Oregon Chai The Original Instant Chai Tea Latte Mix Review

too bad it leaves a film on your tongue =P

Tea review number two from the CRFA show on Monday.

Just add water, is the claim that the Oregon Chai Mix makes.  It’s that simple.

The ingredients are: Sugar, dried whole milk, dried nonfat milk, dried honey, tapioca maltodextrin, natural flavours, dried black tea and salt.  Yes it contains milk, so this instant tea is not for the vegan.  The directions on the packet state: Add Oregon Chai Mix to 8oz hot water.  For a cold chai, add ice.  For a creamier experience, add a splash of milk or your favourite dairy substitute.  For me this would be almond, rice or hemp milk.

It’s important to note that 8oz is equivalent to about 237ml, roughly about a regular sized cup of water.  I don’t like my drinks too sweet so I used maybe 330ml or so of water.  My review is based on a “watered down” version of the chai, the way I like it.

When I first added hot water, I found the powder wasn’t dissolving too well.  I stirred the chai with a chopstick and a spoon and let it sit for a while before it “seemed” like everything was mixed in well (when I poured out the tea later, I found a lot of sediment was at the bottom of the cup).  Upon initial wafting of the steam, the chai smelled like milk more than tea.  The essence of the tea was not very strong even when I drank it, and the milkiness of the tea definately came out more than the tea taste itself.  This shouldn’t have been surprising though as tea is the second last ingredient next to salt!  Also, the chai left a film on my tongue and coated it like paint on a wall.  Yuk.  I think it may have been the maltodextrin or the dried milk that was causing the problem.  Not a fan, sorry.  Making your own chai from scratch although more time consuming would be more rewarding and worth the effort.

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The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) 2009 Trade Show Review March 8-10 Direct Energy Center

CRFA swag

My friend Liz gets tickets to the CRFA show every year and invited me to go. Not knowing what to expect, I agreed thinking I might be able to get some ideas for my The Kingdom of Tea.  I anticipated 2-3 hours max of food industry people talking about their products.  Boy was I wrong.  We got there around 10am and the first booth I walked by was giving away chocolate brownies and cheesecakes.  What the heck?  I opted against the desserts and selected a lighter fare of goat cheese on a cracker.  Oh this was going to be good.  The CFRA show was held at the Direct Energy Center inside the Canadian National Exhibition Center.  There were almost 300 1100 exhibitors!  1100!  *Diana’s Note. This morning I woke up and I realized I was estimating exhibitors from the addendum last night when I wrote this post.  These were exhibitors who were not included in the already published CFRA Show guide which had around 750 exhibitors.  Including the ones in the addendum this totals the tally to about 1100 exhibitors or so.  Holy cow.  Next year I’m going at least 2 days in a row or for a full day.

OM OM OM!

Most of the booths had samples and many of the companies such as McCain’s and Cedar were serving multiple items.  Okay I don’t eat meat, but here is a sample of the food that was there (meat and all included) lobster, sashimi, bacon, sausages, eggs, fresh steak, prime rib, muffins, tons of cookies, cakes, gelato, Greek food (dolmades, spanakopita), Italian food (pasta, pizza), slushies, ice cream, endless coffee stops, waffles, beer, hard liquor, cheese, chocolate fountains, condiments galore…etc.etc.  It was insane.  I’m a huge huge foodie, so I had lots and lots of fun.  I want to highlight all the tea exhibitors I came across there.

Ceylon's finest bagged tea?

The first tea I encountered was actually Dilmah Tea.  Their rep was bouncing off the wall telling me how fantastic their Ceylon tea was and encouraged me to leave my teabag for more than 10 minutes in my tiny sample cup filled with hot water saying it wouldn’t be bitter.  It was disgusting!  I had to chuck it out.  It was way too concentrated.  I proceeded to take one sample of each tea he was offering and review them in the comfort of my own home.  Next I encountered The Tea Emporium.  They were there pushing their new tea company Wabi Tea.  I got some samples so I will definitely be reviewing those for the website as well.  The next tea company I came across among the tons of food I was sampling, was actually Numi!  I’ve always wanted to try Numi.  Numi was kind enough to give me a full sized box of Chocolate Puerh Tea (oh course they’ve heard of Rocking the Republic!) so I will be sampling that as well.  I also got Morning Rise breakfast blend and Aged Earl Grey from them.

I heart yerba mate!

Numi was being pushed by their distributor who was also displaying Pixie Mate.  Which is… Yerba Mate in a bag!  Love it!  I’m a huge fan of yerba mate.  So I love the idea.  I got some samples of the tea so I will have to be reviewing that.  At the booth I sampled their instant yerba mate chai from a tetrapak type box and it was super yummy!  Oh yes I also sampled from Rooibos tea in a bottle.  It was phenomenal.  Too bad the company was new and hasn’t been picked up by a distributor yet.  Hopefully someone will carry their product soon.  Other tea samples I snagged were Yama Moto Yama’s Gyokuro green tea.  Tea candy by Bali’s Best.  An an instant chai tea latte mix by Oregon Chai.  Japanese sencha from supposedly the best sencha tea producer in Japan.  It was good!  They also had sencha cookies.  Oh and Stratford Tea Leaves was at the show which came as a surprise to me.  They were doing tea tastings and promoting their program for restaurants and cafes.

Tabasco smoke and fire!

I also tried various bottled Japanese and Chinese teas throughout the day.  Nothing new that I haven’t tried before.  My camera was buried at the bottom of my purse under all the food samples that I didn’t take that many pictures!  I will definitely definitely go to the show again next year.  It was like the Auto Show but MORE FUN!  Every booth had something unique to offer.  The Tabasco company had a fire erupt from the top of their booth occasionally and there was smoke that SMELLED like Tabasco sauce.  How cool is that.  Go with a starving stomach.  You will leave like you just visited the greatest buffet $30 could buy (a cost of a ticket).  We were there from 10am, left around 3pm and there was still lots to see!  When we were leaving Chef Michael Smith was on stage doing a demo.  I love him!  You know Chef at Home on the Food Network?

Oh I just want to add that if you clicked on the picture at the top, there is a picture of two McDonald’s Big Mac hamburgers in the picture.  This is because we bumped into Liz’s neighbour who works at McDonald’s head office and that was his business card.  Not because McDonald’s was there.  His business card entitles you to a free burger of choice.  Pretty cool eh?  He gave me two.  Even though I would never eat that disgusting crap again.  Okay maybe.  I do love being a vegetarian though.  Anyways, I cannot wait till the next show!  Jeni from the CRFA also brought to my attention that there is a CFRA Blog.  Which allows you to follow the show.

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