I drank this tea right after a particularly good Chinese black tea from Yunnan, which may be influencing my feelings right now, but I think I prefer Chinese black tea to Indian as a general rule.
Anyway, about the tea: the tea leaves are in interesting tiny nuggets. The first steeping was bitter but I believe that was simply because I oversteeped it. Second and third steepings were not bitter. However, the third steeping (although still dark golden brown in color) seems to be waning on the flavor scale. Not that it tastes watery, it just doesn’t taste as much like tea. Except for the astringency, which is still out in full force.
I realize I didn’t say much about what the flavor of the tea actually was. Well, aside from the transient bitterness and rather a lot of astringency (more than I like in my blacks teas, if I’m perfectly honest) it seemed an unexceptionable tea. I didn’t find much of the delicate floral taste that I enjoy in Darjeelings (am not sure if it is normal for Assam or not). So that was unfortunate. But overall it was an okay-to-good tea.
