I’m not sure what sort of tea is in here, but unlike the English Breakfast version, this one appears to have Orthodox leaves. They’re mostly dark brown, with some silvery tips. There’s a rather amazing cocoa smell coming from inside the tin, which I’m hoping will show up in the flavor.
The steeped tea smells malty-sweet, with a dark cocoa note. The liquor is dark amber, sort of a light brandy color.
This is more like it. There’s a richness and a smoothness to the tea that was nowhere to be found in the English Breakfast. There’s also flavor. Quite a bit of it. It’s full bodied without being thick or particularly heavy. It definitely has some cocoa in the flavor. Not the candified chocolate of flavored teas, but a beany, planty cocoa note that arises organically out of the tea.
Pretty much everything that rubbed me the wrong way in the English Breakfast has been rectified here. This is a delicious tea. It might be even better steeped a little longer, but I think steeping at slightly under boiling was the right choice.
It does make me wonder whether there was a bit of national chauvinism here since the English Breakfast is basically a barbarian of a tea compared to this one. But far be it from me to incite an international incident. ;-)
