My roommate has had this tea sitting around unopened for about ten years now. She got it from her time in Scotland. She finally decided that she wanted to start drinking it now. I showed her how to warm up her tea pot and we let the leaves float loose in the pot. The leaves were surprisingly short. We boiled water in my new kettle too.
The liquid was a dark amber color with a hint of red to it. It was very pretty. The smell was nice and a little earthy. The taste was light, but it had a bitter kick at the end of it. I think we might have brewed it a little too long though, so the bitterness could be user error.
We are going to try this again soon and either use slightly less leaf or steep it for a little shorter to see if we can get the bitterness down. I’m not going to rate it until I get a couple of cups of this tea, so I can tell if I am going to really like it or not. I do like it enough to drink another few cups of this.