Holy cow, this tea is smoky. I got it as a sample from tperez and maybe the fact that it was stored broken up in a closed ziplock enhanced the smoky aspect of it, because this is extreme for a tea that’s not advertised to be intentionally smoked.
It’s not bad though, and definitely quite unique. Dry leaves smell of smoked bacon and even in the wet leaf it’s hard to get behind the smokiness, but there are some vegetal aspects to it. The taste is quite bitter and metallic, with notes of quinine, pine resin, mild yeast and a mix of sugarcane and pickles in the finish. Texture is nice – buttery, bubbly and fairly drying.
Flavors: Bitter, Dill, Metallic, Pine, Resin, Smoke, Sour, Sugarcane, Yeast