Saturday 16 July 2016

Chai...Nerada vs. Twinnings

Around a year ago I was in a supermarket(woolworths) looking for a more interesting tea to replace my regular earl gray which I had been with on and off for years. As anything with vanilla in the title will appeal to me, I picked up a vanilla chai by Twinnings ( which yes, I do pronounce with a long 'I'- how could you not!?) to try. This particular tea I had some faint memories of from a couple of years back when my mother had bought the same tea and I had tried it. But I had no recollection of whether I had enjoyed it or not, although I have tried Chai made with tea leaves in a sauce pan- but let's be honest, how could anything from a supermarket shelf taste as good as that? So I paid the hefty price of  $2.70($13.50/100g- 10 teabags/pack) and was on my way. I did not stop to consider the prices of other similar teas which was in retrospect...regrettable.When I got home I opened my tea and was immediately rather disappointed that my nostrils were not filled with the smell of aromatic spices.Instead, when I opened the box I didn't really smell anything but cardboard and sugar and straight tea. Upon pouring a cup of it, I was disappointed further. The Twinnings chai tasted faintly sweet but mostly of nothing.It was ridiculously weak tasting. Anyway, I got through 10 more cups of what was basically just hot water with a bit of milk and lot of sugar to try to inject any amount of flavour into it and then decided that instead of giving up on chai altogether I would try another Woolworths brand.So I headed back up to the supermarket a week or so after my first chai- related trip and was delighted to find a far cheaper brand to try out. My first score! Compared to the Twinnings vanilla chai, Nerada organic chai tea was far less 'prettily' packaged in a sickly purple colour with a few poorly photoshopped images of teacups and cinnamon sticks thrown onto the side of the box( Thankfully, their boxes have been revamped since then) but for the price of $3.79($4.10/100g-50pk) I really couldn't turn back to that tasteless brand that I had purchased before. So I bought it. And the whole first experience was like the total opposite of my experience with the other chai. I opened the little purple box and the smell was heavenly. I poured a cup of it and, though I do accept that chai is not supposed to be a strong tea, it still felt just right in its slight weakness. Anyway, it was good ,although I cannot guarantee that my instant liking of it did not stem from my glee at the money I had saved by buying this 50pk( me being someone who does not enjoy spending my money). I now have a cup of Nerada tea every morn' and will never and have never reverted back to that awful con that is Twinnings chai. Wait, no that's not strictly true- Twinnings chai original was actually pretty good as well, no offense to Nerada. But that, my friends is a tale for another time...

P.S> I know my use of commas)) hyphons,- brackets../ full stops- apostrophes and grammar is atrocious.soz  

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