OUR FRESH CHAI ICY POLES are just the ticket for warm weather

We just brew up a little extra chai and use it for iced chai or these chai icy poles (or use our CHAI CONCENTRATE method on our website which keeps for a whole week happily in the fridge).

When we are in the mood for more watery ones we use nut or rice milk with the chai then pop a blob of coconut cream in the top (for dairy free), or make a more creamy rich version from any ice-cream recipe (cashew recipes work very well). These are healthy, refreshing and quick as thinking of an acronym for CHAI on the fly… COOL or HOT AMAZING INDULGENCE…phew maybe not even that long.

Adam Donoghue

Founder of The Fresh Chai Co.

I’m going to be the chai whistle blower by saying that one of Australia’s most popular café and supermarket ‘chai’ brands has the following ingredients (in order from most to least).

Sugar, glucose syrup solids, vegetable oil, maltodextrin, flavours, instant tea (4%), Sodium Caseinate, (340, 451, 452, 471, 481) soy lecithin, salt, 551.

Consumers purchase this Chai thinking they are ordering a delicious traditional Indian spiced tea, renowned for hundreds of years for its health benefits. Instead they are being served a drink which, well, who really knows what it’s going to do to your health. There is not a single ingredient on the list that would have existed 1000 years ago (assuming the salt is NaCl and not Himalayan Sea Salt) And in fact the first three ingredients have already been proven by science to have serious negative impacts on health (processed sugar, vegetable oils, maltodextrin)

Until we really got into the world of chai, we didn’t realise just how much dodgy chai was out there. It’s certainly a lucky dip when you order your chai at a café . Apart from the above-mentioned brand, you might get a sugary chai syrup (sugar and flavours), a powder (most are similar versions of the above example), a loose leaf tea and powdered spices, or the real deal (long leaf tea, whole spices and ginger). The easiest way to spot it is to check your ingredients list before buying or ask at a café what is in the chai.

I hate to put down another product but these dodgy chai’s should be called something else like ‘SNAF’ (sugary numbers and flavours). They shouldn’t be called chai anymore than banana ‘flavoured’ syrup be called a ‘banana smoothie’. So next time you order chai cast an eagle eye over the ingredients list or you might get served a snaf latte!

Adam Donoghue

Founder of The Fresh Chai Co. & Snaf snob