MELINA CHAIS

When the day came and I realized I could no longer indulge in espresso, I turned back to a beverage I once hated-

chai.

I then set out on a journey to try as many iced oat milk chais as I possibly could to find the best tasting one to ever exist in the entire world. It is an experiment I plan to continue throughout the entirety of my life. With my constant being my drink order and my independent variable being the coffee shop I enter, I will find the bestest one.

I need you dolls to remember that just because I worked at Starbucks and was trained on the proper ways of testing a handcrafted beverage that I am far from professional (I know this is shocking to some). These are raw, unedited, uncut, purely biased reviews. You’ll notice as you read, some are detailed and some are more comprehensible than others. These are more quantity than quality. That is because this isn’t a guide to chai tasting. This is just my niche that I get to say whatever I want about. My coworkers bitched at me saying you can’t judge a coffee shop by their chai and while they might have a point, I will die on the hill of if a coffee shop can’t get down properly pouring a concentrate and milk into a cup, then how could they possibly make a decent cup of joe?

Glossary:

Tiger Chai- This chai mix is a powder that I’m 99% sure has dairy in it. It is sickeningly sweet and makes a terribly viscous chai. It’s the french vanilla of chai concentrates which means its fucking nasty. (If you are a French vanilla advocate, close this page and unfollow me. That shit tastes like a car dealership and I simply will not tolerate it.)

Maya Chai- I used to guzzle chai’s made with Maya chai. My beautiful and smart oldest sister got me a gallon of this stuff for Christmas one year and its literally what made me gain my freshman 15. It is pure sugar and I actually get nauseous thinking about it now. It’s really not popular but between its sweetness and the spice mix it has a very distinct taste.

Oregon Chai- This is the stuff that comes in a white box and honestly doesn’t have a taste that stands out. I notice a lot of coffee shops use it and I like to take notice of the concentrates coffee shops use whenever I can.

Masala Chai- Sold at Whole Foods, is one of the better easily accessible store bought concentrates. I can always tell when a shop uses this just because it is always a solid chai.

Honorable mentions:

Earthbean coffee DTLA- The Blood Chai

Urli bird- The Hairy Chai

Holey grail- The Unique Chai

Presta- The Favorite Chai