Sipdown no. 120 of 2018 (no. 476 total). A sample.
A sample of this has been staring at me for quite some time. I has just never seemed the right time to give it a try. Ordinarily, this would be the part of my tea tasting day where I’d be writing notes about a couple of greens that I’ve just opened, so that when I sip down the next take it to work tea I’ll have another choice for the one after that. But since I already derailed that project when I found the Canton silver needles sample, I thought what the heck. There’s just enough in this sample to both try the tea and sip it down.
First let me say that despite the description, I was extremely surprised by how fruity this smells in the packet. Pineapple and hibiscus is what I smell, even though as best I can tell there is no pineapple in this. Maybe it’s one of the flavoring agents? Under that is something floral. Even though I’m a major jasmine fan, I can’t say what I’m smelling is jasmine. It’s the strong fruity smell that is making it hard for me to discern the subtleties of the floral aspect.
I steeped according to the packet directions. As this is a mix of white and green tea, it looks like David went with green tea temperature and white tea steeping length.
The steeped tea is golden yellow and clear and has an earthy, hibiscus scent. I expected, because of that, for the tea to taste uncomfortably tart or even bitter. Happily, that is not the case.
What it does taste like is harder for me to describe. It’s easier to define it by what it is not. It isn’t terribly fruity, though I got so much fruity smell from the dry tea. There is some light, tropical fruit flavor around the edges which again reminds me of pineapple. The floral aspects of the tea open up more in the sip, and I do get some jasmine, but it is not a stand-alone jasmine so much as a contributing flavor. There’s a mild green-ish tea flavor underneath. Not super vegetal or super grassy. And also something like stone fruits in the mix.
It has a lot going on. I find the name a bit ironic, because I find it hard to let go of the busyness of this tea and just let it be.
Flavors: Earth, Floral, Hibiscus, Jasmine, Pineapple, Stonefruit
