Review: Samovar Pumpkin Chai
It. Is. FALL!!! Truly, a great season. For me, the best thing about fall is pumpkin spiced everything. I love the pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice latte, even pumpkin scones! So when I found out that pumpkin chai is a thing, I knew I had to find one immediately.
I ordered Samovar’s Pumpkin Chai from their website a little while ago and decided to try it out. Their description of the mix is that it includes notes of butterscotch, caramelized pumpkin, and maple. This caught my eye because I had never heard of a blend that included all these things together, so I knew it was going to be different than what I was expecting. This is a seasonal flavor that you can only get in the fall time.
As soon as you open the package, an incredibly sweet smell hits you. It was almost like the smell of a candy store. It’s interesting to note that the maple crystals are in the loose leaf mix (likely what I was smelling), but the brewing directions still tell you to add 3 tablespoons of sweetener.
Now here comes the actual brewing process. You add the sweetener of choice to your 2 cups of water, and once it is boiling add 3 tablespoons of the pumpkin chai. You let everything boil for another 10 minutes together, then add your 2 cups of milk, and bring that to a boil once more. After that, you just strain and drink.
This process takes quite a bit of time because you have to keep bringing it back to a boil, and the one step alone takes 10 minutes. This is very similar to the Samovar Original Chai that I reviewed a little while back, which also was more time consuming than most other chai blends I’ve tried.
Time for the taste test.
I’ve tried this both hot and iced, because sometimes the flavors come out more when hot, but on both occasions tasted the same. It tastes mostly maple, and definitely sugary. I don’t taste any pumpkin/pumpkin spice nor chai spice, even though you can see them in the bag. The flavors are muted because of the maple and caramel favoring they use. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a chai, because while they do include the ingredients, it comes down to the taste.
Personally, I did not care for this blend. It fell short of both pumpkin and chai, and I myself don’t like sweeter drinks. I won’t be buying this again, but if you want to try it for yourself, here’s the link to their online store. Let me know what your thoughts are!
