Sunflowers, igloos and cow juice (Clipper Chai)

Member Name: Diaz

Product:	Clipper Chai
Date:	28/11/01 (189 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very exotic experience

Disadvantages: May be a little too fragrant for some

I sat in glorious sunshine beneath a giant tea leaf, breathing in the delicate aroma of Lavender, mixed with the heady scent of Chai and gazed down over a field of lavender and mechanical sunflowers to a large plastic igloo in the distance. It was a surreal but thoroughly British thing to do, sipping tea in the sun in such a strange setting and it was the first time I’d tried Indian chai.

I’m sure a few of you have figured out the place was the Eden Project in Cornwall, they were having a special Tea theme day, up in the visitors centre people in morning suits complete with spats waltzed with Eliza Doolittle and down in the valley below we drank tea from all over the world, but particularly Chai. I was so impressed with it I bought a packet from the visitors centre and took it home with me. Then over time I’ve rationed the 20 bags slowly, savouring each delicious cup of tea, the only thing marring the experience was the knowledge that the packet would run out and the only place I’ve ever seen the bags is in Eden project and although the Chai is very, very good, it isn’t worth a five hour drive to Cornwall to collect a fresh packet. So you can imagine how pleased I was when I found out Tescos were selling it, for the rather reasonable sum of £1.39.


~~Cow Juice~~

So enough with the waffle and onto the sensory delight that is Clipper Organic Indian Chai.

Apparently this is the traditional Indian way of drinking tea with spices, a visit to the website (www.clipper-teas.com) shows pictures of Chai being sold on street corners and people hanging on the sides of travelling trains with absolutely no regard for personal safety. I’ve always found it amusing that in the “West” it takes action heroes to travel on a train rooftop, but in places like India grannies quite happily hop up on the roof, Roy Rogers would be ashamed....

So it’s traditional to drink it milky and
sweet, it says so on the box. Which for me is a good thing, there are plenty of food snobs that look down their noses at people for putting milk and sugar into Earl Grey, “only the British could take an delicate exotic infusion of herbs and put cow juice into it” (it was an advert for BA, I think). Well, it’s official, this is the way Indians drink it and they make, so they should know. Which is a relief because I can’t stomach tea without a nice bit of cow juice.


~~What’s that smell, Daddy? ~~

At the risk of sounding like Oz Clarke, the first thing that hits you when you open the silver foil (is that biodegradable? I think not) is the aroma. It’s a treat, the cinnamon reminds me of Christmas and of course Cornwall, now. The intensity increases when you add the water, my daughter calls it stinky tea and turns her nose up at it, but you don’t expect a four year old to have a refined palette do you? Not that I do myself, my senses are pretty dull from years of abuse but even my jaded palette can appreciate this. I suppose it might have something to do with the fact it takes 3-5 minutes to steep the tea so the aroma does tend to fill the room.

The first flavour to come through is a warming glow of cinnamon, this is followed by cloves, I suppose this is what really offends young Molly, this adds a balancing smoothness to the tea and counter the freshness of the lemon. Although the cloves could feel a little antiseptic (memories of taste experiments at school with clove oil, shudder) then overall effect is to make the tea taste clean. Surprisingly enough, I can’t taste the Cardamom, which I suppose is something I should be thankful for, I’ve had way too many bad Cardamom experiences with curry to truly appreciate this flavour, I’m sure they sneak onto your fork when you aren’t looking.

When taken as a overall flavour the tea is warming, fresh, smooth and
generally luxuriant tasting. It’s actually a very relaxing experience, and very settling on the stomach, not a bad hangover brew.

The ingredients are as follows, Tea (no kidding), Cinnamon, Lemon Peel, Cardamom and Cloves all of which are grown organically.


~~Green Tickets and Self Righteous Ranting~~

Now I’m not sure if Clipper are exactly a “fair trade” company as such but what they do is supply their workers with good wages, good crèche, health and social facilities and “all children receive a good full time education” I’m unsure if this means they employ children or if it refers to the children of their staff, I expect it’s the latter. Either way it comes pretty close to the ideals of “fair trade” which can only be a good thing.

Another good thing, which I’m sure the sharper knives amongst you have already sussed is that Clipper Organic Chai is ORGANIC, there’s a clue in the product name. This means of course that all the ingredients are grown using natural methods of cultivation and no artificial chemicals enter the process. When put into perspective the fact the majority if not all of the ingredients are grown in third world or emerging countries it isn’t surprising they don’t use artificial chemicals and intensive farming techniques. Another “feature” is the use of unbleached paper for the boxes and tea bag paper, they assure us that the paper comes from sustainable forests and here’s news the paper is biodegradable (isn’t all paper biodegradable?)

Now, maybe I’m being cynical but I’m not keen on using the green card to flog a product and lend a borrowed air of nobility to a company, lets face it companies are generally about making money and not changing the world into a fluffier place. A product should stand or fall on it’s quality and nothing else, fortunately this is a good
product so the Green ticket is a nice bit window dressing to those who care about such things. Don’t get me wrong, I would say I’m a very environmentally aware individual I just expect a company to focus on it’s products and not it high minded ethos. I expect a company to provide their product in recyclable packaging and for it not to have been tested on animals (where possible and applicable) to be a standard practice and not something worth bandstanding. Clippers approach to its foreign employees is commendable and probably worth mentioning, the fact it uses recycled paper for it’s boxes is not.

Still all my cynical ranting aside Clipper Chai is genuinely a very good product for a host of reasons, but the main and most important one is it’s taste.

You can buy Clipper Indian Organic Chai from Tescos for about £1.39 or on-line at www.clipper-teas.com

Summary: