The Importance of Tea XI

“Chai One On”

My favourite after-school snack is a cup of black tea and one of Ter’s killer GF “not just for Christmas anymore” shortbread cookies. The silky vanilla/almond-scented cookie is the perfect match for a sweet, spicy, creamy chai. I carry my treat into the Ocean Room to cast off the workday args and await my roomie’s arrival—it’s often the best time of my day.

No chai, however, is created equal. I ordered my first at Starbucks fifteen years ago and was promptly hooked. Their brand was Tazo, which became my go-to until proper tea shops started popping up all over town. I have since tried a handful of others, both bulk and bagged: Stash, Mighty Leaf, and Numi in the boxed brand department, loose varieties from David’s, Teavana, Murchie’s … and the winner is: the Mumbai Chai at Blenz.

For the uninitiated, Blenz is Canada’s answer to Starbucks and their focus is coffee. They do, however, feature ten or twelve varieties of tea for the non-coffee-drinker. I’ve tried most of them. White Peony was my standard until I went dairy-free and gave up the occasional chai latte. Then I got bored and tried the black chai tea plain, no latte; okay, with cream and two sugars. Now I’m hooked. My wee sister is hooked. My work pal Julie is hooked (and happy—it only costs $3.10 per cup). The kid behind the counter now hesitates before starting my order, though I think he’s figuring out that white peony is morning and chai is afternoon.

My at-home/after-school blend is David’s “Saigon Chai”, the former standard which Mumbai has knocked out of the park. Alas, Blenz doesn’t sell loose tea. Or they didn’t. I recently got an email announcing that their tea blends are now available for bulk purchase, so off I went to the shop to see if our local franchise owner was complying with this particular corporate policy (he guards his customers against what he considers the sillier head office orders, which is why everyone loves him).

As it happened, I was the only customer in the shop, so I had time to ask him about it. He gave me rebellious brown eyes and said, “I’m not advertising the loose tea. It’s hideously expensive, so I can’t in good conscience sell it to you.”

“Define ‘hideously expensive’,” I said. He and I had talked years earlier about the white peony, but I never took him up on his offer to work something out if I really wanted some for home.

He punched the flavour up on the computer and frowned. “$12.95 for a hundred grams.”

I burst out laughing. “You think that’s hideously expensive?”

“Isn’t it?”

“Not if you’re a tea snob,” I replied. “I spend $18.00 for fifty grams of green tea at Teavana!”

Poor guy, I think he was horrified enough to call an intervention, but once I assured him that pricier chais have fallen far short of the Mumbai, he acquiesced. “I’ll have to get some bags in,” he fretted.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “I have a tin at home. I’ll bring it in empty and you can fill ’er up.”

Problem is, I’m still working on 100 gms of “Saigon Chai” and my practice is to finish what I have before buying more. It may be my imagination, but there’s too much cardamom in this batch. It really isn’t very enjoyable …