Amazing what happens when you actually read the label! This is an Assam green tea! No wonder I was mystified at the scorched-flowers scent and taste in the first mangled cup!
More properly prepared, it has drastically improved. Beautiful champagne color; still a scent that reminds me of lilac. Assam greens have always been very finicky for me—the perfection zone is so skinny that half a degree or three seconds too much pushes it over the edge. I’ve still just about fallen off the cliff here—still a little bitterness on my tongue—but now that I know what I’m working with, I will continue to practice restraint until I get the hang of it.
What a strange sensation to find green tea in your cup when you are expecting malty Assam. My brain would rebel a bit.
I keep calling it “perpetually distracted,” but I think I’m getting senile :)