Kaley Tea's Ceylon based Christmas blend

 

A vendor who had sent me Ceylon tea to try in the past, Kaley Tea, recently sent a Christmas tea blend version to try.  So nice!  Earlier in this blog history I would experiment with making Christmas blends every year; it seemed a good time to make an exception from only drinking plain teas, and to experiment.  

This says that it contains tea, cardamom, and cloves, so it's a simplified variation of masala chai.  Masala chai is a good start for a Christmas blend; from there people could add fruit, like orange peel, or cacao, or pine needles, but keeping it quite limited could work well too.  It might allow the tea to play more of a role, where if you mix enough things in it wouldn't matter what the tea is.

drying fruit and peels for use in a Christmas blend (covered here)

It's nice to feel like I'm observing Christmas too.  It's a little early for that, since it's around Halloween time, but holiday experiences never match up here anyway.  It might not be so hot in another two months but otherwise the weather in Bangkok is generally consistent year-round, beyond when it rains more.

I'm brewing this using their recommendations, sort of.  They suggest using a teaspoon to make a cup, brewing that for 3 minutes, with an option to brew it a second time.  I brewed more than that, I think, and for longer, so maybe this will be a little strong.  Ordinarily I'm opposed to diluting tea, adding water, no matter what happens, but I could always make an exception if I've screwed this up.

it's definitely less monochromatic in person; I think shading inside the infuser caused that

Review:

Infusion strength isn't bad, maybe just a touch strong.  It wouldn't be unusual for people to add milk and sugar to this, not to cut overwhelming astringency, since this is mild enough, but just to play up the dessert experience feel, or how masala chai is usually made and enjoyed.  I could drink some and then adjust it, to review it both ways.

The spice balance is good.  Cardamom and clove alone really work, and it seems like this is pretty good tea matching with those.  The flavor input of all three is reasonably balanced; it would be easy for spices to overtake the tea range, but they all show through.  It's pleasant like this, but the extra infusion strength pushes it a little far, off of being sweet, light, complex, and approachable, as the softest and sweetest black teas are.  The tea input seems pretty good but I'll stop short of adding a flavor list here.  Malt doesn't show through, so it's not like an Assam, and maybe some of the mineral base that is distinctive in Ceylon is giving this good balance.

The general effect is very clean; there is no negative contribution of any aspect.  Not very poetic a description, right, compared to bringing up some childhood image of people around a fireplace, drinking tea and eating gingerbread Christmas cookies, or whatever else?  This would go really well with cookies; that's what is missing in the overall balance, a reason for drinking a clean and positive black tea with spice inputs.  

I like the tea but it's not what I'm accustomed to, and this really would make a lot more sense in some sort of late fall or winter context.  It probably would make a nice iced tea, but it's odd mentally switching channels like that, considering a radically different context.  For drinking it plain maybe it would be better with food or those cookies.  I'll try it with a little milk and honey and see how that works.

It's good with those added, probably better.  I used skim milk, what I'm drinking right now; surely that's not optimum, but it's still nice.  As with plain black tea all the flavors fall into a completely different balance when you add milk and sugar (or honey, also what I had most handy).  Going even heavier on infusion strength and using more full cream milk than I added would probably be more optimum, to get the full effect of both inputs.  I tried a second infusion brewed for longer (with the same leaves), this time using whole milk (my wife couldn't sleep at night knowing there are two cartons open at once), but of course the effect is better from the first round, the intensity.

One nice part about drinking it this way--adjusted--could be that people who don't drink tea might be more likely to like it.  These particular spice flavors might appeal most to people with more developed food flavor background (in Thailand or in the West), but to me it's quite approachable and pleasant.  For people familiar with this spicing range there would be no need to mess around with this recipe form, and aspects balance, but for others continuing on to add cacao and a fruit input might be good.  Using an apple peeler to remove some outer rind off an orange might be a nice addition too, giving a touch of extra fruit edge.  I don't see this as working well for coupling with some sort of alcohol input (which can come up as another Christmas theme), but people on that page may take that differently.  A little cognac or brandy would definitely completely change this.

