Another random tea from my grocery store. Dry, I smell hints of cinnamon and pickle. No, really, I do. Just whiffs but it’s there. Brewed, it smells a little buttery and a little fruity and pretty strongly tea-like. The taste is nutty and a bit Darjeeling-like without having quite the same edge, but there is a nutty bitterness and astringency that fills my mouth after I swallow. The taste before the bitterness is pretty okay. Sort of like an old and un-sparkly Darjeeling. Not overly interesting but tasty. Before the evil bitterness.
I wonder if that bitterness will go away if I use less leaf, treating it like I would a black tea instead of like an oolong. At the same time, though, the taste of the tea might be pretty thin using less leaf because the flavor right now is obvious but flashes rather quickly through my mouth, chased away by the bitter end taste. Eh, I’ll have to try that next time because this tea tastes nice for that brief second before I swallow, but that end taste and feeling pretty much ruins this for me.
Okay, trying to save this. I diluted the remainder of my cup with hot water at a pretty much 1:1 ratio. Yeah, it’s like faintly Darjeeling hot water with an astringent tail. It’s boring. So it looks like my choices are flavorful but horribly astringent and bitter or a thin taste with lighter astringency and bitterness. Meh.
Yeah, just not a fan.
7.0g/12oz
