FAQs - Chai Tea, Shipping, Wholesaling, & more

 

About the Chai!

Think of ‘Small Batch’ Chai as ‘micro-brewed’ or ‘hand-made’ Chai.

This means each batch could taste slightly different than the previous one.  We add a sticker with batch notes on each jar.  Some examples:  Indonesian cinnamon instead of Vietnamese cinnamon.  Ground whole cardamom pods instead of ground cardamom seeds.  Roasted spices vs unroasted.  All of these things change the flavor profile slightly, giving you a new and authentic Chai experience with every batch!  The ingredients and amounts of each ingredient will be essentially the same for every jar and every batch, the difference will be the sourcing of the ingredients and how they are prepared.  Think of this like trying coffee beans from different regions and different roasts...  It's still just roasted coffee beans, however the flavor profile changes slightly depending on where the beans are from and how they are prepared.

Right now we usually make Chai in batches of 100 units.  This could be 100 jars of Chai Powder, or 100 bottles of liquid Chai Concentrate.

NO!  We found the flavor profile of using pre-powdered spices was severely lacking! 

Immediately after spices are ground into a powder, they begin losing flavor.  When you buy powdered spice (such as cinnamon or cardamon) there is no way to know how long the spice has been sitting in a warehouse.  Sometimes it sat for YEARS.  If your spice powders sat in a warehouse for years, they will have a slightly stale flavor.

Also, spices taste quite different if they are roasted before grinding.  When you order pre-powdered spices it is very unlikely they were roasted before grinding.  This often produces a less flavorful Chai.

For our powdered Chai products,  we roast whole spices, grind them ourselves, and sift them to a super fine powder.  It is A LOT of work, but it makes the Chai SOOOOOOOO much better!

For our liquid concentrates, we roast whole spice and rough-grind them to release the flavors before simmering.

Nearly Always!  We are very dedicated to making our Chai’s with organic and non-gmo ingredients!  Every now and then we make a product with an ingredient in which its organic status cannot be fully verified.  In this case, we will not mark the product as being organic.  Ex:  Sometimes ethically sourced (and fair trade) black tea comes from small farms that cannot prove the tea was grown organically (even though it was).  We might still use this tea sometimes, but we will not label the Chai as organic if the farmers cannot produce documentation to prove it.

YES!  Currently all our products are vegan, non-dairy, and gluten free!  In the future we may create products that are not (Ex: Maybe we’ll sell Chai flavored banana bread, or some other delicious, glutenous, dairy filled, non-vegan things).  When that time comes we’ll clearly mark what is not vegan, dairy free, or gluten free, promise

Our Chai is HAND MADE in SMALL BATCHES.  We take a lot of inspiration from micro-brew beer breweries.  You know how breweries will have a few standard beers they make all the time, but they also make a lot of one-off batches of beer?  Such as a pumpkin ale in the fall, or a summer brew, or if lavender is in season they’ll make one batch of lavender beer?

That’s pretty much what we do.  We make the Chai we feel like making at the time.  If we feel like making Cacao Chai, we’ll whip up 100 jars/bottles and sell them until they are gone.  Or maybe it’s Orange Vanilla Chai, or a summer Chai.  Regardless, we do not necessarily have any/all flavors at any given time.  We have in stock what we felt like making recently.

If you have flavors you want to see more of, please let us know!

IT'S FOR PEOPLE. Don't feel silly, you're not the first person to ask!

Our products are 100% for humans. Ideally humans that like cats, however liking a cat is not a hard-requirement. If you don't love cats we'll still let you buy our chai (albeit slightly reluctantly). The only hard-requirement is to love masala chai!

TLDR: We think cats are kindof amazing, so we branded the whole company around cats! Click Here to see a video that accurately sums up our views on cats.

Shipping/Receiving/Returns

All orders that are $50+ have free shipping!

All orders under $50 have a flat $5 shipping and handling fee.

We’re just starting out and need to keep it super simple!

We generally ship USPS ground shipping which takes 3-5 business days for addresses in the United States.

In the future we’ll add additional shipping options.

We do not have a brick and mortar store, YET.

If you have a large order, we can drop it off for you in the San Diego area!  That’s the best we can do at the moment.  :-)

We will only accept returns on defective products.  If the Chai is not defective, but you just don't love it:  First off, that would be weird...  haha.  But seriously, we can't take that as a return.  Please pass the Chai on to another Chai lover who will enjoy it!  Then send us some feedback through our contact form.  Since we're always whipping up new flavors/batches, we may incorporate your preferences in a future batch!

We do not ship outside of the United States, YET.

The Chai train is just getting started.  We will hopefully be able to ship internationally in the near future.

Content TBD.

Drew - run a few test orders to see how they check the status.

Ex:  Do they receive a tracking number by email?  Do they need to email me and ask for tracking information?

Wholesales, Coffee Shops, & More

SURE!  Reach out through our contact form and let’s chat!