Like most of Tazo's teas, I think this improved greatly in the change to the full leaf version. But I don't think it's just the quality of ingredients, I think the blend of spices has changed considerably.

The old, flat tea bag was dominated by clove, and although it wasn't too heavy on the cinnamon, it was also too peppery for me.

This blend is vaguely similar to the old one, but cardamom makes an appearance. This is a huge improvement for me! I LOVE cardamom, it's my favorite spice, and in my opinion, it's the defining spice in most of my favorite masala chai blends.

The spice blend here is balanced, and heavy on the cardamom, just how I like it. Cinnamon and clove make a balanced appearance, backgrounded by the cardamom and the base tea, and there's just a hint of black pepper. Not quite as mind-blowingly awesome as Rishi's masala chai, but getting very close. I find myself wanting to add just a hint of ginger and star anise. This is among the better of the commercially-available chai blends, and probably the best I've tried in a tea bag yet.

The base tea is relatively strong and malty, but infuses slowly, one of the benefits of drinking larger leaf. I find the spices infuse quicker, so if you steep briefly, you get a spice-heavy blend, and if you steep longer, you get a bolder black tea presence.

If you do a brief, 1-2 minute first steep, there's more than enough flavor left for a second cup.

Good job, yet another winner from Tazo's line of full leaf teas. This one is among the most-improved of these teas, to me, because of the addition of cardamom to the spice blend.

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