It works for evoking a Christmas feel, I think.  It needs those cookies though, not just any one kind, whatever theme people tend to connect with their own expectations.  My Mom would make a lot of kinds; we had large trays of many types around in the holiday season.  This would be perfect with a kind we didn't make then, which we called whoopie pies, two soft chocolate cookies sandwiching a cream filling center.  Maybe even better with gingerbread men; that would round out the typical set expectation of ginger being the other main input in a traditional masala chai (as I see it; for others black pepper or other things could be added).

This might be a good year for messing around with your own Christmas blend experience; either go out and buy one, or keep an eye out for spice inputs, like spearmint, cacao, or whatever else.  There's still time to work out how adding pine needles to tea works for people in the US, which tree type needle inputs definitely won't poison you, and how drying or chopping the material changes infusion results.  Making adjusted masala chai versions takes practice; you might need a couple of trial rounds to prepare something you can serve to others (all of which I've covered in this blog).

Many thanks to Kaley for sharing this, and an early happy holidays for all readers!  

Making masala chai from a packaged spice blend

An Indian friend visited awhile back, Suzana Syiem, and passed on some interesting tea, and some Indian snacks, and masala chai spice mix, which is what I'm writing about here.

I usually make masala chai once the weather gets a little cool; it seems to help me pretend that it's winter, even if it's still hotter than a US fall out (or summer, in most places).  There was just a touch of chill in the air a couple weeks ago but it didn't amount to much; it wasn't down below 25 C / 77 F even in the very early mornings.  It warmed back up and I'd missed my chance.  Now that it's past Thanksgiving, and Loy Krathong, I'm making masala chai anyway, even though it's not cool at all. 

Later edit:  it was down to 24.5 C this morning, around 75 F, positively chilly for Bangkok, finally!

Looking at the blend ingredients it's not like the versions of masala chai I make every year, from-scratch versions.  Those include cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and ginger.  Per my understanding star anise and black pepper are also relatively standard spice additions but I typically leave them out.

That package label shows the ingredients in this:  fennel seeds are listed first, with clove at the end.  Cassia is related to cinnamon, per my understanding (and Wikipedia's take) more often sold as cinnamon.  This blend version won't be like what I've been preparing.  It's a powdered spice blend, which is completely fine, only an issue related to storage conditions and storage time after you open it.  Recipes and some individuals recommend grinding or crushing fresh spices with a mortar and pestle right before use, which of course would be a little better, but powdered spices work too, especially when they're fresh.

I'll keep this explanation of brewing process and tea description short.  I simmered the spice mix along with a Thai version of CTC black tea I bought for blending (around a year ago; I don't get to that much), and threw a couple of Lipton tea bags in to shift the black tea character.  My wife picks those up in hotels when they're in the room and such, and they tend to just sit around.  That Thai black tea isn't astringent at all but it is a bit woody for flavor aspect, not typical of CTC teas in general.  Malt doesn't really stand out either, or mineral undertone, mostly just the mild wood tones.

kind of an odd look while it simmers, before adding milk

not ideal as black tea goes but it works well enough

I added some cloves to bump up that spice flavor range, really the only adjustment.  I also added a small dash of salt since I like the way that evens the balance.  It wouldn't take much of that to be way too much.  Instead of carefully measuring it all so that I could duplicate and adjust amounts later I sort of just dumped it in; one and a half very small spoons of the spice, a spoon half the size of a teaspoon, and unmeasured black tea.  It's possible to adjust the intensity a lot by adding more milk at the end, a factor that doesn't come up in almost any other teas I prepare, maybe just the orange Thai spiced (artificially flavored) black teas I've been drinking more of recently.

