I received a free pouch of this tea in the spring of 2017 in exchange for a review. Because I am an unfocused slacker, I forgot about it and only got around to trying it while I was recovering from my snakebite in the second part of August. I think this blend was a little past its prime when I got around to trying it because I did not find it to be all that satisfying or memorable. It also could have just been me. I was not in the best of places when working my way through this tea, and anyway, I only drink blends like this sporadically.
I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 1 teaspoon of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I neither rinsed the leaves nor attempted any additional infusions.
Prior to infusion, the dry leaf blend produced subtle aromas of raisin, prune, and fig. After infusion, I detected new aromas of malt, toast, cream, orange, and pine. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of cream, toast, malt, orange, prune, raisin, pine, honey, and fig that were backed by hints of black pepper, straw, and nutmeg. The finish was mostly creamy and malty, though I could find some touches of honey and dried fruit here and there.
For the most part, this seemed to be a pretty standard black tea blend. I’m fairly certain that I would have enjoyed it more had I been in both a better physical state and frame of mind at the time I committed to drinking it, but I still doubt that it would ever be something I would choose to seek out on my own. For what this was, I suppose it was decent, but honestly, blends like this are not really for me.
Flavors: Black Pepper, Cream, Dried Fruit, Fig, Honey, Malt, Nutmeg, Orange, Pine, Raisins, Straw, Toast
