Why Chai?

Let me expand on that question. Instead of just why chai, the real question here is, why do I keep trying chai?

Did you ever have a particular flavor that you don’t really enjoy, yet you keep on trying it for some reason, hoping you’ll finally find the one variation of it that you actually like?

For me, one of those flavors is chai. I’ve tried many different variations of it, from teas to desserts, and now… coffee.

If you are familiar with The Coffee Beanery, you know that every month they put out four different limited-time flavors. While I generally prefer good old regular coffee, I do like to explore fun flavors every now and then. The Beanery has a terrific marketing ploy with this: you see a flavor, and it hits you—Hey, I really want to try that! The only problem with these one-time flavors is that the end result is ALWAYS disappointment, for one of two very different reasons. You are either disappointed because you absolutely love the flavor and know it’s never going to be produced again, or you are disappointed because you spent money on a flavor that you absolutely hate!

Every now and then I’ll look at The Beanery’s flavors of the month. I try not to do it too often, because I’ll end up buying way too many K-Cups purely out of curiosity. But this past month, I looked, and there it was: Vanilla Chai Cupcake.

Once again, foolishly thinking this might finally be the time that I actually like chai, I chose to completely overlook the fact that I never really seem to enjoy it. I went ahead, pulled the trigger, and purchased a pack.

When it arrived, I tore right into the box and immediately got to work making a cup. And so began my patented Taste Testing Process.

Step One: The First Cup. As I often do with these new flavors, I made the first cup, took the first sip, and thought, Hey, that’s pretty good. I happily finished the entire cup.

Step Two: The Second Cup. Here is where reality starts to set in. Do I really like this flavor, or was I just kidding myself on cup one? If you actually like it, the taste testing process ends right here at Step Two, and you just enjoy the rest of the box. But if you start to think, I’m not really sure if I like this coffee, the process continues. In the case of the Vanilla Chai Cupcake, halfway through the second cup I stopped kidding myself and began to realize that I didn’t actually like it. In fact, it was kind of repulsive to me. With that result, you move on to Step Three.

Step Three: The Big Idea! I often go on to try a third cup after coming up with some big idea as to how I can fix it and make it taste better. In this case, the suggestion came from Lori. She is a fan of chai, and told me that some chais have a particular spice profile that leans to the sweet side, so I might like it better if I lessened the amount of sugar I add. I don’t generally add a lot of sugar to my coffee to begin with—usually about a teaspoon—but I went ahead with her suggestion. For the Cup Three test, I cut that down to half a teaspoon.

While I found that her suggestion did kind of ring true—less sugar did take away that sort of sickeningly sweet flavor—I still didn’t particularly enjoy it. Interestingly enough, I also found that reducing the sugar actually increased the artificial aftertaste. For me, it was an absolute strike three.

Making it through Step Three usually leads directly to Step Four.

Step Four: Getting Your Money’s Worth. What do you do after you spent the money, gave it three solid tries, and still don’t like it? You play a little mind game to help justify the wasted money. You tell yourself, Maybe I’ll give it a shot again one day, and you tuck it away in the back of the cabinet for six months, knowing full well that you never will.

After the six months has passed, you can now pretend that you simply forgot the coffee was in the cabinet all this time, and that it is now far too old to try again. So, you throw it away. Somehow, even though you couldn’t get your money back, this six-month purgatory period allows you to feel like you got your money’s worth.

I have been through this four-step process many times! It’s just the reality of flavored coffees—you are either going to love it, or you’re going to hate it. As they say, no risk, no reward. If you don’t try a flavor, you are never going to know whether you like it or not.

Now, the only question I am left with after this particular coffee test is this: Am I going to finally stop trying chai-flavored things, or will I foolishly take the leap again with the next interesting chai item that comes my way?

Only time will tell.

How about you? Do you have a particular flavor that you just don’t like, but keep trying anyway? Drop us a comment!