Got this tea as a present…mostly because of the tin, I’m sure. Sadly, said tin has no guidelines whatsoever on how to prepare the stuff, so I wound up having to wing it.
I’m not usually a big fan of teabags, but on a whim I decided to drop one in my standard tea mug and give it a go…it brewed up really richly to a dark chestnut colour that – oddly enough – reminded me of the Lipton tea bags I used to have as a child.
The first attempt at brewing was 212F for 3min and the resultant tea was nigh-undrinkable – overly rich and tannin heavy and generally unpleasant. I gave it another attempt at 200F for 2min and it came out a little better…but for the life of me I can’t decide if the issue is the temperature or the time.
In any case, this particular cup reminded me of childhood tea…in some slightly unsavoury ways. It’s thick and silky feeling in the mouth, but lacks complexity and instead just kinda kicks you in the teeth with a generic “tea” flavour (about as delightful as the sweet teas you get at McDonald’s).
So although I have a whole tin of the stuff I think I’ll figure out a way to foist it off on some of my less-wary tea drinking friends…it’s not like they really have tastebuds, anyway.