It would be possible to simmer the milk with the tea or to not, to just boil it with water.  I added the milk at the end to get some of that effect since boiling it does seem to change the taste a bit.  I'm not sure it matters much how long you simmer tea made like this since it's ground tea with powdered spice.  It boiled around 10 to 15 minutes and I think adding another 10 minutes probably wouldn't have changed much.  For more-whole spices it would make sense to give it a longer infusion, maybe by simmering a little, leaving it sit, re-boiling, then leaving it sit.  Or simmering for awhile; it probably wouldn't matter which.

after a bit of simmering

palm sugar; the shapes it comes in vary

Sweetener is the only other factor.  Using white sugar would seem normal.  Oddly we don't keep white sugar at the house all the time; funny how that works out.  I used up all we had that was nicked from hotel room tea and coffee set-ups with that Thai tea I had been making. 



Often we will have palm sugar around; that's a good alternative, not so different than brown sugar, just not exactly like that.  That seems to be the same thing referred to as jaggery I've seen in discussions about making masala chai online.  Since we're out of both I went with honey.  I love honey on toast but I'd as soon just use white sugar in a tea like this, but it sort of doesn't matter.


Skipping to how it turned out:  it was nice.  It was much different than what I was used to, the quite-different spice blend version, but it was good.  I didn't like it as well for it being less familiar, but it was hard to split out the impact of the blend balance not being optimized from that factor, just dumping it all in at no set ratio.  The other masala chai versions I'm used to have a lot of kick from the ginger and clove standing out and this was a lot milder.  Fennel seed was hard to identify as a separate flavor since it all integrated.

I'm guessing that using two thirds as much spice and half as much tea for the same amount of water would've turned out better.  It's hard to judge how much tea went into it since both the tea leaves and spices expand a lot simmering but it looked like way too much for two large mugs of tea produced at the end.  After drinking both my nerves were a bit jolted too.  I think beyond that factor, ingesting too much tea at one time, the flavors would balance better not made really strong.  All the same it worked well enough.

my son made breakfast again (bacon needed another sear, otherwise very nice)

when people ask about how to get dosed on caffeine this will come to mind

I usually make a Christmas blend around this time, and a version last year was based on a modification of masala chai (adding white chocolate and a touch of bitter orange marmalade).  I'm not sure if I'll get around to that or not.  Throwing some peppermint and a touch of chocolate into a black tea could count as one, maybe along with some orange peel for balance. 

It would be nice to be back in the States since pine needle would be a great input for one, and I could walk outside in lots of places and collect that.  Per past experiments I suspect dried pine needle might work best (versus just brewing it fresh then), but that would easy to arrange, laying it out for a bit, or speeding that up by putting the needles in a very low temperature oven for half an hour.

making a chocolate covered cherry themed Christmas blend

I bought some Christmas decorations today (when writing the draft); maybe finding our tiny artificial tree in storage and putting up some lights and the rest will make it seem more natural to get back to that theme.  Cooler weather wouldn't hurt but there's nothing to be done about that.  It's typically cool for about a week at the end of December but it's also not consistent.  Even though it never really seems like we re-create a US version of the holiday, missing the weather, not doing decorations justice, or hearing much of the songs, my kids appreciate how much we do manage to observe, so we'll make what we can of it.

awhile back; like a plastic version of that Charlie Brown Christmas tree

in Murmansk last year; odd to go to Russia to experience more of that holiday

Reviewing Assamica Agro specialty Assam black teas

Assamica Agro Classic Morning Delight

Organic Assam Tea (mixed CTC and orthodox leaves)

Assam is a tea region and type I've never really done justice to, trying a few higher end relatively commercial versions, but never really doing much with better specialty tea versions.  Per my understanding Assamica Agro is moving away from only producing CTC teas, to shift consumer options range and produce higher value orthodox tea products.  We'll see how that worked out based on review.


Upon opening the box I noticed it was half green teas.  I suppose that is a development related to moving away from more uniform black tea range, but those not being a personal favorite--a personal least favorite, really--could be a challenge.  I can still try them and pass on thoughts, and even account for not liking grassy and vegetal range in teas to some degree, to judge them beyond that.


