This tea is quite lovely well made Assam that is lighter and more fruity than the Borsapori Assam I have from Capital Tea.
This one smells like dark chocolate mixed with molasses ginger cookies, with allspice. The dry leaves are twisted shorter fat dark brown leaves with lots of shiny furry rich golden tips, which produce a beautiful dark golden red copper coloured clear tea.
It smells of a fruity plum and berry mix, honey, chocolate, and spice(almost like it had a pinch of Chinese five spice powder with nutmeg) with a light spicy floral note.
It tastes smooth with a bright sweet top note of honey, fruit and a little bit of the top note of malt, then a brief floral note, followed by slightly bitter note of malt, molasses and chocolate. It has a mild astringency. The fruit has a jammy/compote note of stewed fruit mixed with spice.
It re-steeps really well (I’m on the fifth steep) with honey an bright fruit notes ( lychee and citrus) mixing with spice and malt, with a light floral. The aftertaste is of milk chocolate mixed with floral spice and a bit of citrus.
I quite enjoyed this tea it make a nice afternoon tea. It is a little lighter in body than some of my Assams. I brewed the first steep at 3.5 minutes at around 90*C. I think I might try it a lower temperature to minimize astringency. The fruity spicy notes in this tea are quite nice and memorable. Once again thanks very much to Capital tea for providing me with this very generous sample.
http://www.capitaltea.com/shop/product.php?productid=207&cat=1&page=1
