The Good: Tastes wonderful, Exceptionally nutritious, Great for virtually any style of diet.
The Bad: Dry aftertaste, Expensive!
The Basics: Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea is another wonderful beverage from Bolthouse Farms, though it is hardly a thirst-quencher!
For the last few months, my wife has been on a health kick and has been drinking things like soy milk. I’ve been slower to get into her healthy beverages, though I did give the Bolthouse Farms Mocha Cappuccino beverage (reviewed here!) a fair shake last week. Now, I am trying to show some love to the Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea drink. And it is remarkably easy to appreciate this drink, though it is not the best beverage ever. It is, however, one of the best soy milk beverages I have ever had. Seriously.
Even so, Bolthouse Farms continues its tradition of making healthy comparatively expensive. Despite how good the Vanilla Chai Tea soy drink is, the $2.99 for a 15.2 fluid ounce bottle, makes me ration the drink to the actual serving size!
Basics
Bolthouse Farms Vanilla Chai Tea is a soy health drink, which is like an energy drink except that is designed for more of a full-health solution (as opposed to being a liquid vitamin supplement) and they tend to taste better. This is a soy beverage that is enhanced with nutrients. Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea comes in a 15.2 fl. oz. plastic bottle that is smooth and very portable. The #1 recyclable bottle is filled with the opaque white liquid, that looks just like regular milk. Bolthouse Farms juice products is one of the leading manufacturer of healthy prepared beverages and their dairy-oriented line is increasing in popularity and availability.
The 15.2 fl. oz. bottle is intended to give consumers just under two servings, which is annoying for a prepared food. Bolthouse Farms does have a bulk bottle of Vanilla Chai Tea, though I have not been able to find it locally.
Ease Of Preparation
Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea is a liquid in the 15.2 fl. oz. bottle and is a ready-to-drink beverage. So, preparation is as easy as opening a plastic bottle. The Vanilla Chai Tea bottle has a plastic cap that easily twists off and can be put back on in order to reseal it. It is important to note that this is supposed to be refrigerated, so quality of the beverage may degrade if it is left out at room temperature before or after the bottle is open. This has a pretty standard security seal ring around the lower half of the cap and informs the consumer as to whether the product has been opened by cracking off when the top is twisted.
Taste
Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea smells like an upscale chai beverage one might buy at a Starbucks, Caribou Coffee or other fancy coffee shop. The aroma is spicy and inviting, scented like cloves and nutmeg, a chai smell that is as intriguing to the nose as it promises to be to the tastebuds.
And Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea drink lives up to that promise. From the first sip, this is a creamy, spicy beverage that is flavorful and intriguing. This is a perfect embodiment of chai flavor and the light tea flavor comes in as a secondary taste. As one who has had mocha chai beverages where the chocolate or coffee flavors of the mocha have overwhelmed the chai spices, it is refreshing to drink a beverage that is firmly vanilla with an intriguing sense of spices to it. This is, foremost, a chai flavored beverage and it is quite good for that.
What it is not great for is quenching a thirst. In fact, the Vanilla Chai Tea drink is very dry and that prevents me from rating it higher. After drinking this very healthy beverage, I had to drink a glass of water just to not feel thirsty. That aftertaste is unrelenting, though, even the dry aftertaste is spiced and flavorful, making it not entirely unpleasant.
Nutrition
As a healthy dairy beverage, Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea is designed to fill in some of the nutritional gaps one might have in their diet, while tasting great! Nutritionally, Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea is a wonderful option for those who are dieting or are trying to improve their health. Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea is primarily composed of soy milk from concentrate, cane sugar and soy protein. It contains nothing bad, but does have additional vitamins pumped into it. It is gluten free and because it is soy milk instead of milk from an animal, it appears to be Vegan complaint! As well, there are no preservatives, artificial flavors or colors or genetically modified ingredients!
This drink is also exceptionally healthy for you. One serving of Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea has 3.5 g fat and 170 calories, 35 of which come from the fat. While there are 27 grams of sugars, the beverage has no cholesterol and a whopping 9 grams of protein! Surprisingly, there are 70 mg (3% RDA) of sodium in each serving. A single serving is a sufficient source of Calcium (30% RDA!), Iron, Magnesium, Potassium and Zinc. It has more than your daily needs for Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and Vitamin B12, so this truly is a healthy beverage (ironically, more healthy than many fruit juices I have reviewed!).
Storage/Clean-up
Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea comes in a plastic bottle and it keeps for only a few months. The bottle my wife and I bought the first week of January had an expiration date of March 9, 2012. This beverage must be refrigerated, though because it does not contain any actual dairy products, I am not exactly sure why.
This drink is a soy product and light because that is just how soymilk is. If this gets on clothes, it ought not stain them. Consult a care guide for your clothes, though I suspect the drink shouldn’t be allowed to soak into your clothes and stay there. Still, the drink wipes off surfaces easily with a cloth, assuming they are impermeable.
Overall
I was very impressed by Bolthouse Farms Perfectly Protein Vanilla Chai Tea, initially for the taste that surprised me. But while the health benefits of this drink are exceptional, I was a little more put off by the aftertaste than I initially thought. That, combined with the expense of the drink made the Vanilla Chai Tea soy beverage a little farther from perfect than I initially thought it was.
For other prepared beverages, please check out my reviews of:
Powerade Mountain Blast
Duff Energy Drink from The Simpsons
Dole 100% Juice Orange Peach Mango
7/10
For other food reviews, please visit my index page for a complete listing by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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