A New Tea For The New Year
A new tea for the new year, umm YES PLEASE. The first time we heard about Purple Chaa, we were more than excited. Trying a new tea we’ve NEVER had before? That’s our jam. But what really spoke to our hearts is how founder, Jigar Patel, and his wife are focusing on giving back to the farmers and communities in the rural areas of Kenya with portions of proceeds from their tea. Now that’s our cup of chai!!!
The thing about our team is that while we all love tea, we love it for different reasons. Shraddha makes green tea a go to beverage for its health benefits. Neesha made a conscious choice to replace coffee with chai because it has less caffeine. Puja loves to learn about a tea’s origins, its flavors, and the global perspective of the land it comes from.
So what is Purple Chaa?
Chaa is the Gujarati/Punjabi word for tea (chai in Hindi). Jigar Patel, founder of Purple Chaa, curated this tea as homage to his roots. With Gujarat, India as his heritage and experiencing childhood in Kenya, he recalls being around beautiful tea estates where he discovered purple tea. As an adult, he reached out to the Kenyan Tea Research Institute to discover what makes this tea unique.
Is it really purple?
Technically yes. According to Jigar, some purple tea blends out there are created with additional coloring to bring out the purple immediately when you brew small quantities. His tea is all natural and sourced straight from the Nandi Hills in Kenya. It is brewed with a light hint of purple, almost pink to us. We learned that you can see the dark purple if you brew a lot of tea at once for 5-7 minutes and let it sit for 10 minutes. Then just like magic, you will see the most deep dark shade of purple but the tea will be super strong!
Why is it good for you?
It has to do with the sun, (as Socal mommas, we heart that).
Apparently, purple tea thrives in cooler elevations and conditions that experience the benefits of the sun’s rays. With the rays, more of the rich antioxidant, anthocyanin, is produced compared to other teas. You’ll actually find more of this antioxidant in purple tea (1.5%) than you do in blueberries (0.1%). These antioxidants protect your cells against free radicals which can lead to heart disease, cancer and other chronic conditions. So sipping it while chatting with girlfriends? Double win if you ask us – good for your soul and good your body.
How do you brew it?
We LOVED the family recipe that Jigar shared with us:
- 2 tablespoons of Purple Chaa
- A few pieces of ginger root
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 pieces of clove
- Boil 2 cups of water with everything above for 5 minutes and let it sit for a couple of minutes before straining
- Add honey and lemon per your taste
Puja prepared it but ended up chilling it for a post morning yoga treat. She said it was super refreshing after some sun salutations. Shraddha is enjoying it warm with extra lemon and Manuka honey after lunch. It feels like a little retreat from her work day.
Here’s a great video for when you make this new tea in the new year!
Purple Chaa is extending their new year sale to us with a 25% discount with promo code PURPLE25 and a 35% discount on monthly subscription for life if you sign up before the end of this month on their site.
Oh and don’t forget to enter our giveaway to win your own bag of Purple Chaa. Head over to our Instagram page @thechaimommas to check it out before it ends. Giveaway begins today!
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