In a sense it makes personal preference less of a valid marker because surely some people tend to drink green tea based on being open to grassy or vegetal elements, so I might rate a tea higher for being atypical, but that may not necessarily relate only to overall quality or to others' judgments.  I'm on black teas for this post anyway.

Kind of different; they sent a few empty tea bags with this set of teas (described on their website here).  I could make tea bag tea out of them.  I won't, or maybe more to the point can't imagine doing it, and already have a pretty good idea where that would lead (the tea turns out about the same), but it seemed cool to me all the same.


I'll hang onto them, and eventually having them around will make sense in some way.  I could use them for adding spices to a stock, for example, if I wanted to take the herbs back out.  I asked them if they would recommend re-using them (they said sure), and that would avoid problems related to composting tea bags.  I would expect them to retain some flavor if re-used but there could be a fix for that.  It's been coming up enough lately it might be common knowledge that even some of the paper versions of tea bags contain some plastic, so it just depends which tea bag materials are used for them to have a chance of ever breaking down in composting.  The obvious fix:  use loose tea.


There is plenty on their website about organic farming practices and fair trade issues, summarized on this page, with a bit on the growers here.  I've got a lot of ground to cover related to this being a comparison review so I won't really get into all that, but it is a subject I've been discussing quite a bit with people in different places, in India and elsewhere.  The welfare of the tea growing and production staff is a real issue, obviously.  It's hard to fully evaluate any set of claims based only on the vendor's input but an expression of commitment in a mission statement is a good start.  I might get back to this subject in a later post.

Review

The "Morning Delight" version looks like reasonably whole leaves (they refer to them as Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe (FTGFOP); I would have accepted Broken Pekoe, but I don't keep up with those terms).  The "Organic Assam" version is a mix of more ground tea and broken leaves, described in the packaging as CTC mixed with orthodox tea; different.

They mention this is more or less designed for use in chai (not mentioning "masala chai," the actual name we accept in the West for the spice blend range, but I'd assume that's implied).  I have tended to use a mix of whatever CTC tea I have around (if any) with some orthodox tea for making masala chai, covered in a few other posts here.  I never thought to try drinking that mix of two teas alone, which I'm giving a go now.

As to brewing approach I'm preparing the tea Gongfu style, a version of that allowing for a moderate proportion of tea to water and a bit more infusion time than I use for some other types.  It might have made more sense to just use Western style brewing, since that's how these teas would typically be prepared, but I'm not on that page lately.  I want to compare them to my own impression of other tea types more than to as pass on some sort of standard, objective, complete, reviewer-removed review.  I tried the Morning Delight tea a second time (later) prepared Western style, just to check if there would be any surprises, if it would work out to be quite different.  It was similar enough I won't go into that here, sticking to the original taste comparison notes.

Whether it is even possible or not to achieve an objective review gets to be a bit of a philosophical issue.  Of course to some extent with proper training and background it surely is, but the discussion of how to get there might involve comparing the role, capability, and knowledge set of a hobby tea reviewer like myself versus a professional tea taster.  A person in such a dedicated taster role would typically not be attempting to judge teas from across a lot of tea regions, and varying types they try on a regular basis, and that's exactly what I do, mix it up.

Let's fill that in a little.  I started editing this the next day while drinking a nice Dan Cong (Chinese oolong), and the day before the tasting I tried a version of shou pu'er that arrived with an order of other hei cha and a Chinese black tea.  The day before that I had Wuyi Yancha with breakfast and aged shou mei cake tea in the afternoon, and I've drank Laos green tea and a compressed Yunnan black tea since.  This year I've been on teas from India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Taiwan (in addition to China; always mostly those), with more focus on Nepal and Indonesia in the recent past.  It does come at a cost, drinking teas from lots of places, giving up focus and familiarity related to a more narrow range.  More than anything my pu'er exposure suffers.  But for me the writing, research, and discussion is a function of enjoying drinking different teas, not the other way around.  On to reviewing these then, and I'll try to place them related to teas from lots of other places at the end.

