Dry leaves smell like blueberries, dry moss, and an herb store. Once brewed, the color is a bit like an orange oak finished wood. Smells in the grain and malt region. What I like about it is it doesn’t have biting bitterness. I taste some malty, some sweet. Astringency that leaves my mouth watering after I’ve finished the swallow. Lingering hints of caramelized fruit (banana or yam maybe?) maybe along with that bit of bitter astringency. But really, the bitterness is subtle. I like it better than their Assam Harmony. Basically, this tastes like a nice, enjoyable Earl Grey, without the bergamot… which I suppose is what a nice Earl Grey is.
The smell of the dry leaves reminded me of a high quality tobacco shop I walked into in Bath, England, just down the street from Bath Abbey and the Ancient Roman baths. So I popped over to a cigar aficionado website. Black tea aroma has a lot in common with cigar store aroma, to me. Certainly different things come out stronger in the tea. It may also be that I had a lot of tea when in Bath, so I’m just relating the two in my brain.
