I’ve had so many varieties of Chai tea over the years but never one that’s been called “pure”, it will be interesting to see how DT’s version stands up to others that I’ve had.
Dry this tea smells like cinnamon… I really can’t detect (or even see) any cloves in there so I’m really hoping that they come out in the flavor profile otherwise I’m going to be highly disappointed. The cinnamon even manages (to me) to overpower the black tea base, which is unfortunate as many other Chai’s that I’ve had the spice is the complement to the tea not the predominant aroma/flavor.
That said it brews up a lovely deep red-brown color and though the main aroma was still filled with cinnamon it was more subtle then what was present in the dry tea. The cloves are a very faint scent at this time and I was also able to pick out the black tea as well.
Flavor wise… it’s not the most impressive chai that I’ve ever had. The first thing that hits me is cinnamon which would be fine if there wasn’t so much of it drowning out the other flavors. I still can’t quite pick out the distinct clove flavors and the black tea is just “there” it doesn’t really stand on its own enough to really say much about it. It does have a pretty good mouth feel though, warm, full and a bit dry on the end notes exactly like a decent black tea should be.
In the end it’s not bad if you don’t mind cinnamon but I don’t really find this tea much to write home about.