Review

I brewed both teas relatively quickly on the first infusion, using a 30 second or so steep time, thinking that might have prepared them on the lighter side in spite of the higher than average proportion (related to Western parameters).  That ended up resulting in a typical conventional Western brewing intensity, although stronger than a Gongfu approach usually results in for most tea types.  I'm expecting level of astringency to be one of the main factors to review, a main input to the effect of the tea, but we'll see how that goes.

Morning Delight left, Organic Assam right

The "Organic Assam Tea" version (the one with some CTC ground tea content) is strong, but in the normal range, and quite pleasant at first taste.  Astringency is significant, especially given that I'm used to drinking softer Chinese black teas, but it's well balanced as this particular infusion is prepared.  It's not harsh, dry, or overpowering, but balanced.  Beyond that the tea is nice.  Malt, mineral and earthy tones inform the rest of the experience.  I get the sense that in this review I'm going to be explaining the general Assam tea profile as much as describing this particular tea, even though at a guess this is a good version of it (exactly how good I'd have trouble judging; I don't really drink better Assam).

Malt stands out as the main flavor aspect.  From there it's really tempting to say something like "it tastes like Assam."  The astringency is the other main defining element for the experience, coming across as a lot of structure in this tea, but not harsh, so on a decent level.  It's hard to tease out the mineral and earthiness further; mineral is one of those ranges that's not easy to sort in general.  The earthiness is in the range of a dark wood, kind of common for how a more subdued darker tea element goes.  It is a little fruity but not so much that fruits come to mind too.  I suppose if someone pulled some fruits out of thin air, say raisin and peach, they could interpret them in this tea, but citrus and dried persimmon might be just as good a description.  Or there could be a lot of fruit, all four of those aspects, and another four, but all so subtle and integrated that the separation process gets tricky.  Someone less into rambling would say it's only a little fruity.

The "Classical Morning Delight" is a different kind of experience, with less astringency as baseline for that.  In that sense this tea is going to work better for me, just based on not normally experiencing or preferring "bold and brisk" teas, or in other words, a fair amount of astringency.  Mind you that first tea was nothing like ground up commercial Ceylon; it didn't have me thinking I should add milk and sugar to it.  The last time I tried a better Ceylon I actually tried that as an experiment, adding milk and sugar, and didn't end up liking it for those masking the experience of the tea.

The mineral element is different in this tea, and there is a specific range of mineral and fruit that I'm going to have trouble pinning down, which is interesting and positive.  It comes across as lightly brewed, made in exactly the same way as the other tea, while that one could have been slightly lighter, not brewed as strong.  In that Ceylon review I mentioned I also mentioned that another blogger described Ceylon as "tasting like blood," which I took to be a commentary on how the mineral elements combined together.  Or I suppose it could even relate to an effect from a trace of saltiness.  This is not exactly the same, the mineral aspects and combined effect, but it's not so far off.

There is something lighter and brighter going on with this second tea.  It almost starts towards a root-spice effect, off the dark wood / mineral / dark toffee / malt range into a lighter, different taste range.  I suppose that could be interpreted as a bit more citrus instead, in the range of dried orange peel, maybe, or maybe dried tangerine peel.  It's not really light and bright but it's not as close to earthiness as the rest of what is going on in the two teas.  Mind you the teas are pleasant; this is nothing like the experience of drinking a commercial blended tea bag tea (not that there is anything wrong with that; to each their own).

Morning Delight left, Assam Organic right

On the second infusion the "Organic Assam Tea" is nicer, more balanced, with more of a citrus element coming across.  Again I brewed both the same way, for a relatively short 30 second steep, so again this tea will be infused as stronger.  I'll probably need to adjust for that the next time or I'll be reviewing one version that's close to brewed out and another that's in the middle of its cycle.  Lots of pronounced mineral range underlies this flavor experience (not tasting that much like blood, but complex), but more fruit joins in.

