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I’m down to just a couple more servings left of loose Chai in the house. This is it. I’m all out of Masala Chai. My feet were painfully cold just now, so I turned the AC up a few degrees so it would stop freezing me out, and brewed up some of this in my neglected IngenuiTea.

It smells nicely of chocolate, and has just a hint of it in the taste.

I made it with sugar and milk (I’m out of half & half), and whipped it with my frother to latte it up. So nice and warming on this rainy afternoon.

I used to love this tea, many years ago. Then I couldn’t find it any more, and knowing some of the ingredients were similar to Chai, that got me to try Chai, and it led me down the path of trying loose leaf teas. So this tea has a little tiny corner of fondness in my heart for pointing me to good teas.

So I was in a store one day, and had a gift certificate to use, and pretty much nothing in the store I wanted. So I picked up a box of this for old times sake.

I tried to brew some for drinking, and it was just completely awful. I dumped it down the sink.

I did find something useful to do with the rest of the box though. It’s simmering on the stove right now to scent the house. Smells nice. You won’t find me drinking it though.

Strong grassy scent, not unpleasant. Seems slightly smokey to me, but that just might be an influence of the name. :)

The liquor is a nice amber color.

The taste isn’t strong, but it’s nice. No bitterness, very little astringency. Just a lovely soothing tea.

The second cup, after it’s been steeping longer, doesn’t have any bitterness, just an increase in astringency.

I have a sampler tin of this, and I am down to just one more cup after this.

It’s a nice mellow tea, even with steeping it longer than I normally would.

As I suspected, this was much better as an iced tea. This gives me a reason to use up the other teabags in the “Traveler’s Tin” I got.

It’s not my beloved loose leaf Adagio Chai, but it’s pretty decent for a tea bag. Not a lot of nuance.

Smells lovely, tastes like black tea, but the only herb-y note I’m tasting is a slight hint of what I usually call “wet washrag” – that’s what chamomile tastes like to me, and perhaps that’s what rose will taste like to me.

The liquor is much darker than the image shows, so I might try a shorter steep time.

I picked up a 6 bag “Traveler’s Tea Tin” of this.

Very fragrant tea. I can taste the peach, but I’m not getting a lot of the ginger. I suspect it might come out more when iced, but I was expecting a bit of a bite from it, and it’s just not there.

Not a bad tea, but not one I think I’ll consiously want again – I’ll just use these up and reuse the cute little travel tin for loose tea, if I feel like it won’t open on it’s own.

I picked up a “Sip Sampler” tin with this in it. I’m really not getting any notes of Raspberry on drinking this. Seems like a fairly basic Earl Greyish tea. It’s probably not one I will buy again.

In another review, someone said that on opening the wrapping, it smelled like blueberry muffins. I would definitely agree! It is a very strong scent on opening.

I used the hot water machine at work, so my control over water temperature is non-existant. The water from the machine is on the really hot side, probably just a bit below boiling. I tried to compensate by letting it steep in my travel mug with the sipping top on but the outer cap off.

On brewing, it’s a light golden color. The scent of blueberries is no longer overwhelming, but it’s still there. There’s no taste of them though, except as sight scent on breathing out.

No bitterness, light, not unenjoyable. Good without sweetening. I definitely want to try this iced. Not my favorite, but defnitely worth keeping the box at work for a lazy tea fix.