A hot cup of chai on a frosty January morning is pure bliss, so thank you Teapro for sending me this well-timed Chaiwala Subscription Box! I really enjoyed this one and surprisingly, I’ll be able to enjoy these teas in the hot months as well.
If you’re interested in subscribing to Teapro and want to know what the subscription is like, I have reviewed every month in the Teapro calendar from June 2019. You can also buy this box separately without subscribing, which is a great choice if you want to check out the subscription before committing to it.
Chaiwala is one of the best subscription boxes I’ve had to date from Teapro. Here’s what you’ll find inside the box…
Quick Summary
A great box with 4 versatile teas that’s great for beginners who haven’t tried much spiced chai before. It’s a good introduction to chaiwala and unlike some of the other Teapro boxes, this one is very easy to get accustomed to. No refined palate necessary!
I’d recommend it for: anyone who likes spices or is trying to kick a coffee addiction!
Pros – very delicious tea selection.
- All 4 teas are high quality and well-balanced.
- Absolutely delicious whether you have milk for authentic chai or not.
Cons – love or hate it.
- There’s no way you can avoid the spices if you don’t like them.
- Added gift is lovely… but completely unrelated to tea.
What’s in the Box?
Despite the lag in delivery times around December and January, this box arrived promptly and was handed over by our postman at the start of the month, smelling slightly of spices before I’d even opened it. In this month’s box:
- 30g Organic Turmeric Root Chai
- 12g Organic Honey Tulsi Chai
- 30g Peppermint and Green Chai
- 30g Traditional Organic Masala Chai
- Box of incense cones
- Wooden incense burner
- 1x sticker for January subscription
- Chaiwala tea booklet with details about the 4 specific teas included
If this is your first Teapro box, you’ll also receive a tasting wheel, sticker booklet and 3-piece glass infuser included. Read my review for those in the June 2019 teapro subscription review.
Chaiwala Tea Booklet
The booklet is incredibly useful as it gives you instructions on how best to brew each chai. Unlike previous tea boxes, you’ll need a saucepan and milk besides the usual teacup and kettle!
I lost my chai booklet and emailed Teapro for a replacement. They sent me a jpeg file version of it quickly – another example of how great customer service is from Teapro.
This is one booklet that I’ll be keeping, as the recipes are genuinely useful and unique. In the past, I’ve thrown away Teapro booklets as although the info on them is interesting, it’s nothing that I can’t find again myself with a quick Google search.
Incense and Burner
I LOVE incense. I like to burn it during a restorative yoga practice or let it smoulder away outside in the summer months to keep away bugs. But is it a good gift in a tea subscription box?
I’m not sure.
Personally, I won’t eat or drink anything while there’s incense burning. It’s just sensory overload, tasting the smoky incense notes on your tongue in-between bites and sips of contrasting flavours. So yes, the incense is lovely and the burner is beautiful craftsmanship… but it just doesn’t seem right with chai.
Teapro Chaiwala Tea Reviews
You get a decent amount of tea in this box, especially considering the strength and flavour of these teas thanks to the bold spices in them. Even the honey tulsi chai is a lot of tea, as 12g of honeybush stuffs the packet full.
The only problem is, you can’t resteep these teas as well as standard black teas as they’re simmered in milk or toasted before brewing (the exception being the green chai). So, you don’t get as many cups out of these teas, despite only needing a scant teaspoon to brew each time.
Organic Turmeric Root Chai
- Amount: 30g
- Ingredients: Turmeric root pieces, cinnamon, cardamom, liquorice, black pepper
- Flavour notes: Rich, earthy, rooty, full-bodied, naturally sweet
- Brewing instructions: Simmer 2 minutes in milk, or, brew 5 minutes in water
- Quality: Excellent
I enjoyed this tea immensely when brewed directly in milk. I’ve tried it with both soy milk and dairy milk with successful results. It has a rich, earthy and full-bodied flavour dominated by the heady turmeric notes and hints of cardamom.
