Lowest rating on this one is 84 points! GOSH! This must be some pretty awesome stuff then.
I will admit, it had me at the word ‘honey’. If I sweeten my tea at all, which is rare, liquid honey is usually one of my first thoughts. Especially if the tea itself already has a natural honey note to it.
Orchid… Not so much. I don’t really do floral. I’ve found some things in which it works, but I’m quite picky about it and it tends to be a detractor for me.
So I’m left with a cup of equal parts ‘Oooh!’ and ‘Meh…’ I wonder if it’ll come out neutral, then?
I’m sorry to say it does rather. The aroma is all thick honey and delicate flowers, but the flavour is… well… to be honest, it’s a bit weak, really.
It’s sort of top-flavoured. Imagine the sip of tea being layered on the tongue. Then the bottom layer is just water, the middle honey and the top tea. And that’s it.
Thin and watery, no substance that I can find. Considering the other posts about it, I have to say I’m disappointed. And surprised. How can my experience be so different from theirs? I used plenty of leaf, probably could have steeped it longer, but again, plenty of leaf, so longer than 1 minutes steeping is almost always bound to end badly.
As it cools a bit to a more drinkable temperature and the cup develops a little, the orchid comes out more, and it’s reminding me of the floral aspect of the orange pu-erh from Chi of Tea which also has some sort of flower in it. Floral works for me in that one, and now that I’ve found it here, it also works for me here. Surprisingly, considering my troubles with the other flavours of the blend.
The honey is putting in a proper appearance here as well, and it doesn’t feel so layered anymore. Or at least, we’re down to two layers. The actual tea itself still keeps to the top layer. It feels a little less weak and thin at this point, but I’m still nowhere near the experience everybody else has had with it.
Further development sees the honey and orchid take a step back again and the tea really come out. It tastes like a Chinese or south Indian type with a wooden note and some strong cocoa as well, but then that may just be the flavouring masking the base. I didn’t really find any of these notes in the beginnin when it was so top flavoured.
I don’t know… I’m definitely not seeing the same things in this one that others were, so I suppose I’ll have to resign myself to being contrary here and providing the lowest yet amount of points for it.
