Christmas teas. They’re from the hot and dusty streets of non-Christmas-celebrating Mumbai. But, well, they’re still pretty Christmassy, aren’t they?
This blend, for example, has cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and vanilla, which is a boatload of festive aromas. If you threw in some Brussels sprouts and a terrible Christmas cracker joke, this tea would be the whole Christmas package.
These tea bags were given to me by my friend Rebecca, who knows how much I dislike the tautology of the name “Chai Tea” and has helpfully crossed out the “tea” bit on the packaging with biro. Presumably to stop me spiralling into some kind of pedantic rage.
Teapigs Chai Tea is very, very nice. Is it nicer than my perennial Masala Chai fave from Tea India? You know what, I think it actually is. It’s four times the price, mind, so it really ought to be. I’d like to think I’m not the sort of person to be swayed by fancy packaging. But I do think that being able to see all the cardamom pods and bits of cinnamon bark in Teapigs’ fine-mesh ‘tea temples’ helps a lot. I was already predisposed to love it before I’d even put the water in.
And it doesn’t disappoint. The cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla are all out in full force. And the Assam at its base is robust enough to party heartily alongside its spicy bagmates. And of course the festive wintry spicy flavour makes it the perfect accompaniment to the whole tinsley, mince-pie-y, Muppets-Christmas-Carol-y vibe that I’ve got going on today.
I do have an actual Christmas tea to review as well. And I’m hoping to get that one done before the Big Day. But, hey, given my current posting schedule, you may not actually get to read about it until around February.
