Boston Marathon and David's Tea - The Chai Collection

I was in Boston last week. Boston is such a neat city, besides all the history of the place there are so many things to see and do there. Whenever I get a chance to go to Boston I take it. While I was in Boston I took a walk over to the David's Tea store on Washington Street, the staff was friendly and I was relieved to read that they are safe. I saw signs for the Boston Marathon and even though I am not into sports I thought the Marathon would be something interesting to see.

I am deeply saddened by what happened at the Marathon. Three people killed, including an 8-year-old boy, so many injured... Such a thing should never happen.

Of course there are already rumors circulating about the Marathon bombing. Please verify before you click share or forward. Snopes and ThatsNonesense already have pages up on the Boston Marathon. Also there will probably be fake charities run by scam artists using the Boston Marathon so be careful who you donate to. The One Fund is a genuine charity set up to help the victims.

Chocolate Chai

All out of cocoa mix so I made chocolate chai this week. Following recipe is for about two 12 oz cups.

Vanilla chai

• 1 1/2-2 cups water
• 1-1 1/2 cup milk
• 3 tsp chai tea (I prefer vanilla chai) or 2-3 chai teabags or put together your own chai tea
• About 3 tsp loose tea leaves (or 2-3 teabags) I prefer black
• The following spices - about a 1/4-1/2 tsp of each (Feel free to leave out anything you don't like or most likely do not have):



Cinnamon chips

• cinnamon (I prefer cinnamon sticks or chips over ground cinnamon)
• ginger (Fresh will be hotter, but dried or ground will do)
• cardamon
• nutmeg
• peppercorns
• clove
• vanilla (extract will do, piece of vanilla bean if you have it) vanilla helps to bring out the chocolate taste

• 2-3 tbs powdered baking chocolate (Or hot chocolate mix would be even better, but I don't have any tonight) 
• 2-3tsp sugar and/or 1-2 tsp honey 

You'll also need a tea strainer, or rig up something to strain out your chai, any kind of mesh strainer or a coffee filter and funnel. I assume anyone reading this has a pot big enough to hold 4 cups of water. 

1. Set the water in a pot on the stove at a medium heat. Add the chocolate, and if you're making the chai from scratch add the spices at this step. 
2. When the water starts getting hot (Starting to steam) add the tea leaves. 
3. When the water starts to steam add the milk, you can also add the sugar/honey at this step. Or you might want to hold off and add the sugar/honey to your cup.
4. Keep the chai at a medium heat until it just starts to boil. Of course if you're like me you'll turn your back for 10 seconds and when you turn around it will be boiling over and making a mess of the stovetop. If you added the sugar/honey at step 3 it will be extra sticky. 
5. Strain the chai into cups. If you are not wiping the sticky mess off your stove right now add the sugar/honey to your chai now. 
6. Caution: Chai will be hot enough to burn your lips, tongue and if you swallow it will burn your throat. Sip carefully until it cools. Do not sue me because you scalded yourself. 

I thought it would be fun to add a candy cane to my chai. I even had the foresight to unwrap it first. The crook was broken off so it was less visually appealing. Unsurprisingly the chai was so hot it melted the candy cane really fast and I got to watch it slowly sink into the chai like a giraffe in quicksand. I do not recommend adding a candy cane to chai, though it did give a nice hint of peppermint.

52 Teas - Browncoat Genmaicha

Browncoat Genmaicha

Sorry, no hot chocolate today, but instead I have a chocolate tea, Browncoat Genmaicha from 52 Teas.

Genmaicha is 'brown rice tea', green tea and roasted brown rice, some of the grains of rice pop like popcorn as seen in the picture to the right. Browncoat Genmaicha has chocolate added to it which makes pretty much everything better. 

Here is my Steepster Review: 

Browncoat Genmaicha

This is my first time trying genmaicha, and I do not think it was a bad introduction. This is also my first time trying anything from 52 Teas, I plan to try more of 52 Teas in the future.
In the first steeping the chocolate was very faint, barely there (Maybe my sample got exposed to too much light/air?) but it was still a really good cup of tea. So much like drinking slightly sweet popcorn.
Strangely the second steeping had a more chocolatey taste. Maybe I should have just steeped it longer the first time?
Makes me wish I had gotten around to watching Firefly so I know what this Browncoat is about.

 Unfortunately Browncoat Genmaicha was a limited edition and is now out of stock, though other 52 Tea blends have been revived with enough demand. Besides Browncoat Genmaicha there are other interesting blends at 52 Teas, free shipping in the US.

2013-01-31 - Update: 52Teas is now on a new website, Zoom Dweebie's, and has has a waiting list for the Archived Teas.