Wow this smells different than my typical black morning tea (Ceylon Sonata). This was the last sealed bag in my black sampler from Adagio. Maybe the name Dante scared me off since I didn’t want to end up in the inferno?
It steeped cloudy which startled me, has a very different nose from any other black tea I’ve tried. The smell reminds me of rain on clay if that makes sense with a hint of dust, smoke and dark spice added in, something my wife adds to the Indian curry for flavor, maybe black cardamom? The taste is fairly mild in comparison to the smell, tough to compare to anything since I’m not sure I’ve tasted something like this before.
The aftertaste is long and layered in that it starts with a black tea flavor and ends with a bit of astringency and bitterness almost 5 seconds after swallowing. All in all this one goes in the “needs further research” pile since my first impression isn’t bad, but it might need a different approach to steeping/preparation.
I used two heaping teaspoon fulls with just under 2 cups of water.
