Here’s a tea I have been looking forward to reviewing for some time. I somehow ended up with two sample pouches of this tea over the course of the past year. I think I bought one and then received another as a free sample with a later What-Cha order. I worked through both of them earlier in the week after reorganizing my sample bin. Though I am a huge fan of Georgian black tea, this was probably my least favorite of the Georgian black teas from What-Cha that I have tried. Despite that, I still found it to be a more or less very good tea and especially appreciated its smoothness and lack of astringency.
I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I did not rinse the leaves and I also did not attempt any subsequent infusions.
Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves produced mild aromas of honey, raisin, and chocolate. Aromas of malt, caramel, and roasted almond then appeared after infusion. In the mouth, the liquor offered rather delicate, smooth notes of cream, malt, steamed milk, honey, golden raisin, milk chocolate, and roasted almond underscored by leather, date, fig, brown sugar, apricot, and plum impressions. The finish was very smooth and mellow with pronounced cream and malt notes backed by distant apricot, plum, raisin, and fig flavors.
Like most of the Georgian black teas that I have tried, this was a very approachable, mellow, and forgiving tea. Unlike the others, I found this one to be a little flat in the mouth and felt that its finish was a little lacking. Those are comparatively minor quibbles, however, as I would have no issue with giving this tea another shot in the near future. Overall, this tea was definitely worth a try, but I feel that What-Cha has offered some better Georgian black teas in the past.
Flavors: Almond, Apricot, Brown Sugar, Chocolate, Cream, Dates, Fig, Honey, Leather, Malt, Milk, Plum, Raisins
