So, apparently, my 100th tasting note came and went without my notice. I had wanted to use this tea for it since, well, you know… cake. Oh well, I’ll just have to have cake to celebrate my 102nd tasting note, instead :-)
Right. Back to the tea. The dry leaf of this smells great. Like tart raspberries and black tea. (What? It does. I can’t help it if that’s an inelegant description; it’s accurate.) Steeped, it still smells of raspberries, but not as strongly. Kind of like the bags of frozen raspberries you get when they’re out of season: the scent’s still there, but it’s not quite as sharp as it is with the fresh berries. Liquor color is a dark amber.
Taste: I think I over-steeped it. (I should have known better than to go with the label directions. I’ve yet to find a black tea that I can let go for longer than 3 minutes.) Now the base is a little bitter, and it’s distracting me from the tart berry flavor. It’s like I’m aware that there are strong berry notes, but I can’t get the bitterness to shut-up long enough for me to really listen to them. Shall edit and rate after trying it for my standard 2.5 min steep.
