The flavour is an intriguing mix of vegetal and smokey flavours, accompanied by a slightly dry, astringent note. It’s not a sweet tea – or a dainty, afternoon tea type drink; it has body and presence to almost the point of being harsh maybe, but I still found it an enjoyable cuppa.
The second steeping (@ 4:00 min) was less smokey and more astringent-vegetale which I didn’t care for as much as the first round.
Looking at the steeped leaves afterwards I could see that the gunpowder pellets had unfolded and they were pretty much all whole leaves instead of shreaded bits and pieces – a good sign I guess. It’s really kinda cool how they managed to role the tea up so tightly.
