Specialteas.com closing Any alternatives

Tea masala for chai is found in Indian stores. From what I remember even TeaVana has a chai masala. If an online tea vendor is selling Assam they probably have a masala to make chai.

Jim

I seldom buy any tea except from Upton (not Lipton.) Toci

Too bad about specialteas. I heard they sold out to teavana (not that its new news.) Its been some kind of big secret for a long time, but now the cat is out of the bag. Well now its easy enough to make your own chai and I hear Adagio is pretty good, or you can buy it from teavana and pay 2 or 3 times as much.

tealover snipped-for-privacy@foodbanter.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@foodbanter.com:

We ordered from Adagio and it was no where near as good as the Special Teas. She got a can od Rishi's at the local supermaket here in Rochester, NY. It was closer to Special Teas. We just got Upton's cataloge in the mail today. We did not know about the sell out to Tevana.

I recommend Chado Tea Room ( chadotea.com ) they have a good Masala Chai blend and lots of varieties, like Chocolate chai, herbal chai, Wedding Chai, Chai with fennel, etc. Also, the prices are reasonable. The owner is from India, so he knows his Chai.

Hello! May I humbly submit 'WhiteAugust Tea Company'

Regards, Matt

Okay, but in India, what you get is tea on one side and masala blen powder on the orther side, then you make the tea with both... Masala powder is quite different from the different parts of India, and can be different depending on the season it is sold. For example, in winter you will get more clove into your masala powder than in summer... Because cloves are considered to help the body to struggle against winter diseases...

So what could be interesting, is a good masala powder dealer, dedicated to chai tea.

If you now about a good dealer (an eBay store for example), I am interested, because, in France, most of the time, the different spices are sold blended with the tea itself... Any good advice is welcome. I saw few masala powder dealers in UK for example (eBay stores), but as I don't know nothing about them, I did not wnat to try....

Sebastien.

p.s. in this way, you can then change the black tea for a green gunpowder tea or another low quality green tea... (Kashmir way...) : http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahwah

It is also possible to go into a shop and have them make a custom masala up for just you.

I suggest that you consider trying to blend your own at home. It is not difficult; most of the spices needed are easy to obtain (unless you like having black cardamom in your masala which is kind of rare but actually very nice). Start with just ground clove, green cardamom, and ginger. Adjust to taste. Add black pepper, black cardamom, cinnamon, etc as you see fit.

--scott

Sometimes, things can go simple. Just a good basic advice.

Now I need to see where I can find something to powder the spices. A good spice grinder...

Thanks.

Sebastien.