Morning Cup is a new daily segment where I’ll post what I am drinking this morning with a quick image of my beverage and some initial thoughts. These posts are not thorough reviews, and haven’t been put through my standard review process.

A little late posting this morning.

I’m trying something new today. A powdered instant Ginger Chai hot tea from Girnar.

The cup is brews fragrant. There’s plenty of ginger in here. I know it before I even take my first sip. Aside from the ginger taste, this cup is smooth, with no astringency or bite..

Morning Cup #9

What’s in your cup?

Masala Chai. It’s a classic beverage in India with regional differences in its preparation. Nonetheless there are standard spices included such as cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ginger and black tea. While this blend seems to lack the usual peppercorns, it replaces that with vanilla beans.

Visually this blend is enticingly complex. You can pick out each of the spices easily, and there are plenty of them all. The aroma is lightly spiced with hints of an underlying sweetness.

Kama Sutra Chai brews a wonderful amber liquor. It alsmost reminds me of a malt whiskey. The brewed aroma is much softer than that of the dry leaves. I certainly catch some of the vanilla here.

This tea is just a bit brisk. The spices twinge the tongue and some dryness of the palate occurs. The standard chai spiciness is inherent throughout the brew. The cardamom, clove and cinnamon play in the forefront with the vanilla bean notably taking a backseat.

The palate dryness and the briskness of this tea are appreciably reduced by adding milk and sugar. Traditionally one would add 3 parts milk to 5 parts water, and two or three teaspoons of sugar… but I suggest sugar to taste as three is far too much for me personally. The sugar helps to bring out the profiles for each of the spices.

I would recommend this brew to fans of chai and would suggest adding milk and sugar to this if you prefer it that way. Fans of malty assams may also enjoy this cuppa tea.

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Masala chai (which means tea in Hindi) is a wonderfully complex beverage. A blend of CTC style Assam with cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and more offers a veritable cornucopia of flavors to entertain your palate.

Masala chai is consumed the world over in a great many styles and flavors as well. Different regions in India make this classic beverage different ways. Some add plenty of milk and sugar, some drink it without softening, and others simply differ on the proportion of each ingredient.

This Vanilla Bean Chai from 52teas is a wonderfully unique tea with a palatable flavor profile even without the softening effects of milk and sugar. I’ve always preferred chai with those items though. It could be because that’s how some Indian friends of mine have taught me to make it. Or simply because that’s how I’ve always had it.

I don’t mind stepping outside the box now and again, and I’ve frequently enjoyed the flavors Frank over at 52teas has been able to put together for everyone. This chai is no exception there.

The dry mix has plenty of vanilla bean pieces and large ginger root chunks. A closer look reveals large brown pieces of cinnamon amongst the CTC Assam pellets as well. The dry aroma contains more vanilla and cardamom than anything else.

The concoction brews a dark amber liquor which provides wonderfully spicy aroma. Here I catch more cinnamon and ginger amongst the malty Assam freshness and light vanilla sweetness.

This very flavorful brew has plenty going on. While it dries the palate quickly and remains astringent throughout it’s less stern than I expected. Perhaps that’s the vanilla beans speaking. The cinnamon and cardamom blend well with the ginger and the lightly malty Assam to create an easy to drink tea.

I recommend this blend to fans of vanilla, ginger and chai. If you don’t like spiced teas or cinnamon you will not enjoy this blend.

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What exactly spurred me to sign up for the World Tea Expo is something I can’t reveal much about at the moment, asside from the fact that it does indeed relate to The Project.

I learned something while out in Las Vegas… though it wasn’t related to gambling, adult inhibitions or travelling. Indelibly I learned that my greatest strength and passion is, and likely has always been, with people. What makes us tick individually. It turns out that this year’s World Tea Expo, for me, ended up being all about the people.

While Saturday certainly marked a wonderful close to a beautiful and full day of tea related adventues… it was the people I met that day which truly energized me. The wonderfully high quality teas and the colorful array of accessories were really only icing on the cake.

I ate breakfast Sunday at the Roundtable All-Day Buffet at the Excalibur. The buffet was just $25 to come and go for as many trips as you’d like within a 24 hour period. My dietician would have been aghast at the prospect if she knew… but what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas… right? I actually ended up eating rpetty well there. Fruit, eggs and grapefruit juice were what appealed to me and I chose rather appropriate portion sizes. In case you’re wondering… I did go back for lunch and dinner… but I had a middle meal during a Tweetup I’ll mention later.

Sunday and Monday were where it was all at. Two more sessions: “Selling Your Tea Online Successfully” and “Creating A Menu With Cost & Creativity in Mind” bisected my morning and afternoon. Both presentations were steller! I couldn’t have been more pleased with the investment I made in paying for these two sessions.

