Tea: Golden Chai™ - Spiced Assam Black Tea
A Chai / Spiced Tea from Numi Organic Tea - Organic - Fair Trade
Brand: | Numi Organic Tea |
Style: | Chai / Spiced Tea |
Region: | Assam, India |
Caffeine: | Caffeinated |
Loose? | Teabag |
# Ratings: | 7 View All |
Product page: | Golden Chai™ - Spiced Assam Black Tea |
Reviewer: Tchuggin' Okie
✓ 400 teas reviewed
✓ 22 of Chai / Spiced Tea
✓ 140 of Flavored Tea
✓ 18 of Numi Organic Tea
✓ 9 from Assam, India
✓ 20 from India
Review of Golden Chai™ - Spiced Assam Black Tea
November 3rd, 2017
Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
3 of 10 | 3 of 5 | 3 of 5 | 49 of 100 |
Poor | Fair | Reasonable |
This was among the least-appealing chai teas I've had so far—decent-tasting with some effort, but also, having an important turn-off and separate weakness that preclude a better rating.
The dry-bag and poured cup smelled dutifully spicy, but also somewhat urinary. That caught me off guard, and probably isn't the "golden" that Numi intended. I hope a mouse didn't find the parent batch in the truck, on the ship or at the factory, and pee in it. What an unfamiliar and unwelcome background aroma to experience from a tea! Fortunately the wet-bag aroma was better, and the taste better still. Had someone opened the packaging and poured this for me, I might not have detected the scent of excretory fluids so soon, if at all.
When I tasted the tea after about 5 minutes of steeping, it was well-flavored but much weaker than the style (chai), origin (Assam) and color (rich, dark brown) suggested. So after swirling the bag around, I left it soaking in there another 5 minutes or more as the water started to cool some, then squeezed out the wet bag into the cup. Finally it tasted like a reasonable attempt at chai, yet *still*, somehow, a little more feeble than others. Too bad...as I love cardamom, and this clearly is a cardamom-dominant chai.