Good golly Miss Molly, this is delicious! That was my first thought upon the initial sip, and it hasn’t changed much.
The appearance of this tea is very pleasing to the eye. There are the big silvery, fuzzy buds mixed with dried goji berries, green tea leaves, marigold petals, rose petals, citrus peels, and dried elder berries.
The dry smell of this tea is wonderful. It’s fresh and crisp yet creamy, with cedar and pine notes and floral notes. It’s like a forest on the edge of a wonderful flower garden. Wet the leaves smell mostly of cedar, pine and floral; while the infusion smells of cedar, rose and jasmine.
Taste is wonderful. Cedar and pine notes with rose and jasmine floral notes. It’s creamy yet is light. It’s sweet and sparkling. There is a sparkling feeling on the tip of the tongue at the beginning of the sip and moves to the back of the tongue and touches the throat at the end of the sip and lingers for the aftertaste. I get the goji berry and citrus notes mostly in the aftertaste.
In further steepings the tea takes on mostly cedar and pine notes with the sparkling quality and still retains some creaminess. It loses the floral notes by the third steep, being predominant in the first steep. It gains some spiciness in further steepings mostly in the aftertaste.
I steeped this gaiwanish-style. I don’t have a gaiwan, which is why I say gaiwanish. I used a 5 oz cup with a infuser basket with 205F water. The first steep was only about 5 seconds and now I’m up to about a minute.
I can’t recall what steeping I’m currently on, somewhere around 8 I believe, and I don’t intend on stopping. This is one tea that I will definitely be reordering. It is absolutely wonderful and I suggest everyone to try it if it is geared toward their tastes, but don’t ask me for any, I am not sharing this treasure!!
