Welcome to Word of Mouth, a blog series dedicated to the unique products and tools that have helped us change the way we cook.
I’ll admit it—I’m a chai snob. The word “chai,” an all-encompassing term for the many types of tea hailing from South Asia, belies the true experience of tea; for many, including my family, chai isn’t just a beverage, it’s a lifestyle. The milky, often spice-infused tea is how you greet guests, an old-world courtesy for customers in a shop, a way to start the day or a balm in the evening after a tough one. My first sips of it were treats I was allowed on visits to India, sips from a shallow pool my grandmother would pour into her saucer, or a steaming glass of my own to fortify me on road trips, purchased from a street cart for a couple rupees. I’ve since traveled to tea plantations in India’s Western Ghats to pick tea and learn how they’re cured, walking through rolling green mountaintops in air so rarified you feel like you’re breathing tea and clouds.

So naturally, when it comes to chai, I’ve anointed myself an expert.

While I’ve been folded into my family tradition of daily tea, brewed by an exact science with heaps of grated ginger and cardamom, I occasionally lack the time to steep my usual cup(s) and have to outsource the job. Imagine my disappointment when I tasted the overly sweet, weak “chai tea” peddled in mermaid-emblazoned cups, little more than mass market chai decoction. Luckily, not all tea concentrates are created equal—enter the Chai Box. Crafted in small batches by a woman-owned company in Atlanta, their Chai Concentrate is staggeringly good.



Unlike similar chai products that lose flavor when mixed, this concentrate has a clean flavor that shines through milk, with clear, warm notes of cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, cloves and ginger. It’s assertive, but comforting, and hot or iced drinks come together in minutes, if not seconds. It’s a morning hero. Most importantly, it’s real chai. It even passes muster with my mother, the true chai queen. Huzzah!

The 16 ounce bottle goes quickly at my house. I’ll bring some to a simmer and add milk, or pour it over ice—it’s excellent both ways. The concentrate makes delicious ice cubes, which I like for the “iced dirty chai”—a chai latte finished with a shot of espresso—I MacGyver in the summer: cold brew, whole milk and chai ice cubes. And if you like that flavor combination, a splash isn’t amiss in an espresso martini (you heard it here first).

It’s fabulous as ice cubes, and in dessert—you can go as simple as a powdered sugar–Chai Box glaze for scones and bundt cakes, or get creative and stir it into ice cream base, batters, frostings, even the milk mixture for Tres Leches. Inspired. It’s even good on oatmeal.

Maybe you’re a coffee person, or wish to stick with Starbucks, but if you’re willing to go by Word of Mouth, then the Chai Box’s Chai Concentrate is worth a try in your morning ritual. I certainly will never be without a bottle.

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