The dry-bag* and in-cup scents were robust and screamed "chai", which is great since I enjoy such tea. Cinnamon and cardamom stood obvious, cloves and black pepper being apparent with some concentration, the other ingredients a good deal less so. Even though ginger is the second ingredient (behind rooibos), I only could taste it with great effort...or was that an illusion of the power of suggestion?

Despite the presence of classic chai ingredients: 1) I still could taste the rooibos, specifically the "broom straw" character that rooibos offers to me, to which I've grown accustomed by now, and 2) it's at least as much a "smooth and sweet" flavor as spicy. Still, it's well-balanced in taste, not weak at all but also not slap-your-face strong either. This would be appropriate to treat as a "decaf chai", or a mellow chai to drink if you want to avoid caffeine and/or tannins. For that purpose, it's very good—a nice hot cup to quaff on a cool, rainy evening a couple hours before bedtime.

* For the first time with any tea, pre-consumptive dry-bag sniffing tickled my nostrils to the point of sneezing. It contains black pepper as the final listed ingredient; but that alone almost never has triggered the reflex. Something about the combination of that, cinnamon and ginger probably conspired to prompt the sudden respiratory evacuation. Even now, sniffing the old, empty packet nearly does so! As such, this may be a good tea to whiff if you need to sneeze but can't, for whatever reason, and regardless of any attributes of the beverage itself. Also, if you like to squeeze tea bags out to capture the embedded liquid and flavors (waste not, want not), be advised: the bag did rupture easier than most.

Add your own review

Login or Sign Up to comment on this review.