Enticing Chai (Spiced Chai Flavored Black Tea)
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Commercial Description
For something totally different, try Lipton Spiced Chai, an exotic blend of savory spices, rich, all natural Assam black tea leaves and a hint of ginger. Add milk to create a Chai Latte – a delicious treat.
RateTea Notes
Lipton has rebranded this product over the years. It was originally sold as the "Spiced Chai" flavored black tea, with a yellow label that looked similar to the company's flagship black tea blend. Recently, it has taken on different packaging, differentiating it from the main blend and making it look more like some of Lipton's newer specialty teas.
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
57 Aroma: 4/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5Tchuggin' Okie (379 reviews) on Feb. 18th, 2020
In an apparent ode to Back to the Future, Lipton, or at least its corporate boss Unilever, is again referring to this simply as, "Spiced Chai", as of Feb. 2020. Whether this is a renaming of their chai just for food-service purposes, or for keeps across the brand, remains to be seen. I uploaded a photo of the latest packaging.
This tea came from a cafeteria, but I brought an extra bag home to taste on the usual well water, in order that the local city water, which always has a good deal of chlorine and sometimes layers of algal and mud flavors atop that, doesn't unduly tarnish the rating. As bagged chais go, it's around the middle to lower part in my experience: overly heavy on cinnamon at the expense of the other listed ingredients (allspice, ginger root, black pepper, cloves) that could give it more character, if better balanced. That's not to say it's a bad tea; indeed, it's in the upper limb of Lipton's taste ranges, which I realize doesn't impress many folks. If you don't mind an overemphasis on cinnamon in chai, it ain't bad. I'd just like for the other spices to be more apparent too. One of the ingredients also is "natural flavor", but of what? Also, this tea contains soy lecithin. With the need for either flavoring or soy not apparent to me, at least in a quality chai, a few points got lopped off the rating.
Since I reckon most folks don't do this, the result could be only a minor deal, but for full disclosure: upon breathing through the wet bag, I was reminded distinctly of unscented model-airplane glue. That sort of experience likely was not intended by the producers. No, I don't huff airplane glue, and no, you won't get delirious off wet Lipton chai bags. :-)
70 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 5/5Vescha (2 reviews) on Feb. 24th, 2014
I had originally received this product in a gift box. This past afternoon I attended a Victorian High Tea ceremony with my mother and some friends. I would never have purchased this product of my own will, as I am not particularly a fan of chai tea and I do not support Lipton's mother company, Unilever. I was skeptical to try it because I have only ever had chai tea once (from Starbucks) and have not yet had the desire to do so again, however, I decided that since it was free, I might as well. When I attempted to look this product up on the LiptonTeas website, I discovered that the company no longer sells this particular product. They do carry a variation of it, called Lipton Spiced Cinnamon Chai, a name much more fitting to the flavor of this tea. The tea also no longer comes in a standard tea bag. Lipton has made the switch to pyramid tea bags and increased the quality of their products in my opinion.
When I opened the packaging, the cinnamon hit me dead on like a freight train. I was impressed by the initial strength of the aroma. It smelled like the entrance to grocery stores around Christmas time, loaded down with overpriced and strong smelling cinnamon pine cones. I always attempt to avoid stores around this time, but it was a surprisingly pleasant experience nonetheless. I brought the tea bag up to my nose and took a deep whiff, trying to get a feel for the full aroma (and hoping to catch a hint of some of the underlying ingredients, much to no avail) and my eyes began to water, the spices were so strong.
I put the teabag in a hot cup of water, heated to 210° F. I let the bag steep for approximately 3 minutes while watching the most recent episode of the Walking Dead. The bottom of the cup was immediately turned a deep redish brown color and the smell of cinnamon spread throughout the entire second floor of my house. I even attracted the attention of a friend, who left the safety of the computer room to come and investigate the strong aroma. I was impressed with how well the scent from the tea bag appeared to transfer into the cup, the taste of which was no different. After brewing, the tea was a dark reddish brown and held a strong cinnamon aroma.
My initial tasting of the tea was mildly pleasant. I tried the tea plain, with no sweeteners or cremes, and it tasted much like any traditional black tea. The taste of cinnamon only hit as an aftertaste and I was shocked. I added a bit of Perfectea German Rock Sugar that I had purchased from Teavana a while back, which seemed to accentuate the cinnamon flavor a little better. The tea had
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
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