Tisane Information:
Leaf Type: Rooibos
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tisane Description:
Okay all you cola lovers out there; this is what you have been looking for. A great healthy alternative to carbonated cola drinks. This chai starts off with a Rooibos base, then we mix ginger root, cinnamon, green cardamom and a hint of vanilla flavor. Excellent either brewed with water alone or in the traditional Chai method. What a divine substitute.
Learn more about this tisane here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s not that hard to get me really excited about a tea. I get excited about tea every day! But, it’s a little more difficult to get me excited over a tisane, particularly a rooibos tisane. I just don’t really like rooibos enough to get really pumped up about it.
But this is really REALLY good.
The nutty flavor of the rooibos melds so seamlessly with the flavors of the spice and the cola notes that I hardly notice it as rooibos. That’s quite a feat. For me to actually like a rooibos blend usually either the rooibos needs to just work with the flavors at hand, or the flavors need to be strong enough to overwhelm the rooibos so I don’t taste the rooibos. Here, though, the nutty sweetness of the rooibos comes together with the flavors of the cola and the spices in such a way that the rooibos isn’t exactly overwhelmed … it just becomes part of the blend in just the right way.
The cola flavor translates well here, and it goes together with the spices in a very nice way. The spices energize the cola flavor, rather than offer a hot-spicy kind of taste. The spices are warm but in a very gentle way, kind of like what you might expect in a chai cola, where the cola is the main flavor and the spices accent it.
I really enjoyed this cuppa – this is one that I’d be happy to have again and again!
PRODUCT REVIEW: Chai Cola from Natural Brew
Product Information:
Product: Chai Cola – a bottled, micro-brewed soft drink from Natural Brew.
Where to Buy: New Seasons Market or where Natural Brew products are sold.
Product Description:
Chai is the Hindi word for “tea,” a centuries-old beverage often mixed with a complex blend of spices. By using only the finest natural ingredients, Natural Brew® Chai Cola offers a spicy, aromatic pleasure accompanied by a unique and refreshing taste.
Learn more about Chai Cola here.
Taster’s Review:
As some of you may be aware, I’m not only a tea fanatic, but somewhat of a foodie too. I write about my foodie adventures on another blog, and I even subscribe to the Foodzie monthly tasting box. Every month, we choose from three different boxes with different themes. In February, I selected the Valentine’s Box which was loaded with chocolate goodies (did I mention that I’m also a chocoholic?), but there was one product in another box that really piqued my interest: Chai Cola. Since that time, I’ve been on a mission to find some Chai Cola so that I could try it.
I don’t know if the Chai Cola that was in the February “Movie Night” box was from Natural Brew, but, when I found a four-pack of this cola in New Seasons yesterday, I had to have some! And while I don’t drink cola or soda on a regular basis (you may have noticed that I drink a lot of tea instead), I really like what I’m tasting here!
This has a totally different taste from most commercial sodas on the market today. It actually tastes as though it was made with care, rather than mass produced, a result, perhaps, of the micro-brew process. As a result, I find that this is a beverage with more flavor, and less of a syrupy sweet concoction that inundates the palate with sweetness rather than anything of substance.
It is sweet, of course (sweetened with cane juice), but after the first couple of sips, I find that the spices of the chai really start to come alive, and help offset the sweetness of the beverage. I taste hints of ginger, a little cinnamon and even some clove in there! It doesn’t taste overly spicy, but it has a gentle spiced tone that contrasts pleasantly with the sweetness of the cola.
And then there is the tea! I was actually surprised to read in the ingredients list that it is a decaffeinated tea that they use, I suppose that the “cola” part of this already has caffeine in it and the caffeine of the tea might have been too much? I don’t know what their thinking was when selecting the tea. But that being said, it doesn’t taste like a decaffeinated beverage, nor do I get a chemical-y taste from the decaffeinated tea … but I do taste tea. Of all the flavors that I do taste here, the tea is perhaps the mildest of them, but I can definitely taste it.
Overall, I find this to be a very delicious cola … I still prefer tea, but, for a soda … this is definitely my cup of tea!
