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Good morning Steepsterites.

I mentioned yesterday this new budding habit of sharing a morning pot with the boyfriend. Well, it has downsides when as today I get up two and a half hours before him and get to sit here and wait for my morning tea. AFTER having decided what we’re having this morning. And no, I can’t just make me a cup myself, because that would be cheating.

Anyway, it appears that I am actually getting through the sample basket more than I thought. I had a look at the Steepster cupboard, went all the way to the last pages and looked at those never posted about yet. Only two untried, unflavoured blacks left! This was one of them, so now there’s just a Yunnan left. Still a fair number of oolong and green and such, though.

I can’t work out what the boyfriend actually thinks of Yunnans. I’ve seen him drink it, but I’ve also seen him drink other things with more enthusiasm. So chosing between the two was pretty easy.

I was pleasantly surprised by the smell of the leaf when I opened the sample. It was sort of a leather-y and dried berries sort of aroma. Maybe some associations to how pipe tobacco smells as well, but the dried berries, cherries in particular, were my first association.

This is pretty much the same in the aroma of the steeped tea. It’s cherry-y, leather-y and sort of fragrant wood-y, but still primarily cherry.

When it comes to the flavour, it definitely gets the stamp of Boyfriend Approval, as he just called out his appreciation from the other room. He doesn’t do that every day.

And it is an interesting flavour. It’s slightly astringent, just the merest hint of dryness to it. It comes across as slightly floral and quite pseudo-smoky, which is enhanced by that note of fragrant wood that I found in the aroma as well.

The whole cherries note is sadly not as prominent in the flavour, but if you are searching for it, there is still some of it to be found. It’s a slightly tangy note just hovering around the edges of the sip. It is not to be confused with the way sencha sakura has cherry in it, this is much less flower-y and more berry-y, especially if you would imagine a dried cherry. Or possibly dried cranberries as well, to a smaller degree, but mainly cherry.

Very nice indeed. I could drink this on a regular basis.