I am just having a bit of this now…
My local DAVIDs was out of this the last few times I was in, but had some today, and I finally bought some. The leaves are fairly big and light, and my 16g nearly filled the small pouch. Brewed, the leaves were on par with the oolong I had yesterday which was a little greener than this. The dry smell of this smells like your basic black, a little malty and sweet. Compared to the Wild Black Yunnan, it smells a little different. At first I thought the WBY was sweeter, but upon a second dry smell just now, the WBY smells earthier…possibly grassier.
The liquor was a nice medium golden mahogany shade. Brewed, it is very pleasing to look at and smell. I’m not sure if this is sweeter or not than the WBY as it’s been a while since I tried it straight. There is a sort of drying taste on my tongue, with a slight astringency. I’m not picking up any smoke that I know of.
I’m not sure whether I like this one better or not. I tasted without sweetener and milk, but I can’t seem to have a dark tea without that. Both teas are quite nice, especially as straight teas.
