Chai Elixir - 3 Reviews

Greg liked tea but he needed something more. He needed that sugar on his tongue. He needed some fizz but didn't like the syrupy soda pop taste. One day when walking through the city he found what he thought to be the perfect drink. It was a sweetened, carbonated tea. Not only was it tea but it was oolong tea so it was fancier to him. He promptly paid for it and went to the park to watch the dogs chase the birds.

He took one sip and instead of being thrilled and elated, he kind of sat silently on the bench. He had been let down again. This tea was carbonated and sweetened but it was just too much. It was so sweet that it took most of the tea flavor away. The entire time he drank it, he just wanted an unsweetened tea like he was used to more and more. It had a tea aftertaste but just tasted like a strangely carbonated cola. Almost like a less bubblegum champagne cola.

He dumped half of the bottle down the drain pet some dog's heads on the way out of the park and went home to his nagging girlfriend and cruddy cat. It was not Greg's finest day.

PREVIOUSLY ON THIRSTY DUDES: (Insert montage of how I thought the green tea Chai Elixir. It's highly dramatized and leaves you on a cliffhanger).

Now that we're all brought up to speed I wonder what excitement this week will bring us. Oh this time around it is white tea with a little bit of white peach nectar thrown into the mix like some quasi interesting secondary character. I have to say that yet again Chai Elixir has delivered something interesting. The chai isn't as strong in this variety, but I'm okay with that. It's mostly white tea with hints of peach around the edges. There's some extra spices in there, but they are more subtle notes than a full on flavor. I don't think a higher level of chai would really have worked well with the peach so a wise choice was made.

I must warn people that these drinks are not your everyday soda. They are unique and are made for sipping and pondering, not just mindlessly gulping them down. So go in with an open mind and you can go on an interesting little trip. Speaking of trips I hear they are going to Asia next week to work with oolong tea.

If you were a child of the 80's you probably remember the dumb Reese's Peanut Butter Cup commercial with the tag line “Two great tastes that taste great together.' You could switch that up a little bit and it would also be fitting for this beverage: “Two great tastes that taste wrong when prepared in this way, but somehow taste magical together.” First off if you've ever tried to ice some chai tea you probably know that it tastes very strange. Something about it just doesn't translate correctly and the wrong spices tend to stick out and it can get a bit intense. On the other side of the spectrum for te most part when people try to carbonate tea and it just tastes weird. Perhaps they are adding too much sugar or something, but I never truly enjoy it.

The folks at Chai Elixir are either very gifted scientists, or just plain lucky and stumbled upon a formula that overcomes all of the obstacles that would normally be in its way. The base of this is a great carbonated somewhat sweetened green tea. It doesn't fall into any of the traps that other tea sodas do. Then they mix in the chai and it becomes wondrous. It's a very distinct chai taste, but the spices aren't being rammed down your throat. It's just a general flavor that pairs perfectly with the green tea into something unusual and enjoyable. I'm guessing it's the addition of the orange juice concentrate that melds everything together. Orange juice, the beverage that is pretty boring on it's own but makes other things better.