Beverage Review: Pacific Chai

Ah, a hot caffeinated drink on a cold day and I'm in a mood for something besides coffee and something more inspiring than hot chocolate. Enter the world of instant chai latte. More than "plain leaves boiled in water" chai contains in addition to black tea various spices that would not be out of place in a pumpkin pie. Simply the whole spices are put into hot water, allowed to steep, then sweetened with honey and milk is then added. Not so with the instant powder chai. Put hot water in a heat resistant container, add powder, stir, drink, repeat as desired. Just like making instant hot chocolate.

I have sampled both Pacific Chai's Vanilla Chai Latte and Spice Chai Latte. I made them with tap water softened with a RainSoft system and the water was heated in a Panasonic NC-EM22P (yes half the words on it are in Japanese) set for 185° F. I used standard level tablespoon measures, ceramic mugs and a battery powered mini mixer. There are alternatives to plain water that the chai could be made with. I focused on easy and basic, thus I only had them with hot water.

With the mini mixer the chai powder blended readily and by holding the business end near the surface I could make it cavitate and the chai would develop a thin layer of foam. Depending if I followed label recommendations, or added an extra tablespoon, this foam layer could be made thicker. At higher amounts of powder there were more dregs at the bottom of the mug, mostly the spices that were not held in suspension. This seems to be pretty normal and I considered it a leg up on the next mug of chai, as the same thing happens even with instant hot cocoa.

In flavor think pumpkin or apple pie, a la mode, fresh baked but without the crust or pumpkin or apple with a vague black tea undertone. In mouthfeel it is closer to hot cocoa than coffee with creamer. It is substantial without being too heavy, imparting the sense that you actually drank something that will sustain you for a bit. The Vanilla Latte flavor was softer than the Spice Latte which is as it should be. Personal preference will determine which someone would like. If you like spice flavors go with the spice, and if you prefer things more like say french vanilla creamer I would be able to say the Vanilla Latte takes the edge off the usually strong spice notes.

I do not place the caffeine content in the same realms of coffee unless you give the dose a bump. It does after all have a tea base which has to work pretty hard to catch up. The 10 ounce cans I bought claim 13 servings, however other sites say 8 and claim 100mg caffeine. This may be accurate as 13*2TB=26TB per can, 26TB/8=3.25TB per serving or three slightly rounded tablespoons. I could see that being possible for admission to the 100+ club.

So if you want something other than plain old coffee, and need more kick than hot cocoa, Pacific Chai does deliver the goods. If you are a caffeine fiend and need to mellow out at the end of the day, make it as recommended on the can. While not high octane in the caffeine department, it still packs more ammo than regular tea. Look for it almost anywhere normal tea is sold, yes I mean a real walk in store. Or you could buy it here from the safety of your workstation.