Chai means just tea, so all bets are off. What they offer at Starbucks, for example, is usually very spicey, almost always with notes of cardamom and cinnamon. Too much for my taste buds.
Though there is indeed truth to the fact that chai means tea in certain languages, when used today it specifically refers to a type of Indian black tea brewed with milk, spices (including at least cinnamon, cardamon, and ginger, and often cloves, black pepper, and star anise as well), and often a little bit of sweetener like sugar or honey.
That said, I have both the Masala Chai and the Chai Tea Latte from Ahlusion and in my sweetened blends, both seem to be overpowered by the ginger, giving it more of an effervescent note that I don't care for as much. Of course, that's probably partially my fault for ordering them sweetened, and rather than simply add an artificial sweetener like many other joose makers do, Wlad uses a combination of sucrose (a natural sugar) as well as playing with the flavor notes in the particular juice he's mixing to enhance it's sweetness. I think maybe the ginger might've been one of the notes he enhanced... or maybe not. In any case, I've chatted with him about it and want to try them again unsweetened, and perhaps with less ginger too, because IRL I love chai tea. I make my own from scratch sometimes too with the raw ingredients (using a very good Indian recipe) so I do know what a good chai tea tastes like. And though I like the Starbucks version as well, it's different enough from a true chai (at least as it relates to the non-latte version).
I don't want to scare anyone off ordering it as I'm sure it's probably much better without sweetener, so if you do order it, I'd suggest to leave the sweetener off the first time you try it even if you usually drink your tea sweetened. You can always add a drop or two of liquid Stevia to it yourself if you need to. I do taste the other spices in the background too, though the exact notes are harder to pick out since I'm finding the sweetness and ginger too overpowering. And the thing is, I really like ginger but just felt it was a bit overdone in my blends.
Anyhoo, I almost didn't comment since I only have experience with the "sweetened" versions of of Masala Chai and Chai Tea Latte right now, but since I've talked to Wlad about it and definitely plan to try it again, plus know quite a bit about chai tea in real life, I figured I'd share.
BTW, I'm lactose intolerant so at home, I make my chai tea with coconut instead of regular milk. Nom nom!!
A good candidate for adding a little bit of Coconut Dream to methinks!
