Teavana Sweet Mango Chai

  

So, my haul finally arrived.  I tried to get a variety of teas to try from Teavana including 2 white teas, 2 mates, a green, an oolong, a pure herbal and a free sample of a mate/oolong blend.  But, I'm excited because  it's not often that I can actually afford getting this much tea from Teavana and they seem to have some unique blends.  As you know, I'm a huge fan of mango and a huge fan of chai so I thought this should be really good.  Plus, it apparently has oolong which is becoming a favorite of mine as well.

Outsides:  Ingredients include mango, apple, oolong, coconut, cardamon, cinnamon, ginger, tangermine peel, black pepper and mango flavoring.  So, I've made a few teas from Teavana before writing this review and have discovered a new game that can be played called Where's the Tea, because I dug to the bottom of this bag and only got a few oolong leaves.  I brewed probably around 2 teaspoons of this in 8 oz of 90 degree water for about 5 minutes.  The liquid is really cloudy, really light yellow and this smells like spiced mango.

Insides:  Um...where's the tea?  It's not that I don't like flavored tea at all and usually, I want more flavor than less but this is absolutely ridiculous.  I oversteeped the crap out of this and there still isn't any tea flavor to it.  On top of that, the chai is weak as well.  The head of the flavor is sweet mango which is followed by a mostly ginger tasting chai, light body, a little astringency but I did have SOME oolong in there.  It just seems like a mess.

Overall:  No.  This is not tea and if I paid the 7 dollars or however much it was SUPPOSED to be, I would be pissed.

Taste:  Fruit and spice but weak despite me adding an obscene amount of tea.
Price:  Whatever it is, you can probably make this blend for 1/4 of the price.  In fact, I paid 1/4 the price and I feel ripped-off.
Uniqueness:  You get this one, Teavana.  The concept is definitely unique and it would have been nice getting a strong chai with a mango base to it.  This tea is unique for all of the wrong reasons though.
Usability:  I'm updating these criteria for reviews a few weeks after I wrote this post and I have to say, this is not a bad blend for mixing with Prestogeorge's Fancy Mango to give it some umph.  By itself, this tea is utterly useless.

My Rating:  Stay Away!

Teavana is a chain tea retailer that is found in many a mall across the United States and Canada.  Their teas often start from 5 dollars for 2 oz of the most basic blends and they have a lot of flavored teas.