Oriental Spice

Tea: Oriental Spice
Vendor: Adagio Teas
Price: $6.00 / 4 oz
Vendor Description: To most Westerners, it is a little known fact that the word 'Chai' simply means 'tea' in Hindi. Therefore, all teas are technically chais. However, instead of the 'chai' that most Americans are used to (which usually contains really bad tea), we offer an Oriental Spice tea - premium Ceylon black tea with a unique blend of spices; cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea looks like a normal orthodox black tea leaf. There are small pieces of ginger and orange peel mixed in. There are also small chocolate colored brown pieces in there which I couldn't really identify. Based on the description of the tea I would assume the pieces to have been the cinnamon. The aroma of the tea is very chai like.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 208F, 5oz, 5 min

1st Infusion: This tea had an aroma sweeter than most masala chai that I have tried. It seems very close to a traditional masala chai though, and based on the ingredient list it is very similar to most chais. The tea itself has a dark red almost chocolate brown hue to it. It has a very chai like flavor on the back end of the flavor. It is very rich with a light sense of an astringency on the backend.

Rating: 4/10

Conclusion: This tea is very much like a traditional chai, but has a higher tea:other ratio than most chai. It is quite inexpensive though, but the rest of the Adagio selection of chai are all relatively equally priced. If you want a chai like tea, I would suggest getting one of the specified chais.