Prana Chai Original Blend

If you love ordering chai teas as takeaways from cafes, why not make your own cafe-worthy brew at home? Read our review on Prana Chai Original Blend.

One of our tea dilemmas (first world problems) when it comes to committing to purchase tea leaves and tea bags, is actually choosing the flavour that we love.

After all, you’re buying a decent amount and if your first taste isn’t how you expected or liked, you’re going to have tea leaves and bags sitting in your shelves collecting dust – And that’s a waste of space and money.

I recently got my hands on the Prana Chai Original Blend 100g as a gift (from Google, I work with them). Now, would I actually buy this for $12 for ourselves? If you’re a chai tea lover, then read on.

From a price perspective, 100g for $12 is actually the mid-range tier for loose leaf chai teas. You might actually find that there are chai teas for the same amount and higher pricing.

On top of this, Prana Chai is actually cafe and restaurant-quality tea leaves. Chances are if you’re in Sydney, you might have seen the packaging displayed at cafes. So if you’re after, cafe-quality chai teas without paying additional margins, you might want to consider making this purchase.

As for the quality?

As you open your Prana Chai packaging, you’ll be hit with a lovely strong spice aroma from the leaves.

Unlike most loose leaf, the Prana Chai leaves are sticky (wet chai blend) which brings out the aroma even more. The tea is a mix between chai leaves and spices, but it’s the honey that creates the stickiness and the glossy-look, making you want to ‘squeeze’ out all the flavour to make a flavourful cuppa.

However, we have to say, the aroma from the packaging is more prominent than the actual brew itself. The aroma in the cuppa is present and subtle. The honey binds all the spice flavours perfectly so that it doesn’t actually taste ‘spicy’, and makes it rather easy to finish.

If anything, we felt that we hadn’t been able to ‘squeeze’ out all the lovely aroma and convert that into a flavourful cup.

If you’re really wanting strong flavours, you might consider adding more of the wet blend for a more concentrated flavour.

If you’re trying to re-create a cafe-quality chai tea, we strongly recommend that you brew the milk and chai in a pot over the stove (sounds like a hassle, but it is a quick process), strain it, and enjoy!

Bonus: if you have a milk frother, that will be the absolute icing on the cake.

Would I buy it again?

If you’re a chai tea lover, and appreciate the tea and subtly flavour and aroma, the Prana Chai Orignal Blend is delicious and great for value (considering it is also handcrafted and made in Australia too).

However, if you after the strong spice and bold flavours with a kick, this might not be the go-to brand for you. We think that you’ll probably need to dress it up to enhance the spicy flavours. As we said, considering makingit more concentrated or even considering adding an extra layer of chai powder (very thinly) for texture, presentation, and the added ‘oomph’ to it.

FYI they also have a few stockist, so if you don’t want to purchase online. Check out their site to find their list of stockist.