Spring 2021 Harvest
I’ve this online tea buying “coping mechanism” (read: bad habit) of not paying attention to currency exchange rates. Usually, this protects my sanity and allows me to try some tasty teas. This tea though (made me cry) is lucky it tastes so good! Ha.. ha.. (I need to pay better attention to currency exchanges).
The aroma of dry leaf is a Sherbet Fountain (ie – powdered sugar and licorice, but I may be remembering those wrong). Steeped up, the cup takes on the aroma of caramel, chocolate, sweet malt leftovers (like from beer processing). I love all of these smells.
1st steep reminds me of Premium Taiwanese Assam or similar, but slightly more subtle: powdered sugar, sweet potato, cocoa, caramel, pepper/berry-citrus finish (intensity fades as cooled). As it cools, I also get mineral notes, and milk.. so much milk. I love when my teas have “in-built” milk or cream notes.
2nd steep is smoother than the first, with more mineral and milk. The lingering aftertaste reminds me of dark chocolate with (black/blue?) berries and honey. It’s such an easy drinker (which makes that exchange rate burn all the more).
3rd steep (6min) has notes of sweet potato, berries, honey, powdered sugar, and cream. Very PTA.
Steep Count: 3 (+ initial Rinse)
Anyways, this tea is super neat, checks off all of my “good black tea” boxes, and comes from a pretty cool location (we can grow tea where now!?). I’d consider reordering this again, despite the expense.
Flavors: Berries, Caramel, Cocoa, Dark Chocolate, Honey, Malt, Milk, Mineral, Pepper, Powdered Sugar, Smooth, Stonefruit, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes
I have been resisting the urge to snatch up some samples of What-Cha’s Welsh and Jersey teas simply because they are so expensive. I have no clue how much longer I will be able to hold out.
Currency exchange rates are the bane of my existence! I was also considering this tea but decided against it based on the price (and also because I have a lot of other teas to get through).
One of the only reasons I picked up this tea is because of my blatant disregard for numbers D:
The other reason is that it sounded neat and it IS neat. But now, of course, I want to try the other Welsh and Jersey teas too.
If I had got more than 10g (regrets), and this wasn’t a 2-3tsp tea, I would share with you both in a heartbeat. Alas, it’s essentially gone now (omg) T.T
CrowKettle, that’s okay. :) Those 10 g samples go fast.
Wow—almost $20 for 10 grams. wow! And it’s a 2-3 teaspoon tea-gah! Though your description makes it sound ever so lovely and delicious. I am also a fan of built in milk and cream. So glad that it was delightful. It IS tempting.
It’s a solid resteeper (and if you’re like me you’ll definitely want to resteep this one), and I’ve gotten away with “underleafing” it – so a little less painful than what it seems. I wish I’d tried out a short steep method too though.
I’d even consider reordering this next time, and definitely want to see how it tastes in a different harvest year (will just have to stick head in the sand re £ to $ again) :)
I decided to steep it in those DT nordic mugs (so actually 16oz). Out of 10g/0.35oz I got 12-16 mugs/resteeps out of it. So, not bad!
Oh, I am definitely a re-steeper.
Thank you for the details on the breakdown. It makes it all sound that much more manageable. Reasonable, even:)