Leaf and Brew
The dry leaf is beautiful with orange and gold throughout. The aroma images a barn filled with sweet hay. The wet leaf is a cool chocolate brown and the aroma is still hay but slightly rooibus. So glad Teavivre includes instructions on the package because I would have totally messed this up by overheating and over steeping. 85C for 2 minutes. The liquor is caramel chocolate in my cup.
The Sip
Tasted with and without sweetener. Not a hint of bitterness or astringency. Very smooth. Still getting that sweet hay with a hint of rooibus but the main flavor I am getting from this is malted milk balls. Having read SimpliciTea’s malty thread I can now claim to know what that means. It lingers long and pleasant in the aftertaste. This is such a good example of it that I now realize I have experienced it before buried in lesser teas. This is nice. For fun I added a tiny bit of French vanilla creamer to it. It was good but totally unnecessary. Only had time for four cups this afternoon it will go further.
Conclusion
I have never had a black tea that would steep more than twice. This can be steeped many times, so I am impressed. It is familiar enough to serve to those whose experience is limited to the grocery store isle, yet is complex enough to delight the more discerning.
I know, I would have oversteeped, too! I would have treated it like any other black tea and botched it. Thank goodness for the instructions. I probably would have mistakenly thought it was a bad tea after that, too.