[Source] Spice tea was a type of tea that contained leaves and twigs which would be left as dregs in the bottom of the cup after the tea was consumed. Imperial Admiral Rae Sloane mentally compared the Imperial troops she was left to command by the time of the Rebellion on Akiva to the dregs left in a cup of spice tea; they were all that remained after all of the skilled servants of the Empire had been killed, captured or defected during the Galactic Civil War against the Alliance to Restore the Republic and its successor, the New Republic.