Teakruthi Majestic Chai Tea Review
This chai is another example of simple trumping complex. Sometimes just having one spice combined with a high-quality black tea is all you need to satisfy your chai cravings. In this case, the name Majestic Chai is well-deserved.
Here’s what I thought of this simple cardamom chai from Teakruthi, with a few tips on how best to brew it and where to buy it.
Majestic Chai at a Glance
Izzy's Rating
4.2/5
- Blend: Black tea from the Dimbula region of Sri Lanka with Sri Lankan cardamom
- Flavour: Smooth black tea with a hint of spice from the cardamom
What at first seems to be an overpowering, eye-watering cardamom tea blend turns out to be a very smooth, well-rounded black tea with just the right amount of cardamom in the flavour. It’s worth sticking with!
Full Review – Cardamom Black Tea
Izzy's Rating
4.2/5
- Type: Loose leaf
- Tea: Ceylon black tea from the Dimbula region
- Additives: Sri Lankan cardamom
- Flavour Notes: Smooth, full-bodied, light, black tea, cardamom, spice
- Aroma: Earthy and sweet cardamom, notes of ginger, very strong spices, malt
- Milk or Lemon: Neither
- Where to Buy: Teakruthi
Opening the packet, I was immediately turned off by this tea. Even though Teakruthi sent me these samples for free, I’m dedicated to keeping an honest tea blog, so here goes. This tea literally made my eyes water. It’s so strong it’s become unpleasant. The cardamom aroma is earthy, sweet and so pungent. I can also detect something fiery, like ginger. The black tea, although I can see it in the packet, has no aroma at all. 100% cardamom concentrate.
I brewed it hesitantly according to instructions (below) and was quite happy to find that the cardamom aroma reduced considerably after the tea had brewed. It was still incredibly dominant, but I could also find notes of malty black tea in the aroma too.
When you take that first sip, you’ll be completely won over. This is a smooth and full-bodied black tea. The cardamom is strongest in the aroma – in the actual flavour, it’s very light. A touch of spice tingles your tongue and then it’s gone. It mellows out in the aftertaste and is very thirst-quenching.
The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes to mind.
How to Brew Cardamom Chai
The instructions from Teakruthi are 1 tsp of tea per 180ml (this would be a very small teacup, I usually drink around 220ml per serving which is almost a full mug) at a near-boiling temperature, 95°C to 100°C. Brew for 3 to 5 minutes up to 3 times.
I used 1.5 tsp and cherry-picked the cardamom pods so I’d have a good balance between cardamom and tea. I’d recommend pouring the boiling water straight onto the tea leaves. You don’t need to wait for the water to cool to 95°C as the boiling water does the trick and doesn’t create any bitter notes. Yep, we’ve all had that bitter black tea experience from scalding it with boiling water. That won’t happen here.
After a few experiments, I found that I needed to brew for the full 5 minutes to get that full-bodied flavour. As the tea is quite light naturally, you can risk longer brew times with this one.
Although it’s a spiced chai, it’s not sweet. You could drink this at any time of day and with any meal to add warm, chai tea vibes.
Why Teakruthi Tea?
What drew me to Teakruthi was the quality and their unique process – not to mention their free shipping for such small order amounts. They buy their tea in batches from tea sellers in Sri Lanka (also known as Ceylon in the tea world) to meet demand for their tea. That means they don’t have tea waiting around in warehouses for months. Teakruthi tea always tastes fresh.
As for this tea, it’s bursting with cracked open cardamom pods – not ground, powdered or granules. There’s no flavouring added either. The tea leaves are long, twisty and whole. In terms of quality, we’re nearing a 10/10 score from me.
The Ceylon black tea in Teakruthi Majestic Chai is Orange Pekoe One (OP1).
Summary
Overall, this is a very surprising tea and one that highlights the stunning produce of Sri Lanka. It’s a beautiful blend from Teakruthi and one that I definitely won’t hesitate to recommend. I’m not sure I’d go as far as calling it chai – despite it being a spiced tea, it would be more accurate to call it cardamom tea. Majestic, on the other hand, I completely agree with.
Tea Recommendation
If you’re on a chai adventure, you can never go wrong with a classic chai recipe. I recommend taking a look at my review of Adagio Masala Chai. It’s a classic with all the usual spices and a slight hint of natural sweetness that you’ll fall in love with.