Tea of the (late) morning! Another lovely black tea sample from boychik. I’ve had one other purple tea from Yunnan Sourcing, and I’m curious to try the others they offer. The leaves of this tea remind me of Taiwanese black teas – they’re long and spindly and twisty. The definitely have the creepy tree branch vibe, and they’re jet black in color. Dry scent is very mild but there are some sweet, malt, and fruit notes. I steeped about two teaspoons of leaf (roughly) for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.
Hmm… I’m finding the aroma kind of hard to describe. There are some obvious elements, like malt, sweet, fruity, but there’s something there that’s a combination of tangy and herby and I have no idea what it is… I hate that! It’s definitely there in the taste as well. There’s a nice dark grape flavor here, as well as other dried fruit, along with a touch of smoke and mineral and an interesting fuzzy mouth feel, like eating a peach skin. Then there’s that odd tangy/herbal note that I can’t identify. I see that yyz mentioned musk in her note, so maybe that’s it? I can’t help that think that maybe it’s that elusive cannabis that others seem to find so often in teas?
Anyway, this tea is tasty, and definitely complex. I can’t really compare it to any other black tea I’ve had except say that perhaps it’s closest to a Darjeeling? :P
Flavors: Astringent, Cannabis, Dried Fruit, Grapes, Herbs, Malt, Muscatel, Smoke, Tangy
