This tea is really unusual.
If like me, you find the idea (and sometimes the taste) of spices and tea to be a bit, well, 'meh', this tea may change your mind, because its ingredients list in no way gives away just how very well balanced the taste of this is.
I like this tea because of the other added taste notes which really (to my taste buds) sit at the forefront, rather than the spices.
The taste that is upfront is vanilla, but even then its hand is firmly held by other flavours, especially a fruity note. I mean, if this was a cake, you wouldn't be able to resist it! That fruity note I couldn't call out as the lime the write-up claims because my taste buds are too weathered for that level of discernment, but it is lightly fruity, not a heavy berry taste, but lighter and brighter and so works with the vanilla and the black tea, which is also quite light (I brew for 3 mins). The spices stay where I would want them, well behind the vanilla and fruit, acting like a calm bass note in a choir, supporting from the rear but not taking over. After a while I feel a little tingle off the cardamom and that rounded fruity note rises up first to meet the lighter fruity citrus one after quite a while in the aftertaste. And to be honest, I think the tingling from the cardamom is just my typical response to that spice eventually whatever it turns up in!
So I recommend this tea - it feels calming, very pleasant, you can taste everything and the spices are very much reined and controlled to allow vanilla and light fruit to get ahead. It's a nice autumnal drink when you're inside listening to the rain beating at your window. I've certainly never tasted anything like this before and as it has a sophisticated edge I think would make a nice present for a chai lover looking for something a bit different or a tea lover who wants to venture onto spiced teas but is wary about going too far. For the rest of us, it's really a pleasant treat to drink with a slice of vanilla cake as the leaves come down.
