Review: Vahdam Teas Earl Grey Masala Chai
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Welcome back to another post! Today I’m going to review the second tea from Vahdam Teas. I already reviewed their saffron chai back in December, which you can read here.
Vahdam is an authentic tea company based in India. They pride themselves in packaging fresh at the source, and cutting out the middleman by shipping directly to you. Oprah has also featured them in her “favorite things” list 2 years!
As I mentioned before, they have kindly sent me a chai sampler gift set to go ahead and try out! I’m very excited for this one, I’ve never had chai with earl grey tea as the base. If you follow me on instagram @itrychai, then you saw my stories when I was making this chai. If you want to keep up with the latest I Try Chai updates, go and give me a follow if you haven’t already.
Let’s get right into the review!
As I mentioned last time, this might be the nicest packaging I’ve come across so far. I love the magnetic closure of the box, as well as the gold details. The gold tins have a see through lid so you can see which tea you’re grabbing. The name and instructions are on the bottom of the tin.
As soon as I opened the tin up I could smell the earl grey. To me, earl grey is typically a more floral black tea. It’s almost slightly sweet in flavor. I love earl grey on it’s own and so the thought of blending that with chai was definitely intriguing!
As you can see in some of the close up photos, the ratio leans more heavily on the tea with a few spices seen floating around. This likely means that the earl grey flavor is going to dominate, but we will see later in the taste test.
Next, let’s look at the process (time to make/instructions). The bottom of the tin doesn’t give very clear instructions, which makes it a bit difficult to guess. The only clear information given is the amount of tea to add, and the steeping time. There is some sort of other measurement, but I have no idea what that was for.
There is no mention of milk, which is a common way to drink chai but since I like chai with milk I went ahead and guessed the amounts. I added one cup of water and brought that to a boil, then added the amount of tea it called for on the tin: 1 teaspoon. That seemed like not enough, so I went ahead and added around half a teaspoon more. I steeped it as instructed for 4 minutes then went ahead and added my sugar (again, not specific amount in the instructions). After that was mixed in I added 1/3 cup milk of choice and then stirred that in then proceeded to strain into my mug.
Definitely loses points for vague/no instructions. Let’s move on to the flavor….
From the first sip I can confidently say this was enjoyable! The earl grey definitely takes the lead, with the chai notes blending into the background a bit (but there just enough to notice). This is a very smooth chai, and slightly floral. I very much like this and will be sipping again. While the chai flavors are there, this is not a spicy chai, but rather a more mellow alternative. This is a perfect morning cup of chai in my opinion, or a chai for a rainy day.
Overall, this is a very good chai. It loses points for convenience though, and I worry that upon first attempt the wrong amount of liquid/tea could distort the end result so I highly recommend using the proportions I mentioned earlier. When done right, this is a chai I would recommend to any chai lover.
Overall Rating: Chai Lover/adventurer
Recommended Sweetener: white sugar
Recommended Milk Alternative: Oatly Full Fat Oat Milk
Spice level: none
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