Chai a cup of this! (Decafinated Mountain Chai Bags)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Decafinated Mountain Chai Bags
Date:	08/06/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An excellent Chai flavour, easy to brew to your required strength, zero caffeine

Disadvantages: May be hard to track down

Following advice from my hospital consultant I have been experimenting with different caffeine-free (or reduced caffeine) teas, I haven't been impressed with the big brand decaffs as they just seem a poor imitation taste wise so I decided to take the plunge into a completely different tasting tea in a bid to avoid to washiness of decaff 'normal' tea - I've been drinking tea for over fifty years and have basically gotten used to my caffeine laden hot drinks so swapping to these sleep aiding versions is proving difficult!

It was during a flying visit to Birmingham last week that led me to a lovely new tea from Celestial Seasonings, Mountain Chai which is available is both decaffeinated and decaff and costs £1.19 for 20 teabags. I have never seen this brand before but it looked inviting in the small ethnic supplies store we were visiting, I doubt it's available in any of the supermarkets but I'll certainly be hunting some down or perhaps asking my Brummie friend to bring me some down on one of her frequent visits.

I love the spicy flavour of Chai and these bags are excellent, they have a lovely blend of almost perfumed tea and a rather authentic Chai flavouring. The end result after steeping for a few minutes is a deeply flavoured aromatic tea which can be sweetened with sugar or honey, there is nothing on the box to suggest whether or not milk is advised but I would suggest that milk would spoil the flavour and change the whole Oriental effect of the drink. Likewise sugar would perhaps change the balance of the overall flavour as the spiciness of the drink is key, I don't sweeten my hot drinks so cannot really comment on that one but I'd imagine the honey would blend rather better with the Chai tea itself.

It's completely up to you how long you allow the tea to brew for, I like my drink strongly flavoured so leave it for around four minutes and this gives a wonderful depth of flavour without giving the tea an overly brewed taste. I have never tried the full caffeine version of this tea but actually think this is a wonderfully rich blended tea, if served this without seeing the packaging I doubt I'd suspect that this is a decaffeinated tea because the flavour is so full and well rounded. I served my daughter a cup this afternoon and she said how tasty it was, she left her teabag for just a couple of minutes as she doesn't enjoy a strong cuppa - a quick sip of hers assured me that even the shortened brewing time gave a nicely flavoured drink that seemed that little bit more refreshing than the stronger cups I drink.

Chai flavouring is hard to describe as the blend varies from product to product, in this teabag the Chai is a little more overpowering than you would expect from a brand like Twinings but it's done so very well that honestly I think the stronger the better. In this instance I can pick out cinnamon and perhaps a little nutmeg in the flavouring, there's also the heat in the heart of the drink that I am pretty sure is ginger. Unfortunately I store my teabags in an air tight container so don't have the box to check the exact spices used to create the flavour, but I can tell you that in my opinion it's the right ones and this gives a refreshing and unusual drink which quenches my thirst better than any 'normal' cuppa.

It's hard to tell whether using these decaffeinated teabags is having any benefit when it comes to my poor sleeping, but then it's hard to tell with any decaffeinated tea in my opinion so I'll just settle for being pleased that I've finally found a way to cut my caffeine without compromising on taste.

Summary: An excellent cup of decaffeinated tea with a rich Chai flavouring.