Adagio’s Chocolate Chai Review

Type: Chai (black base)
Origin: Ceylon
Price: Sample (regular price – $6.30 for 4oz.)
Vendor: Adagio
Brewing Method: Per Instructed - 1 teaspoon of leaves, 1 cup of filtered water, heated to 200°F-210°F, steeped for 4-5 minutes
Overall Score: 3.3 out of 5

Chocolate Chai is a blend of chocolate flavored Ceylon tea with cardamom, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon. This blend smells sweet and spicy at the same time. The cloves rush at me, but I can also smell the ginger and the sweet chocolate. The blend kind of reminds me of Halloween colors with the yellow, orange, and blacks swirling together.

The liquor is a beautiful amber color. I smell the ginger and cloves aromas easily. I also pick up on the faint sweet chocolate smell. However, I am not sure if I would have believed it to be chocolate if I didn’t already know that there was chocolate in this blend.





When I taste the tea, the ginger and cloves are front and center. They are very harsh on my tongue and the cloves are beginning to burn my throat. There is a slight bit of sweetness which I am guessing is the chocolate, but it doesn’t really taste like chocolate. The slightly bitter black tea settles in the after taste. Between the astringent black tea and the heat from the cloves it gives it a rather unpleasant mouth feel.

In adagio’s description they suggest adding milk to “make it extra rich.” I did not add milk, because it was only a suggestion, but I am assuming it would definitely mellow out some of the harsh flavors in this blend.