96

This tea is incredible.

The dry leave is small, black twists, and smells very faintly sweet and fruity.

Steeped, an intense bouquet of flavours and fragrances comes out. The start of the sip is just a touch bitter, with notes of smoke, tobacco and lots of dried fruit- apples, apricots, plums and sour cherry. There’s a tartness that’s mellowed beautifully by the bitterness and tobacco, and then toward the end of the sip a wonderful sweetness blossoms.

By the third steep the tartness has mellowed even further, leaving mostly pleasant bitterness and sweet. There’s also a pine note that’s emerging on the nose – not quite smoked pine, but not quite fresh cut either. Evocative of an old, pine panelled cabin in the winter, warmed by a wood stove.

This tea is really intense and thick, without even a hint of astringency. I’m making it in my little gaiwan, and sipping it from a tiny cup, but I kind of wish I just had a big mug of this that I could drink in big gulps.

I will definitely be stocking up on this when I make my next Tao Tea Leaf purchase, because my 10g sample is going to go fast.

15s, 20s, 25s, 30s, 45s, 60s, 90s After seven steeps I think these leaves are about done.

Flavors: Apple, Apricot, Bitter, Cherry, Dried Fruit, Pine, Plum, Smoke, Sweet, Tart, Tobacco

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

People who liked this

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

Profile

Bio

I grew up drinking jasmine green tea with meals, but really fell in love with tea on a trip to Britain in elementary school. My first great love was Earl Grey, and I still adore it and all its variants.

I discovered the beauty of loose leaf tea much later, when, on impulse, I picked up a few teas that were on clearance at a home store. My introduction to loose leaf teas were Masala Chai and Provence Rooibos by the Metropolitan Tea Co and an unknown brand of kukicha and gyokuro (little did I know what a precious treasure I’d stumbled onto with that.)

At the time I was lucky to live in a place with multiple tea shops and several places to have afternoon tea, which is a delight I still miss.

Tea is part of my daily ritual and a nice, affordable way to appease the collector in me.

I enjoy distinctive whites, greens and oolongs, flavoured blacks, and herbals that are heavy on the citrus, lavender or mint.

Rating rubric, to give myself some consistency:
0-15 Yuck, not even drinkable.
16-30 Disappointing, not really inclined to give it a second try.
31-45 Disappointing, but maybe there’s potential? Worth one more try, prepped differently.
46-60 Mediocre, not terrible but not memorable.
61-75 Not bad. I’ll definitely finish what I have and might buy again.
76-90 Very enjoyable. Tasty, complex, it’ll keep me coming back.
91-100 BEST! I love everything about it and I will drink it forever.

Beyond tea, I’m a sex educator, polyamory activist, and radical queer. I love backwoods camping, abstract painting, baking & cooking, nail polish, cats, ceramic sculpture, and home nesting.

Location

Winnipeg, MB, Canada

Following These People

Moderator Tools

Mark as Spammer