Very easy to choose a tea today. I didn’t even have to consider the tins first, I just went straight for this one. Another Standard Panel tea. The thing about officially defining my Standard Panel is that now my OCD is taking over and I wonder if I ought to get properly labeled special tins that match for those teas. This is odd because I store my teas in an amalgam of different tins and have actually made an effort to avoid uniformity… But maybe the Standard Panel is different? I don’t know, I’m so confused!
Anyway, I seem to have hit the sweet spot on this tea today. Huge amounts of grainy-ness and underlying fruit notes. I think something along the line of grapes. Touch of sweetness on the end of the flavour and a promise of smoke on the second steep.
I think, actually, the second steep of this one is my favourite. It’s got all the stuff that first one has, but with a smoky note covering everything. And I loves me some smoky tea!
The funny thing is that while I know recognise this flavour profile in the first steep as Just Right, the first time I had it ever, I was a bit put off by the grain and fruit notes. Obviously I’ve changed my mind since then.