One part of that fruit seems like tamarind to me, maybe even across the range of both dried and fresh tamarind; a nice effect given the overall range.  The dark wood element moves a little towards a spice tone, a darker, stronger spice range that isn't completely familiar, sort of like the stronger and less aromatic type of cinnamon effect in some Wuyishan (Fujian Chinese) Rou Gui.  It almost traces into the roast effect that comes in those tea types (roasted oolongs), in the form of the dark toffee sweetness and flavor, but surely this wasn't roasted.  It's nice, especially given there is CTC tea in this.  The astringency is a bit much by soft Chinese black tea standards but moderate and well balanced by Assamica based tea standards (versions I've tried, at least), so it works for me.  It seems conceivable that others could find it overpowering or too soft, depending on varying preferences.

The "Classical Morning Delight" is brewed slightly too weak to evaluate well, using the same parameters, and about the same weight of tea.  It looks like one and a half times more tea in the gaiwan but per weight it's actually not.  The tea is still nice, the aspects are fine, the diluted effect just doesn't present it well.  Instead of the fruit ramping up as in the other tea the woodiness increases just a little.  I think that's probably related to perception difference as a function of infusion strength.  With this brewed twice as strong the mineral and earthy elements would come across more as a baseline structure or context to the tea, even though they would still be pronounced, and fruit and sweeter tones, perhaps spice range, would seem to represent a "higher" range standing separate from the tea.  It will be easy to check that giving it a one minute steep time instead next round, or given how light this is maybe around one minute and twenty seconds.

This tea could be preferable to some based on being much softer; that astringency range just isn't there in the same sense.  If the fruit really does come across stronger in a more strongly infused version then that would help it compare as well or even more favorably as well.  I'll split the preparation styles in the next round, keeping the first version (Organic Assam Tea) on the lighter side, and double brewing time for the Classical Morning Delight, or just over that.

On the next infusion the caramel aspect picks up a little in the first tea (Organic).  This is probably a good time to mention some ideas I just raised in a comment on a group post about brewing green teas, related to someone offering one standard brewing methodology as a suggestion; it's a bit strange but I'll cite that:


It's common to vary temperature for making green tea by green tea type, much lower for some types of Japanese green teas, for example. This one temperature cited, 85 C (or 185 F) is probably a little higher than what is often advised, more typically 80 C instead, 175 F. It just depends on preference though, as also does the infusion proportion (amount of tea to water) and infusion time. Balancing all three in different ways will give different results, and it seems likely that any one person would like different kinds of green teas made according to slightly different parameters best. I didn't mention that re-brewing loose teas is standard, nor did the instructions, but the number of infusions depends on the other parameters as well. Some people really do advocate brewing leaves only one time but they would tend to be in a minority among tea enthusiasts.


The point here is that for some people there would be one standard way to brew Assam teas, with only slight variation required for adjusting for a specific tea turning out better.  But that's not a given.  It would be possible to change any of the factors, and to offset the others to compensate, resulting in a shift in final brewed tea aspects, and in some cases causing some aspects to all but drop out or others to seem to show up.  Using hotter water for black teas will draw out more of a dark caramel aspect, but it will also ramp up astringency too.

For some people all this I'm saying is only common sense, and for others complete nonsense.  For many there is one standard, traditional approach that is how to make tea (of a certain type, or I guess perhaps in general, although that does sound strange to me), but as I see it neither general perspective is necessarily right.  I did brew this orthodox-only version using a relatively standard Western approach that second time, using that lower proportion, with water temperature at 90 C.  Some people would go with full boiling point water instead, and it would just be slightly more "brisk" based on the slightly higher temperature.

Back to the tea.  The "Organic" version is dropping off a little in fruit and citrus, the wood-tone picking up; it's nearing the end of the infusion curve.  It will still brew a couple more good infusions made this way (based on using a high proportion of tea to water and short infusion times) but that aspect transition is standard.  It's still good but probably leveling off in terms of some of the nicer aspects being present.

The "Morning" version is nicer brewed twice as strong.  The astringency never does pick up as in the other tea but it adds a bit of structure and an unusual dryness to the tea that is not really positive or negative, just different, to me at least.  If that's some sort of chemical effect I'm picking up it might not be so negative to experience but there could be a health impact, but I'm guessing it's just the way the astringency in that tea type comes across.  I buy the organic production claims.

