Oh, I think this is my favorite of the Nepal Tea samplers I’ve tried thus far. I used about half the loose leaf (around 3.75g) steeped in 500ml of 205F water.
It smells like a Chinese black… it has that sort of pithy orange mixed with smoke smell that always reminds me of a BBQ sauce or savory meat marinade, which I smell/taste in Chinese blacks often.
The tea is very malty, with some notes of leather, orange zest, smoke, spices (most close to the peppery aspect of cardamom), and maybe just a hint of floral rose. It’s a nice strong tea and goes well with breakfast. I had some cookies kindly gifted to me by AJRimmer with it, and the sweetness also accompanied the mild astringency and umami notes nicely. (That cookie was also banging… I love mochi but I can’t stand azuki, so I tend to avoid it because I hate biting into mochi and getting surprise azuki in my mouth. I’ve never seen a chocolate chip cookie with mochi in the center! It was great! We just don’t have access to foreign snacks in my area…)
Flavors: Floral, Leather, Malt, Orange Zest, Pepper, Rose, Smoke, Smooth, Spices, Tannin, Umami
I’m so glad you liked it! I’m not a huge red bean fan either. One time I ordered a bubble tea somewhere and they put beans in it?!?! Not for me.
I am very particular about food textures, and certain “mushy” things really set me off. The first time I ever bought a pack of daifuku from a Japantown on a vacation and bit into it, I nearly became ill right there on the street from the bean paste inside!