Assam

No way!! my tea palate is not normally that attuned in black teas. But here, I could actually taste the fruitiness. Like… banana perhaps, or some sort of medley. What a trip. I’ve never had an Assam like this before.
Asides from that, it’s nice and strong with some awesome malty backing. It’s been awhile since I had an intensely malty tea, and this seriously hit the spot.
Really nice for a change, but not something I’d want permanently in my cupboard. Well maybe if it didn’t go stale!
Thank you Nina’s Paris Teas for this sample!

thanks so much Nina’s Paris for these samples! I really wanted to try a sample of the Nina’s Japon as soon as I saw someone else’s tasting note for it, then later that day I saw an offer for samples! I thought I’d try the straight assam first, so I can try the base of the others by itself. There was maybe a teaspoon and a half in my sample, so I just used every last leaf for this steep. Four minutes later, I get a reddish brown color and quite the kick! I might have used too much tea or steeped too long, but this is brisk and a bit astringent, yet still a bit above medium bodied. I’m reminded of a dark rye bread.. so this would have been perfect for a couple days ago on St. Patrick’s Day! It’s a bit malty, but less than I would expect from an assam. It’s very delicious! The second steep at just boiled for four minutes tames the briskness down a bit. Now there is more of that assam sweet, and a bit of a unique fragrance. Now it kind of seems like it would be a chocolate rye bread. I really love this one… can’t wait to try the others from Nina’s!

I love Assam teas!

My absolute favourite is a CTC Assam, I don’t know why, but they are the best. This one is not a CTC, the leaves are very small and delicately curled.

The dry tea has a nice, sweet, fruit and slightly spicey flavour. The brewed tea smells malty, slight cocoa-beany, with a lot of sweetness. My taste buds were salivating over the smell.

The brewed tea is bold and malty but with no astringency or bitterness. There is a slight natural sweetness to the tea. I want to say it is a stone fruit sweetness. Reminds me of the pits of an apricot or peach. There is a slight spice to the tea. But it is like a fruit-spice if that makes sense to anyone else.

Very delicious Assam. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a multi-faceted black tea.

In a side note: I lost some of this tea due to dropping the open package on the floor. I bet it was only about a TBSP but I still shed a tear over it.