Drink of the Week: Rishi Organic Chai

Sorta looks like coffee?

In economics we talk about subsitute goods, which means goods that can easily replace each other. A common example is coffee and tea. They are both warm drinks, usually with caffeine and usually a morning ritual. The idea is that if the price of coffee goes up, people will drink more tea in place of their coffee and vice versa.

I always thought this was the stupidest example ever. Correct me if I'm wrong, but everyone I know who drinks coffee or tea does not see them as even close to the same thing.

Unfortunately, I've had to give up coffee for an unknown amount of time and when faced with starting mornings without coffee, I started drinking tea as a way to get caffeine, although I don't drink it every morning like I did with coffee. I definitely don't think they are substitutes for each other, but when tea is your only option you have to make do.

My major beef with tea is that its watery and doesn't always have a lot of flavor. To tackle the flavor issue, I started drinking chai tea almost exclusively since its got a lot of spice. However, unless you're going for a super sugary latte, the watery-ness is still there.

Then I found this stuff:

You make it sort-of like a chai latte, but you can add as much milk and as much sugar as you want. This is a huge deal for me because I find those pre-made chai mixes wayyyyy too sweet.

There is so much more flavor in this stuff than in those little powdery tea packets. Unfortunately, you can't just steep it in some hot water, you need to boil it with milk/water and then simmer for five minutes to get the full effect.

It also tends to foam over the top if left unattended. Aaron may be wondering why the stove top has been so dirty. It is worth it all of the trouble, but this only works for me on weekends or mornings when I'm sitting around doing homework. Luckily for me, that's about 5 days a week!

It comes in a lot of flavors. So far I've also tried this one:

The Chocolate Chai is really delicious. The chocolate isn't very strong, its more of a compliment to the chai and thickens up the mixture a bit. I love it. As you can see, its almost gone.

The only issue with this tea as compared to coffee is it costs a pretty penny. $10 bucks for one container! The only reason I have two is Aaron went grocery shopping and decided I deserved a treat for doing all of my homework, because I probably wouldn't spend that much on tea right now. But if you think about it, it is cheaper than buying a bunch of $4 chai lattes at a coffee shop, and better tasting and better for you too.