I realize that I had said previously that my next planned adventure was to try the Wild Mountain Blueberry flavored coffee by Green Mountain, and that blog post will be coming soon, but like any adventurer, sometimes unexpected adventures come to you and you just have to go with them! I had the most amazing (aaaaah-mazing) dirty chai at The Arrogant Texan last Friday and since that Friday was the start of the Easter weekend, I haven’t blogged since.
Today I ate my brunch (I hadn’t had breakfast yet, so it was a very early lunch that also happened to be the first food I had) at the café in the Barnes and Noble bookstore on campus. I decided to try their dirty chai. I was immediately struck by how different it was. Somehow that shot of espresso made the differences in the spice profile much more pronounced. I will definitely have to go back to The Arrogant Texan to try their chai without the espresso to verify this, but it seems as though, even though the chai at Barnes and Noble is not as spicy as the chai at The Arrogant Texan, the dirty chai at The Arrogant Texan is MUCH smoother than at Barnes and Noble. Normally when I get the chai at Barnes and Noble, it has a very sweet flavor, with almost a marshmallow-ish aftertaste (which I love). To highlight the comparison, (assuming I got exactly what was ordered both times), I got a medium dirty chai at The Arrogant Texan and a venti dirty chai at Barnes and Noble and yet the Barnes and Noble one was much stronger. This is important because both were ordered to have just a single shot of espresso in them, thus the Barnes and Noble dirty chai had the same amount of espresso “diluted” in more chai and yet it burned in my throat like I was drinking moonshine! If you’ve ever seen in a TV show or movie where someone who is supposed to be inexperienced at drinking alcohol takes a straight shot of some hard liquor and then makes this ghastly face and says sarcastically (and in a hoarse voice) “smooth!” Well, that was me today, not that it wasn't delicious!
The bottom line for me? If you cannot handle straight espresso, you might not be ready for the dirty chai at Barnes and Noble (and therefore probably Starbucks either), but if you are feeling adventurous, it is worth the burn because it had an amazing flavor. Similar to the dirty chai at The Arrogant Texan, there was not a discordant coffee/tea taste, but the espresso made the natural spices of the chai punch more. It is definitely worth a try, but don’t say I didn’t warn you about how strong it is!! I think I might try to get it with just a half-shot next time!
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