Wow I looove this tea and wish I’d ordered more of it, an omission I’ll rectify as soon as my budget allows.
Visual appearance: very interesting visually, lots of varied color and shapes; striped fennel seeds, dark tea, light colored seedpods of what I suppose is marigold.
Scent: mmm cinnamon! Cinnamon really predominated for me, along with gingery notes and spicy, flowery scents. I’ve never had marigold or chamomile before so I suspect the gingery to be marigold or chamomile.
Steeping:
Well I didn’t read or follow the directions (lol) and brewed this gongfu style the first time.
WHOOOOOO wild tea ride !!! First steep- massive cinnamon blast, with fennel, gingery tastes off to the side, and a sleek , sweet silky aftertaste. Not really getting any chocolate- maybe just a faint faint echo. Assertive!!!!
Second Steep: still mostly cinnamon, but with definite spicy fennel- gingery . Left an interesting tingly feeling on the tongue and palate. Minty notes and a more defined but shy chocolately taste appearing.
3rd Steep- the cinnamon scent was much milder but the gingery scent was equally mild so I was not expecting SUDDENLY GINGERY SPICY EVERYWHERE . Seriously, it was an awesome unexpected flavor explosion. Left my tongue tingly and a lovely sweet silky minty-choco aftertaste, with hints of fennel. What a change from the first two steeps.
I kept going for a few more steeps, and things settled down to a nice spicy-minty-fennel-y tea with chocolate mint aftertaste.
The next tasting I followed the brewing instructions and got a more sedate but lively blend of cinnamon, fennel spice with chocolaty gingery overtones.
The interesting thing about blends like these is that due to the shifting during shipment, each portion of tea is going to have a different mix of ingredients, so each tasting is going to be a new adventure.
The only negative I have about this tea is that all the small bits of marigold, mint, fennel, chamomile, etc. do tend to either slip through strainers or clump together stubbornly, so there are always a few bits floating in the cup and cleanup is kind of a pain. Still completely worth it for the fun and flavor!
Definitely will buy again.
