The smelled so malty and raisiny. More than anything it was raisiny, though – I’ve never smelled that much of a fruity note in a black tea before, unless it was flavored.
My note for this mentioned how astringent it got even after 3:30, so I reduced the steep time to 3 minutes even and…its still pretty rough around the edges. That beautiful raisined and fruity note is nowhere to be found, and without a good helping of creamer this would be impossible for me to drink. It’s a breakfast tea and so that’s fine, but I wish I could have the option of having it plain, you know?
Oh well, it is still brisk enough to get me moving this morning. And I can always reduce the steep time even more to see if that makes for a less astringent tea. I’ll go for 2:30 next time and see what happens.