Michael Cramer of Adagio Teas covered a wealth of great information related to community building… engaging and keeping your customers on your website and helping with conversion of simple visitors into customers who buy your products.

Melinda Decker, owner of LaTeaDa Tea Room in Clinton, IL provided an interesting presentation as well. While her ideas mostly focussed on her more traditional Victorian style tea house… she provided a number of robust and reusable ideas for making the most out of the materials you buy, simply by using the same ingredients to make multiple products… such as a cake, cobbler or pie being turned into a dessert in a glass.

I spent the rest of Saturday, literally networking with people. Hitting booths, talking people up over tea, getting my business cards handed out and really just getting to know people.

I ran into Jack Cheng of Steepster.com, Lindsey Goodwin of VeeTea, The fine guys over at Village Tea, Ty Beddingfield of Gamila… the inventors of the Tea Stick and a plethor of other completely wonderful folks on Sunday. Several of these folks, plus Ilya from Adagio Teas showed up for an evening Tweetup after the expo floor closed and we had some grub and drinks. In particular, Ty and I really talked for a while about ideas and things. A wonderful day.

After dinner Sunday night, I hit up Cherry, a dance club over in the Red Rock Hotel. This club was one hell of an experience! I thoroughly enjoyed the hours spent there dancing and admiring the crowd. I really get energized when a club is as alive as Cherry was that night. Rare I think, for a Sunday night.

Now it’s Monday morning. The sun is up… but I’ve been awake for hours already. To protect myself some from JetLag I have always tried to awaken as close to Eastern time as possible. I worked out in the rather meager (by my standards) health club in the Excalibur… an amazingly expensive $20 a day on top of the room bill.

After breakfast at the buffet again, I made my way over to the expo for some tea and my morning session: “Reaching Beyond Your Front Door For Additional Income” and then on to my afternoon session: “Price it Right & Sell it Smart.”

Ronald Eng of Kopius Teas put on a wonderful presentation. Very well spoken with great diction and clarity. His ideas were understandably expressed and he was very energetic about answering questions. A serial entrepreneur, Ronald had some great ideas and concepts to share.

Robert Hedrick of Holton & Heath also had some great insights on proper pricing, commodity vs exclusive and the power of branding potential. This was a also a very good presentation.

The rest of my “day” on Monday was spent scurrying around making my final connections with brands and companies, procurring more business cards in exchange for mine as an attempt to build more outlets and opportunities for me to grow with the tea industry over the next couple decades.

I did end up linking with Ronald Eng and Emilie Yanagi of Kopius Teas, the people at Zojirushi North America, a couple great folks over at TeasEtc, Maria Warman from Art of Tea and I cannot forget Nora of Golden Star Tea who has an amazing sparkling bottled tea beverage presented in a chapagne bottle!

At the end of the day I ran into May King of the new UK tea brand, MayKing Tea as well as a few other friends including Norman who is starting a tea garden in Hawaii! I ended up going out dancing with these two and we had a wonderful time out at Margaritaville down the strip after throwing back a few drinks at Liquidity, a bar in the Luxor Hotel & Casino.

I don’t want to leave anyone out… but I’m HORRIBLE with names… I ended up meeting several hundred people at the expo and coming away with some great friendships made over the three day event.

I have to recommend this event to anyone starting a new tea business, or anyone already in the industry!

I’ve already made the decision to head back to Las Vegas next year for another round of tea education. Maybe by then I’ll already have a small presence in the tea industry and be ready for some thoughts on expanding to becoming a tea brand. Here’s to the future!

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org

Friday is Black Tea, Floral Tea, Fruit Tea, Chai and Pu’erh Review Day!

This delectably smooth Coconut infused Masala Chai from Yogic Chai coats the mouth with creamy goodness.

I’ve reviewed a couple of Chai teas here already. Actually, if you’ve been paying attention I always note that Chai simply means “tea” once you whiddle it down… so “Chai Tea” is a redundant statement. But I digress…

Malasa Chai is what most people think of when they hear “Chai.” This specific spin on Masala… adding the perfect blend of Coconut is very well done.

This blend is not too soft, but not too bold. Perfect for a chilly day, or in the evening to relax. With a light & sweet aroma hinting at caramel and coconut tones you can still tell this is a Masala chai.

The flavor is smooth and coats the mouth. The coconut comes out here, but not in force. Just enough to hold your attention on it. Like all Masala Chai teas, this one is intrinsically spicy and reminds me of a warm Apple Cider.

If you like spiced teas, apple cider, chai, coconut or hot cocoa I really recommend this blend for you.