April Sipdown Prompt – Earth Day: drink an earthy tea
This tin is nearly empty, and I did not choose it for this prompt. I was going to have puerh for lunch because puerh is certainly earthy. I hadn’t had this tea in a while and when I drank it for breakfast I was sure the strainer had lingering flavor from a previous tea. It was so very earthy!
I decided to steep it again at lunch using a different pot and strainer but I get exactly the same taste. Looking back at my only other note on it, I see that I described the rose as dusky and the tea as having mostly low notes. I will now amend that to say that the base has mostly low, earthy notes. I can believe believe this is Sri Lankan tea, known to most tea drinkers as Ceylon. It certainly must be a low grown tea because it has none of the high, minty, lemon, or menthol flavors that I associate with high grown. Low grown Ceylon tea is my favorite sort from Sri Lanka. Perhaps that is because it reminds me more of the Fujian and Yunnan teas I love.
The rose is noticeable but I wouldn’t call it strong. Harney and Son’s Rose Scented is strong. It will arm wrestle you and win. (But I do like it and will be an agreeable loser in that wrestling match.) This truly is a low, dusky, darker rose scent that you catch in the aroma and that softly remains with you as you drink. If you want a black tea with some rose and nothing else going on, this is great. If you like to have “rose and” I highly recommend Yume.
