Our Chai and other information about tea!

We all know the English take their tea very seriously. So much so that they have several slang terms depending on the application of the tea..For example a 'Cuppa' is a simple cup of tea any time of day. But, 'Elevenses' is late morning cup of tea with a snack. High Tea is usually a late afternoon and with a snack after work but before proper dinner. But when it comes to Chai, we shouldn't make the mistake of calling it Chai Tea. That’s because the word for tea is Chai! So, you should never say “Chai Tea!” Would you say “I’ll have a cup of Joe, Joe?” ...maybe before you had a cup of Joe, but I regress...

That wonderful morning drink involves brewing a strong loose black tea with spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, black pepper and nutmeg. Yes, I said black pepper!

Coffee and tea both contain caffeine, but the amount is different. A cup of black coffee contains about 95 milligrams of caffeine, black tea has 48 milligrams. If you get a higher stress level from coffee you might want to change to tea in the morning.

But remember that it’s very high amounts of caffeine that create side effects, so small to moderate amounts should be just fine. However, if caffeine does affect you keep in mind that the body already has high levels of cortisol in the morning so you might be fine with coffee later in the day with a little food and switch to tea in the morning.

There are lots of positive side effects to coffee but that’s for another post.

For now, the answer is basically to have what you like!

But if you haven’t tried Chai you may want to give it a try as our Chai is organic, kosher, gluten-free and vegan! After all “variety is the spice of life” (get it?)