There is fruit present in this tea, perhaps not completely disconnected from the citrus / tamarind range in the other version, but definitely not the same.  It's doing something different with a root-spice type of effect, and the dark cinnamon aspect is also faintly present but it doesn't play the primary role that it did in that one "Organic" version infusion.  The brighter fruit tones that were in that other tea are mapping onto more a yam range here, closer in effect to how lots of Dian Hong come across (Yunnan black teas, a type I love, that everyone really should love, per my own preference for aspects).  It tastes nothing like a Dian Hong, to keep that clear, but one aspect seems common.

Kanoka Organic farm photo, borrowed from the Assamica Agro FB page

Conclusion

This went long.  I did try brewing these teas again using a couple of longer infusions to see what would happen and they picked up an unusual taste and feel that reminded me a lot of pine-needle tea.  Usually black teas being stretched to produce extra infusions will seem a bit woodier but these didn't; "piney" instead.  I liked that, and it seemed like it could work well as a contribution to a masala chai, but it would depend on someone's feelings about that taste range.

I meant to evaluate these teas against the range of other black teas out there, even though that's never how reviewing specific teas tends to work.  As with the review process of trying lots of any other tea types I could place them better related to quality, and to fitting into a range of other Assams, after lots more experience with versions of the type, so I'll summarize related to general impression instead.  They're nice.

I still love Chinese black teas the most, but then I've tried a lot of good Chinese black teas and that personal connection to the range of types and typical aspects developed over many years.  As for Indian teas I've drank the most Darjeeling, by far, and of course these don't seem anything like any flush version of those.  It really doesn't work well to say if these teas are "as good" as Chinese black teas, or Dian Hong (Yunnan-originated versions), or even a specific tea.  They're different in character but the quality level is fine, at least in the right general range.

out of tea pictures; here's one of my girl

In the sense of trying something different they worked well.  That CTC / orthodox blend worked much better than I expected, maybe even better than the orthodox only tea, for me.  I thought the flavors complexity and intensity in the orthodox version were ok but not a great match for my own preferences.  Trying it brewed Western style confirmed it; the tea was good, clean flavored and complex, but the overall effect didn't completely speak to me.  As with the last better Ceylon I reviewed these two teas would be nice to drink 100 grams or so of for a breakfast tea but beyond that I'd expect the novelty to wear off.

There's one thing I seem to be missing here; from the perspective of someone who likes conventional black teas prepared as tea bags, would this tea be a higher quality, more interesting, still cost-effective alternative?  Absolutely.  Evaluating them from the perspective of a tea enthusiast based on expectations related to better versions of Chinese black teas might be a little unfair.

Their "Queen of Assam" version is sold as a lower cost alternative but the flavors profiles are described differently, with that tea in a chocolate and molasses range versus this one described as floral and fruity.  It may just be that the aspects combination of this Morning Delight doesn't suit my tastes as well as it could, that those don't work as well combined with the dominant malt range for me.  I'll check back later about that version and the green teas they sent.

Making your own masala chai

A few months ago a friend brought some spices back for me from a trip to Indonesia and since I already had them I started making my own masala chai.  It's not that hard.

One way to start is to Google something like "how to make masala chai."  You would find articles on just that, like this one,  or this one (it's paleo!),   or this one.  Of course chai actually means tea, so normal for them to point out saying "chai tea" is redundant, but you still can if you want.

They all vary from a basic original recipe, with lots of claims that one version is authentic, or easier to make, or that they've been adjusting it for years and prefer it a certain way for the best reasons.  What I'll write is only my own take, and I'm not Indian, or a tea expert (really!), so take it for what it's worth.

