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This tea is infinitely nicer lukewarm or iced than it is hot. There are gentle sweet notes (possibly due to the sugar on the honeydew melon pieces) that are undetectable when this is hot. Strongest notes are honeydew and sour lemon; pineapple emerges at cooler temps and with a longer steep time.

Gentle but flavorful. The chai aromas and spices are out front and center, but not overpowering to the degree that they’re crying out for milk. The spice mix seems to lean heavily on cinnamon, which is probably my least favorite component of chai (reminds me too much of Big Red gum) – I could have much preferred a stronger cardamom, clove, or even almond presence.

Excellent green oolong, with a strong buttery component and a wonderful flower-sweet aftertaste. The smell of the cup is sweetness, kind of like honey and bananas (?) and just barely gardenia/jasmine-y. Perhaps this all, combined, is what honeysuckle smells like?

I was expecting the flavor to be like a green Tie Guan Yin, but this pouchong is more alike buttered sweet vegetables than the magnolia and gardenia bouquet of TGY. The sweetness of this cup is amazing…it’s making me think of honey drizzled on french bread, for some reason.

The first time I made this blend (Masala Chai + Irish Breakfast), I tried to brew it like a regular tea and added milk. The result? Gag-worthy roasted yam juice tea. Today, I thought I’d try this again, this time making this in a more authentic way. I used teaplz’s instructions as restated by Kitch3ntools (http://steepster.com/Kitch3ntools/posts/21032), and I also added 4 green cardamom pods to the saucepan as it was brewing. I just eyeballed the amounts and might have used a bit more sugar that was called for, but the result was delicious! Yay!
The spice mix tastes very similar to my mom’s homemade chai. The dry leaf smells like cinnamon, which I wasn’t too thrilled about, but I can’t really taste any in the final cup. I like that there are whole cloves in the mix. The balance of tea to spices was perfect for me. I do wish the base had more English Breakfast than Irish Breakfast in it, as I don’t really like Irish Breakfast (too yam-ey). The malt from the IB comes through the milk just a smidge, so if you like that, you’ll probably really like this blend.

Oh, I really like this tea. I was not expecting to like this tea. I was expecting some kind of hibiscusy, bitter-crushed-up green tea, yucky herbal concoction. But the actual tea? It smelled like honey! Really! Like actual, from the jar, honey. And no hibiscus in sight! Along with the honey was a flowery taste, which I’m guessing is the ginseng. This tea would be any honey or sweet tea lover’s dream. I didn’t add any honey to my cup, but I’m sure this tea, with a bit of honey added, would convert any black/sweet tea drinker who thinks green tea tastes like water. This is a definite repurchase for me.