This tea has intrigued me ever since I first saw it. It’s a black tea from Japan, which is unheard of as far as I’m concerned.
Nadeshiko smells like dried fruit. Raisins, dates, figs perhaps. Dry or submerged in boiling water, this is the dominant aroma. The scent of roasted cereal appears as the leaves brew.
The resulting liquor is a deep, dark red. It tastes familiar to Japanese green tea drinkers, with the cereal aroma coming out quite strongly, while the fruit smell remains in the background, mildly astringent, and as an aftertaste. Comforting and subtle, this is well worth trying, and easy to drink at any time of the day.
Nadeshiko is hard to compare with other teas, as its taste is closest to that of black tea, but it is produced more similarly to pu’erh. It is classified as a “rosé tea” by its distributor.
