I just love the silken pyramids-so fancy! The smell is of spices: cinnamon and cloves.

A 3 min brew time yields red tones emitting from the pyramid. It looks like a sunset in my cup. Two dunks and now the color is dark reddish brown. The smell is comforting, the smell of spices being dumped into the mixer bowl..a childhood memory brought back by this tea! This tea is light in comparison to the way it smelled dry. The cinnamon and clove are the only one showing up to this dance. The orange tones are sitting this one out. It is a good warming tea. Good enough to purchase again, probably not, but I am looking forward to consuming the rest of these cute little pyramids.

You can purchase the Sweet Orange Spice directly from the Tea Forte website.

One of the perks of being married 25 years come September is the marital right to stick just about anything under your spouse’s nose and say, “Smell that!” without getting clobbered. In the case of nice tea from India, the response was “Wow! There’s something clove-y going on, isn’t there?”

While neither of us have a professionally trained tea nose, we did pick up some nice spicy, fruity notes in the dark dry tea. I suspect it has something to do with the area in which Banaspaty tea is grown — evidently the perfect greenhouse environment for teas.

The fruity tones come through loud and clear when this tea is brewed. Because I prefer my Assams on the meatier side, I let it steep a full four minutes before a taste test. Assam Banaspaty has the nice thick heft you’d expect from an Assam tea, but was surprisingly mild in flavor. While I don’t think milk and sweetener would harm this gentle brew, it certainly doesn’t need to be toned down any.  This would be a good introductory selection for someone new to the world of fine loose leaf tea.

You can purchase the Assam Banaspaty Organic directly from the TeaFrog website.

The smell from the package reminds me of Christmas: Cinnamon and spice fill my nostrils. I can hardly wait to follow the directions on the package: bring 1.5 cups of water and 1 cup milk to boil. Reduce heat. Add contents of package. Let simmer 3-5 minutes. Sweeten to taste, strain to drink.

I simmered mine for 4 minutes. The smell is heavenly to me. I did not add sweetener the taste seemed find to me without an addition. Wow, this is still really hot to drink, I have burned my tongue. And I will gladly burn it again to taste this tea. The spice is still lingering on my tongue. This warm milky, brown brew is delightfully spicy. Ginger is hitting my tongue and playing against the black pepper, the cinnamon is still a major player much to my delight. I find myself wanting to really drink this down, but the temperature is restraining me to small sips. I finished drinking this brew as a cold chai. Good and spicy to the last drop!

Bottom line: The price point is doable at $3.50/ounce and if you like spice, this is one chai you need to try.

You can purchase the Masala Chai directly from the Rishi Tea website.

On the Mighty Leaf website this description is given: Bombay Chai with a melange of spicy notes conjures the steamy, aromatic delights of an Indian street market. Black tea leaves with subtle hints of Pepper, Orange, Cinnamon, Cardamom, and Clove make up our chai, the Indian word for tea. Bombay Chai is delicious when brewed fresh and blended with heated milk and sugar to taste.

Having recently given up coffee I drink Chai every day, as I find it is the only tea that has enough of a flavorful kick to get me awake and out the door in the morning.

When I tried Mighty Leaf’s Bombay Chai I found that it was pleasantly smooth and warm. However, generally Chai is distinguished by the bite of its spices, which didn’t seem particularly present here.

When I added milk I found that this overpowered the spices to the point that they were barely even noticeable. To me this tea seems to be suitable as a spiced black tea, but without knowing what it was I wouldn’t identify it as chai.

You can purchase Mighty Leaf Bombay Chai directly from their website.