I seem to have bought this tea on three separate occasions, despite having given it a relatively low grade on my review of the 2015 version. Maybe that’s because people keep recommending it? I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.
The dry aroma is of malt, pine, tobacco, and gooseberries. The first steep has notes of malt, tobacco, baked bread, honey, wood, roasted almonds, and tannins, and the tobacco and tannins linger in the aftertaste. There’s a sweet potato aroma in the teapot that fails to translate into the tea. The second infusion adds notes of molasses and caramel. I can faintly detect orange zest, although that’s likely because Eastkyteaguy pointed it out in his review. The next two steeps focus on baked bread, honey, and tobacco, with tannins, caramel, wood, cream, hay, roasted nuts, and very faint chocolate in the background. Sadly, no berries or sweet potatoes are to be found. I get some eucalyptus in the fourth steep. These flavours gradually fade, and the session ends with malt, honey, baked bread, tannins, earth, wood, and minerals.
This is a very complex tea with some unusual flavours. However, I was expecting berries and chocolate, as in the 2015 version, and was a bit disappointed.
Flavors: Almond, Berries, Bread, Caramel, Chocolate, Cream, Earth, Eucalyptus, Hay, Honey, Malt, Mineral, Molasses, Orange Zest, Pine, Roast Nuts, Sweet Potatoes, Tannin, Tobacco, Wood
