Let me begin this one by saying that I HATE maple syrup. It’s not a taste thing for me (love maple sugar & maple candies), it’s the sticky, goopy texture. So when I see something that promises the flavor of maple combined with my favorite nut (yum, pecan!) WITHOUT the gross stickiness of syrup, I’m all in.
The smell of the dry leaf on this one is amazing. It’s pure maple with a faint whiff of fresh pecan. Steeped, the fragrance is much less pronounced. The first sip is total maple sweetness with a lingering taste of pecan. (Sidenote: How do you describe that distinctive pecan flavor? I want to say it’s dry and almost slightly bitter, but that’s not quite right b/c I don’t associate bitter with a good taste, and yet pecans are SO GOOD.)
In subsequent sips, and especially as it cools, the tea base seems to come out more. And it’s a good dark oolong with body. The maple and pecan – pecan somehow seems more pronounced now – are still there too, and all three flavors work really well together.
I would say there is a slight sharpness to pecans (though that is the same thing as bitter).
Sharp sounds less negative than bitter, so I’ll go with it!
It kind of does.