This was one of the first teas I got when I was getting into tea. That was…I don’t even know how many years ago. Since then I’ve bought this one a couple more times, but since I started drinking teas from other places like Adagio and Tea Forte and Samovar, I have become increasingly unimpressed with this one.
I got it because an employee at Teavana recommended it to me, and then she did that little wavy thing they do with the lid to waft the aroma into your face. Even to this day, I will tell you straight off that it smells like heaven.
It’s not that it tastes bad. It doesn’t. It just doesn’t…taste. At all. In a little experiment I let it sit for 6 minutes, and still? Nothing. Or at least not enough for me to enjoy the experience. I don’t feel like I should have to actively search my tea for flavor.
I hate to say it, but this is a big part of why it took me so long to really get into tea. I’d had some of the watered down stuff that they give you at restaurants from time to time, and the bagged stuff that isn’t exactly bursting with flavor, and then I decided to try some loose tea because I’d heard it was so much better. This one smelled a AMAZINGLY delicious, but the taste just didn’t live up to the hype [you know, in that it wasn’t present].
I figured that maybe all tea, even the “good stuff” just didn’t have much of a taste at all. Or that it was just too subtle for me to do anything other than smell it to appreciate it. [Obviously, this was before I tried Lapsang Souchong.] Now I know that this isn’t true, and so I can’t recommend this tea to anyone.
Since he said it better than I probably did in the above paragraphs, I leave you with a quote Uncle Iroh, one of my favorite characters from Avatar [yes, the cartoon – don’t judge, it’s phenomenal], “THIS IS NOTHING BUT HOT LEAF JUICE!”
Though, it may make for some nice potpourri.
