To all of you who love chai tea, and to those of you who don’t, this tea is worth a try. I recently had the pleasure of taste testing Ommate’s loose leaf chai tea and was delightfully pleased with its ingredients, flavor and simplicity. This chai is as fresh as they come, 100% organic, free of preservatives and additives, you can easily and deliciously reap all the benefits chai has to offer with this tea.
Ommate’s chai is hand-made in small batches in Boulder, Colorado by a lovely lady name Sukey. Although I have never met her myself, I have been told she is as sweet as her chai tea. I tried two of the many flavors Sukey makes: machaite and senchai.
Both teas are made from a perfect balance of allspice, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, fennel, ginger, pepper, star anise, and turmeric. Of course, having the same ingredients, they have similar flavor compositions but with unique distinctions. The ratio of these ingredients differs between the two teas and this can actually be noticed in their varying appearance. You can see the difference in flavor composition just by looking at the loose leaves. On the left is the green senchai and of the right is the non-caffeinated yerba mate machaite.
Regardless if you like chai tea or not, these teas are very mild and rather calming. They pertain to a light spice and hint of sweetness from the cinnamon and star anise but are not over powering in the least. The machaite is so delicious, it has a mild flavour and settles very well on your palate. It’s smooth and very pleasant, the flavors of cinnamon and cardamom really come through to give you that traditional chai flavour. The senchai is lighter in color (once brewed) and flavor than the machaite and it doesn’t have as much of a spice as the machaite, so, if you don’t like your chai to be too strong, this should be your go to in terms of chai tea and just a lovely tasting tea in general. Keep in mind the senchai is caffeinated whereas the machaite is not. Even if you aren’t a fan of chai, Sukey’s flavors are so mild and delicate that they would be appealing to all tea lovers! Having said that, I brewed this tea in hot water using a metal tea steeper for about 5-7 minutes; should you want the flavors to be stronger, you can boil the chai with water for about 12 minutes or steep it for around 30+ minutes in hot water. And if you aren’t a tea lover, you might want to consider trying this chai anyway because this unique blend of tea leaves and spices is super beneficial for your health as it both calming and soothing thanks to it’s naturally occurring herbal properties. You can sweeten it with honey and dilute it it with coconut or almond milk as well, and if you’re really fancy, try turning this chai tea into an iced or hot creamy and lightly sweet latte!
Benefits of Chai
- Anti-inflammatory
- Digestive aid
- Immune boosting
- Antioxidant properties
- Anti-bacterial
- Anti-viral
- Detoxifying
- Circulation boosting
To read more about the benefits of chai tea check out Dr. Eliza’s article here!
If you’d like to purchase Sukey’s tea and learn more about it click here!
xx
Leah
Also published on Medium.