Maharani Oolong Chai

Grabbed this sample from a past tea box. I’d prefer more spice here. The base tea is pretty strong. There’s a bit of pepper. Maybe there’s a little of a different spice. It’s pretty boring, though.

I received this tea as a gift in a fancy box that includes a trio of different Chai teas. I’m sure it was chosen because Oprah selected this tea for her list of “Favorite Things” in 2018.

This is the first tea I’ve tasted from the trio. It tastes like a high-quality Chai tea from India, similar to what I would expect from a fine dining Indian restaurant. The flavors are classic and well balanced, and the tannins and briskness are right-on.

The ingredients list Oolong tea, but I can’t identify anything significantly different from other assam and Darjeeling based black Chai teas I’ve had.

For a tea of this quality and purported freshness, after 2 brewings I expected to see more whole unfurled leaves and a lot less tea-leaf-dust in the bottom of my teapot. It also didn’t come out as strong as I expected, I ended up using more leaves than I normally would.

Considering the gorgeous box, and the fact that Oprah selected this as the best tea for 2018, I maybe had unreasonably high expectations. This tea is a fine and capable Chai tea, but it didn’t wow me any more than other capable Chai teas I’ve had.