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In the tin, the dry tea smells like gingerbread, down to a pastry-like quality. Yum.

The ginger is also prominent in the steeped tea’s aroma, as is the cinnamon and clove. Cardamom? It’s there, though for me, it’s around the edges. I was sort of hoping there’d be a citrus element. I wanted to see what a French blend with the Constant Comment flavor profile would be like. But no citrus that I can ascertain. The liquor is dark brown, almost coffee colored though it’s translucent rather than opaque.

Which reminds me, I dislike the fact Mariage Freres doesn’t list its blend ingredients. I am not sure why they don’t list them, but I thought it was an FDA requirement? I know they’re French, but I’d think if you’re selling into the US market, you’re still required to abide by those requirements. I don’t specialize in that sort of law, though, so I could be wrong.

If the reason they don’t list them is a sort of trade-secrety worry that others will copy their blends, I think that’s a little misguided. Knowing the ingredients doesn’t mean I can blend something myself that will taste like something I can buy. That takes skill that I simply don’t have. Even master blenders blending the same flavor profile have variations — none of them are exactly the same unless they’re the same tea with different branding.

Anyway /rant over.

This is a nice spice tea. It’s smooth, which is a relief. Some spice teas can be harsh. It’s pretty evenly blended so that no one flavor takes over. I don’t taste much pepper, which is surprising given that it’s listed first in the parenthetical of “including but not limited to” flavors. But it could be that my spoons didn’t pick up much this time. It does have a spicy aftertaste that gives a little burn to the tongue and that could be informed by the pepper. But that could also be the ginger. The pepper is strongest in the aftertaste.

I can understand why CrowKettle thought chai — there’s definitely an overlap in the flavors. But there’s something undefined about this that makes me not think chai, but more a mulled cider without the apple (thinking about what it might be like to put some apple in this?), a wintery, holiday-like flavor profile.

I find it amusing that I seem to want to add fruit to this — orange or apple — as though it’s missing something. But I really don’t think that. It’s very well blended and stands on its own.

Not sure where to rate it because it is a fine example of this flavor profile but I tend to drink this flavor profile sparingly. And I honestly don’t remember which teas in my tea notes are the most direct comparisons to this one (and am not feeling the need to research that point). So I feel a bit as though I’m stabbing in the dark with the rating.