I loved the original version of this tea to bits (and not just because I’m a die-hard Tolkien fangirl) so I was excited to try the new incarnation of it. Unfortunately I’m not feeling quite the same amount of love for v2.0 and I think the problem may be with the base. It seems to be a very vegetal dragonwell and it lacks the savory notes and slight sweetness of other longjings that I’ve tried. The result is very starkly green and a little bit flat. It needs something sweet to balance that out, I think.
I like the amount of chili flakes in this tea, enough to give it a bit of a bite but not so much than my mouth is burning by the end of my mug. I also don’t miss all the cayenne pepper settling to the bottom of my cup. The amount of smokiness was also done well, so it’s hardly all bad by any means.
