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.

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