Here's a herbal tea that doesn't smell or taste quite like one surmises based on ingredients, but is reasonably enjoyable. I wouldn't pay any more than sale price for it, though!

This came via a discount at Sprouts for a 20-bag box, with each bag sealed in a waxed paper pouch. This is the first steeped beverage called "chai" that I've had that was entirely herbal: devoid of true tea. Yes, a concoction labeled "vanilla chai" with no tea! The dry-bag aroma was heavily cinnamon, unsurprising given that the ingredients list states 40% of the mix is cinnamon bark, followed by ginger, licorice, fennel, cardamom pod, vanilla flavor and vanilla pod (bean?). My main question about that is: if you're going to use vanilla "pod", why bother with the flavoring, instead of using more real vanilla? Next question: Why do the directions say to steep for up to 15 minutes? That's a long time, even for me. Yet after drinking, I can see why...

The beverage steeps as a murky golden color at first, turning opaque tan-brown with time. It eventually looks like a puddle of mud (the outdoor phenomenon, not the rock band). The beverage emits a remarkably faint odor for such a typically potent set of spice ingredients. Overall the flavor was rather pleasant, smooth and sweet, not as heavily cinnamon-weighted as the ingredients list implies, with the licorice and fennel readily apparent also. The cardamom and ginger were hard to detect, the vanilla present but weak. It didn't taste that much like any chai I've had, but instead rather like those spiced candy kibbles served in small bowls at the checkout counter of some Indian restaurants. It also took a long steep to get the flavor suitably strong.

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