Try using inline-block instead of just inline—this will unlock top/bottom padding (as well as margin)—and it will even out the spacing around the nested text element:
hi @fredj32 If you will ever come to situation when you will have to use inline element you can set height of your element and after give identical value to line-height
In your case eg. c-category-tag set height: 32px and c-category-tag__text for font line-height: 32px