Malty! Even just opening the sample, it simply goes boom with malt. It’s sorta fun.
My thought, since I’m using my whole sample on one big ole cup, was to drink half the cup with no additives, then add a little milk and sugar so I could compare how it holds up. Yeah, that plan lasted all of one sip. Because one sip with no additives? Bitter bitter bitter. Oh help. No no no. I need half & half and sugar in this one. NEED IT.
A dash of additives later… Oh, so much better. It’s a little like a biscuit covered in honey or maybe light Karo syrup. It’s not a homemade biscuit, though, maybe a frozen one. Yeah, that seems about right. I don’t think I was heavy handed with the half & half, but I can taste it through the tea every so often, a warm creamy milk taste that steps in front of the tea for a flash. So while adding half & half doesn’t make it taste like horrible, thin cardboard as it does in some teas (yes, I’m looking at you, Kenya Kaproret), perhaps this one doesn’t quite hold up to milk that well. Though the more I sip, the more I enjoy that milky taste popping up.
It’s a nice morning tea but it doesn’t quite wow me. It strikes me as a good daily Assam – nice, but not so nice that you feel you need a semi-special occasion to have some. It’s got a fairly nice body to it. It does (in my view) need additives, but I’m okay with that because 9 out of 10 mornings I need additives, too. I could see myself picking up a bit of this if I were already getting something at the Jade Teapot and I was running low on breakfast-ish teas, but I don’t think I’d seek this one out.
