Review: Chai Baba Rooibos Chai
I want to start off this post by thanking Chai Baba for sending me samples of their different chai blends to taste! I can’t wait to try out their other flavors.
Chai Baba is an Australian company focused on high quality chai blends, and sell their products to restaurants and cafes around Australia as well as on their online store.
The packaging is so pretty, and I really love the easy pull tab to open (no scissors were required). This is probably the coolest packaging I’ve come across yet…
As for the directions, you can click on the brew guides on their website. They recommend adding a little fresh ginger which I think is a really cool way to add that bit of freshness that you simply can’t bag up (no pun intended).
So today I am reviewing their Rooibos Chai blend, which is the first I’ve tried (exciting!!).
The spices are very fine, almost powder like, and it smells amazing the second you open up the bag.
As you can see in the pictures, it’s very bright red in color (especially as it brews in the water).
As always, I love the fact that you add whatever sweetener you want. I’m super excited because I’ve heard a lot of people really like using maple syrup to sweeten but I haven’t tried it yet.
I don’t really know why I’ve kind of avoided trying it, I guess I’m just used to using brown sugar or regular white sugar instead and using a liquid is a little intimidating.
I have a great friend that so generously offered some of the MOST AMAZING pure maple syrup from her friend’s maple farm (shoutout to Leilani if you’re reading this)! So that’s the sweetener I’m using for today, and I only added about a teaspoon.
The brewing process is a little different than any other chai I’ve tried, where you add ginger + water + sweetener and boil, then when you add the chai you remove it from the heat for 3-5 minutes and then add the milk and bring the heat back up.
That being said, I don’t find this time consuming at all, it goes by pretty quick.
Taste test time!!!
This is a nice warm and inviting chai, matching all the fall aesthetics: smooth and creamy, comforting, + mellow and chill. This is the kind of chai you want to just chill out while watching a movie on a rainy fall day or something.
(Keep in mind I base most of my ideas about fall from tv/movies, and my travel because here in Hawaii, fall is really just an extended summer: extremely hot and dry from May through October. Oh, and the leaves don’t change color or, ya know, FALL).
The blend sticks to its name with the Rooibos being the leading flavor. The drink isn’t overwhelming at all, it’s very mellowed out and chill.
All in all this is a very low-key chai, the flavors don’t hit you in the face which can be a nice break from the super spicy or heavily caffeinated chai. It’s a very comforting and nice cup of chai to enjoy when you want a mellow-er flavor.