11.30.2005

new products not recommended

On Sunday night, I gave in to the temptation presented on the bottom shelf of the teas aisle at the co-op and bought a carton of Oregon Chai Nog concentrate. (Actually, for a treat, go to the Oregon main page and watch the silly 5-second animated intro.)

Two wonderful things, combined into one? How could it go wrong?

Well, for starts, it could taste nasty.

At first I followed the directions and used a 1-to-1 ratio of soy milk and the concentrate, and it sort of tasted like storebought nog mixed with nail polish or something. Then I eased the concentration a bit and diluted it with more milk, and I got it to a manageable, somewhat palatable stage. And of course I'll finish it even though it's kinda gross. But I won't buy it again, and I'd suggest that, unless you like nasty things.

More importantly, scope out the whole Oregon Chai website. Advice for the tea concentrate magnates: Don't tell me to help you get "chai" in the dictionary. "Chai" is in a lot of dictionaries, as it is the word for tea in most of East Asia. Also, don't tell me to nourish my yin OR elevate my yang, much less both at once. You're appropriating and marginalizing someone else's culture (the culture of several billion people actually) to try to sell me a fucking sweet drink that doesn't really even remotely resemble what that culture would expect to recieve if they asked for the product by its name.