The first thing I noticed was that the leaves are in very small pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting a whole leaf tea or anything, but with the pieces so small you get more of the tannins leeching into the tea and a very strong black tea flavour. Which wouldn’t be as big an issue if the spices were stronger, but apart from the mint they’re pretty tame and get overwhelmed by the rest of the tea. Mind you, the mint was a nice addition, it wasn’t too strong, just a hint that lingers on the tongue.
Taken as a whole though, I’d only consider this chai to be okay rather than great. They’ve got a good thing going with the mint, but they need to work on the rest of the tea.