It also has a natural sweetness to it that I wasn’t expecting, but don’t worry, it’s not anise-sweet like you usually get from the liquorice root. It’s creamy and coats your mouth in sweet spices. The texture that the turmeric root gives the milky tea is like a rich hot chocolate.
As it’s also caffeine-free, I would recommend drinking this chai as an evening drink or before bed.
Organic Honey Tulsi Chai
- Amount: 12g
- Ingredients: Honeybush, nettles, cinnamon, peppermint, cloves, liquorice root, tulsi, cardamom
- Flavour notes: Honeyed spices, herbal, medicinal
- Brewing instructions: Simmer 2 minutes in milk, or, brew 5 minutes in water
- Quality: Excellent
I felt that this was the weakest of the 4 chais in the subscription box, both in terms of likability and strength of flavour. Honeybush is a caffeine-free tea that’s similar to rooibos (that’s a whole other Teapro subscription box) with warm, full-bodied notes. That’s why it’s a popular caffeine-free alternative to black tea.
As a chai base, however, I didn’t feel like it was strong enough. Combined with the nettles, peppermint and tulsi, this tea had a medicinal quality to it that I just didn’t get on with.
Nonetheless, the soft honeyed spices from the honeybush were pleasant to sip and I can see this being another popular evening chai to soothe you before bed.
Organic Peppermint and Green Chai
- Amount: 30g
- Ingredients: Gunpowder green tea, cardamom, cloves, fennel, black pepper, peppermint
- Flavour notes: Restorative, sweet peppermint, cardamom, floral
- Brewing instructions: Brew 4 minutes in water, add sweetener
- Quality: Excellent
I found this tea to be very refreshing and restorative. It’s a great tea to brew when it hits mid-afternoon and you’re falling asleep at your desk! The peppermint and fresh green tea really lift you up and brighten your senses.
It’s also good that this one can be brewed in a few minutes, unlike the other chai blends that are best simmered for 10 minutes then strained.
The flavour is pleasant and smooth with sweet peppermint and cardamom-heavy spices. The cloves add a floral note too that’s quite pleasant. This is an unusual chai but one that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will be drinking this one cold-brewed in the summer months too!
Organic Traditional Masala Chai
- Amount: 20g
- Ingredients: Assam black tea, cloves, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, black pepper, fenugreek
- Flavour notes: Warm, cardamom, cinnamon, peppercorn, delicious!
- Brewing instructions: Toast in saucepan, bring water to boil, infuse for 10 mins, add milk
- Quality: Excellent
I’ve saved the best until last. At the time of writing, Teapro Organic Traditional Masala Chai is the highest rated tea on my blog because it just ticks all the boxes. The quality of the tea, the balance of spices, the depth of flavour… it all just pulls together perfectly.
After toasting the tea in a dry pan, I simmered the chai on the stove for 10 minutes before straining, adding milk, and serving. The warm black tea creates a full body that works well with the milk, rather than competing with it to stay present. The cardamom and cinnamon spices are balanced in harmony, and there’s a hint of black peppercorn to give it some added warmth.
You will also love this one iced! Simply brew enough for two cups, then drink one hot and leave the other to cool. Add ice cubes and sip under the sun – it’s very refreshing and way better than anything you can buy at Starbucks.
Is This Chaiwala Teapro Box Worth the Cost?
Yes, I do believe that this box is worth the cost. Could you buy more grams of tea by purchasing chai elsewhere online for the same price? Definitely. But the quality of tea in this box was beyond expectations this time. It’s perfectly balanced too, with a chai tea for any mood, weather pattern or time of day. As a box, it’s very good and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend that you buy it for yourself or as a gift.
Final Verdict
You guessed it, I highly recommend buying this tea box. Even though the gift was unrelated to tea, it was still lovely and the whole experience of following the recipes and brewing these 4 teas was memorable too.
This is quite possibly the best Teapro box in the whole calendar.
Check out this box on Teapro or search for chai teas on Amazon to find them yourself.