A lovely share from Terri HarpLady! Thank you so much for letting me try more Steven Smith Teamaker teas!
The smell of the tea is sweet – light and a bit honeyed. The taste is soft and honeyed with a bit of light cardboard… more cereal box cardboard than shipping box cardboard. (I’m guessing that’s a light malt note?) There is a slight woodsy note that is not twiggy, but still there, like it has been stored in a wooden cask so it has a bit of the flavor of wood but doesn’t actually contain wood. That’s the level of woodsy this has. (And now I have the mental picture of large oak casks storing cereal boxes. Remove the cereal box, drizzle lightly with honey and bam, this tea.)
It’s not an overwhelmingly distinct cup – it’s a little bit this, a little bit that – but it’s not as bad as cereal-boxes-stored-in-casks-and-drizzled-with-honey may sound. It’s actually nice. It has a bit of a dry/astringent prickle on the end of each sip that I could do without, but that is mellowing and rounding out as it cools (though as I get to the bottom of the cup, that note is taking a tarter turn). All in all, a nice (but not spectacular) way to start the day!