Basics:

-black tea

-cinnamon

-nutmeg (optional per some recipes, but I'd add it)

-cardamom (basic to all ingredients, but really could skip it since flavor profile is close to nutmeg)

-ginger  (kind of critical)

-black pepper (or not; it's your tea)

-milk and sugar  (could be honey or brown sugar)


Other basic:  you see clove a lot, and pretty much all recipes will add black pepper, and a lot reference star anise.  I tried star anise and could take or leave it since it's a strange flavor; clove would be good but I've not got around to adding it.


Other not so basic:  bay leaves or basil show up in some recipes, or anything else.  I've tried it with tamarind (prepared for use as a spice) and lemongrass added but those are quite non-standard.

Preparation:

The easiest recipes call for either a five minute boil for the ingredients (or maybe 10) or just for steeping.  

Prior to that step if some of the ingredients aren't already ground then preparation would be required: cardamom comes in seed pods, ginger is a root (obviously), cinnamon might be in the stick form yet, etc.  Some recipes call for use of a spice holder muslin bag, although straining could cover that, with the worst case being some spice dust in the final tea.

To keep it simple you could just use powder versions of all the ingredients, mix it, and steep.  From tea brewing habits I would steep it multiple times for about 3 minutes each but one five minute steep would get you to drinking tea.  One might drink it without milk or sugar, if they like, but I can't imagine why.

Amounts:  this isn't really a recipe yet, right, no proportions.  Those other links all say what they think is the right relative proportion, and yet another says they've nailed the best possible mix, but I tend to just make it one way, then another, and keep shifting it, never really measuring at all.  Crazy, right?  I can see why a lot of people would want more consistent tea, so go that route if you like, be normal and measure.

don't be afraid!

make your own masala chai!

Tips / tricks:

Loose tea:  Seems natural to me that everyone would have lots of loose tea at their house but if not using a standard black tea bag would do.  But really, why not pick up some passable loose black tea.  The normal standard would be to use a tea from Sri Lanka (Ceylon, the old name for there), and those tend to have a good bit of astringency, but that doesn't matter if milk and sugar are part of the equation; they cut that bite back to nothing.  

Blended teas might also combine teas from different places, or there is a lot of tea coming out of Kenya now.  Living where I do (Bangkok) I've bought ordinary grade black tea from Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia, and tried lots of types of teas from lots of places.  There's no reason why a different tea couldn't work, or a mix, and paging through references eventually someone will mention using green instead, but black tea just makes lots of sense.

Ginger seems the next most critical ingredient.  It would be possible to use ginger powder or ginger tea bags but fresh ginger would be a nice touch, with a different flavor.  It would be easy to grate some right from the root into the mix or I've just cut chips off one instead (we always keep ginger root around; I live in Thailand).  It wouldn't hurt to add two different types of ginger if it's handy, both powder and fresh.

Pepper, nutmeg, clove, star anise:  like everything depends on preference, right.  For me part of the experience is making different types, as one would with cooking.  I love using cloves to cook so it's odd I've not been adding them, but I'll get to it.  Star anise takes over a bit, even in strong flavored blends, and it has a strange sweetness, so someone might either like or hate it.  Pepper might be crucial to some, the key ingredient, and better off left out to others.


Boil versus steep:  trial and error might root out a preference but I'll say a little about this.  In general no one would ever boil loose tea to prepare it (in general, but people do crazy things), because the essential oils of the tea--where flavors are--would tend to evaporate.

If someone was using fresher spice ingredients in a rougher ground form then a boil might be required to pull out a lot of the flavor, but then I'm talking about making an easy DIY version, not the optimum some Indian cafe is aiming for.  So steeping alone really should work.


Freshness:  goes without saying but adding any ingredient that has spent a couple years in an opened spice bottle will more or less ruin the whole tea.  Black teas are as durable as any kind (except pu'er and some oolongs--special cases) so if it's been hanging around for a couple months it should be ok but the right packaging is still critical.

Ideally all the ingredients should be relatively fresh and converted from the whole spice form just before making the tea, but you work with what you've got.  Someone could go the extra mile without buying a spice grinder by experimenting with a food processor or blender (for example), but bottled ground spices would work.