This is a really interesting-looking tea with the leaves tightly rolled into thin, little sticks an inch or two long. I couldn’t exactly measure out a teaspoon with my little scoop so instead I just used six of the ‘sticks’ assuming that would be enough.
The description was right when it described this tea as bitter – wow is it ever! I was surprised that something brewed up so clear (only a few shades darker than water) could be so pungent. Maybe I just used too much tea from the start. The bitterness isn’t as bad after the first couple of sips and I can taste a bit of a cool, mint-like quality to it – it gives the tea very clean flavour, too bad it’s almost on par with industrial-strength cleaners.
Normally I’d resteep the leaves, but I don’t think I could stomach another cup. I’ll try using less of the tea next time and see if that help. But for now – bleh!
I said this in my own tasting note, but two sticks per cup will do you! This is definitely a challenging tea.
Thanks for the advice – I really didn’t have any clue how much to use, so I’ll try your way.