Although good, and a decent value for the currency-adjusted price, this tea fell slightly off expectations for a company that usually yields outstanding quality. Maybe the loose-leaf version is better, and the latter certainly smelled amazing in their Victoria store.

The dry-bag smell was curiously weak in cinnamon and lacking cloves, which is unusual in my experiences with chai. Instead it was stronger on base tea, cardamom and ginger, with a hint of cinnamon, and faint vanilla. Still, the aroma was fairly robust, perhaps a tad stronger than the in-cup smell. It brews up dark, quickly, which only bolstered anticipation of a strong flavor punch that didn't quite happen. The first few sips seemed flat and a little wooden, like how my favorite pro football team has been playing of late in the first quarter. Then as with that team, it came on stronger with time, and slowly performed better as the game went on.

The ginger is here is more obvious than any other chais I've chugged to date, though it's not the dominant flavor. I'd say the most prominent flavor is the tea itself, whose origin isn't specified, but which is of rich character and must be at least partly Assam in composition, given its maltiness and potency. Cinnamon and vanilla take a distant back seat, with still no cloves. All in all, it's a good tea on its own, so maybe I'm grading it a little harshly off expectations. But I've had a few better bagged chais, without question. If you treat this, from the start, more as a nice tea with some chai flavor, your experience might be very pleasant.

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