Splendeur de Karikal: this former French trading post on the Coromandel Coast, a legendary city on the spice route, has inspired Mariage Frères to create an unexpected chai. The flavours of traditional chai, cardamom, pepper, ginger, cinnamon and clove, come together not with a black tea, but with the lively, refreshing notes of a green tea.

The declared composition is tea, cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, clove and ginger; the blend may contain traces of nuts. The spices appear as pieces in the green leaf, and the house’s Jardin Premier label appears on this tea.

The green base changes everything. The liquor is clear, a golden yellow; the vegetal freshness comes first, then the spices arrive, warm but delicate, with cardamom and cinnamon to the fore, ginger and pepper in relief, and clove as a final touch. An intense and exotic tea, says the house, which nevertheless remains light on the palate and livelier than a classic chai, without the heaviness of a milky version.

It can be drunk at any time of day, plain preferably: at lunch with a vegetable curry or a spiced fish, in the afternoon with a cardamom biscuit or rice pudding. A cloud of milk remains possible for those who wish to keep the spirit of chai. Iced, it surprises: the spices refresh rather than warm.

It is offered as loose leaf, weighed and packed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from the 5 g sample to the kilo, in an iconic 100 g metal tea tin in its gift box, and in a box of 30 round cotton muslin tea sachets, 75 g net. The steeping parameters specific to each format are listed on its product page; it is best not to extend the infusion, so that the spices stay clear.