I got this as part of a Samovar sampler a friend gave to me. It smells extremely fragrant and wonderful out of the bag, and while it steeped that seemed to fade and turned in to the vegetable flavor that others had mentioned. It’s quite astringent from the first sip, and has a sweet but sharp bite at the end of the flavor.
I’m not incredibly impressed. Like everyone else is saying – it’s quite good, but not THAT good. I think I’ll go back to my Japanese teas as well.
—
Second Steeping update:
I tried steeping it for only a minute and used slightly cooler water this time, and it seems to be much better. The astringency is mostly gone save for a bit towards the bottom of the cup, and the vegetable smell is also greatly reduced. A friend suggested washing the leaves in room temperature water before steeping, but since it was a small sample I only had enough for one pot.
