teapigs Chilli Chai: A Spicy & Hot Treat

 

I'm fast becoming a fan of teapigs. Well, I'd say I'm already a huge fan. I love the quality of their tea's, their unique flavours, cool packaging and ease of online ordering. There is something modern and funky about this brand which I really love. 

Reece from teapigs kindly sent me a package which contain three of their tea's. Chilli Chai was one of them. In fact it's the first tea from the package that I've tried. It looked so different and interesting and I couldn't wait to try it. 

Chilli Chai contains the following ingredients:

• Assam 
• Whole cardamom pods
• Ginger pieces
• Cinnamon
• Vanilla
• Pieces of chilli

You can drink it with or without milk and with or without sugar. I decided to drink it "raw" (as teapigs describes it) without milk or sugar. I really find it hard to tolerate milk in my tea nowadays. I just love to taste  the tea as it is without masking it behind milk or sugar. However, this tea is ideal if you like your tea milky and sweet - it's all down to personal taste.

I brewed this tea for a little over four minutes. It brewed to a wonderful dark amber colour. I loved watching this tea brew because you can see so many things in the teabag from the ginger pieces to the chilli pieces. It's a really interesting tea to watch brew.

I love the richly spiced tea that comes along with chai. It's full flavoured and wonderful. Perfect for cold winter nights, so to add chilli to the mix was going to be really interesting.

What comes through first when drinking this tea is the normal chai flavour. A sweet mixture of spices comes through making a wonderfully tasty tea. But, then you get the kick of chilli, and it's really quite hot!

The base tea of this blend is assam, itself a very strong black tea, which makes for the perfect ingredient in this tea. It has a rock solid base tea, in which the spices and chilli can be added to. Everything within this tea can hold it's own, and most of the flavours are really strong. Mixed together it makes for a tasty tea. The only flavour I couldn't detect properly was vanilla, but I think if it wasn't added the blend would be missing something. Maybe I will pick the vanilla up on second tasting.

I've read reviews of this tea on the teapigs site and many people who have tried the tea feel there is no kick to the chilli. I happen to disagree. I found it actually quite hot, and it really did make my taste buds jump!

And there is quite a hot, serious afterburn as well! It took me a while to finish the cup of tea, I sipped it slowly but I enjoyed every bit of the tea.

This will make a perfect cup of tea if you like hot, spicy things that have kick to it. If you don't like such things this may not be the blend for you. But, teapigs do a chai without chilli, which you can read about here. I haven't tried this, but have been reliably told by a friend that it's sweet and very delicious. Maybe I should treat myself to a box!

For more information on Chilli Chai then pop onto the teapigs website.

Chilli Chai makes for a really different spin on chai tea. It's really tasty and enjoyable. And teapigs do a teapiglet sample pack (two teabags), so why not try a smaller pack if your unsure! You won't be disappointed!