I have so many samples from thepuriTea that I haven’t tried yet! This is one of them, my first jasmine black. I’ve always been intrigued by jasmine blacks, and I do tend to love yunnan golden buds, so I was glad when this one came back into stock right around the same time as the milk oolong, just in time for black friday.
The dry leaf on this one smells pretty much just jasminey; I can’t really detect the golden buds underneath. The directions called for a longer steep time than I usually use with black teas, but I bumped my usual 3 minutes up a bit just to see how it goes. The tea steeped up pretty dark and has a lovely jasmine aroma underlain by a slightly chocolatey, slightly toasty black tea scent. It’s a very nice tea, though not anything that blows me away. The jasmine is nice and fresh and not perfumy, but I’m wishing for a more robust golden yunnan flavor. I’ve recently had a few flavored golden yunnans, and I want more of the chocolatey, caramelly flavor in this one. I think I’ll also drop back to my usual 3 minutes, because while it’s not bitter or anything, it is a bit astringent (which they claim is the jasmine in the description, but I’ve never found jasmine astringent) and I think I’ll like it a little better steeped shorter.
