263 Tasting Notes
I was somewhat worried by this tea…my only experience with “ginseng” and tea was a Stash’s Ginseng Tea disaster. I was pleasantly suprised by this tea. Its very light..in fact I’m not getting much, if any ginseng. Perhaps a slight, little tingle after the fact.
The visual appeal of this tea is lacking…rabbit pellet tea, that’s what one co-worked called it; but, the taste is a nice, mild oolong. A bit of vegetable in the flavor, but not grassy.
Preparation
Backlogging this from yesterday. I have only had this tea a few times…I have the 4oz tin sitting in the kitchen, but I’m sparing it out ;-) So, I was somewhat upset yesterday when I lost track of time and overbrewed the tea. You’d think…well nevermind. Anyway, I ended up letting it cool a bit and then pouring it over ice. WOW! This makes a 1st class ice tea too. It was terrific as it was, I bet a twist of lemon wouldn’t hurt either!
Drinking this again today. Its now 3 hours old and stone cold and, while its developed a bit of bitterness, it still has the bergamot flavor and is quite tasty. I had a cup of this sit overnight…wouldn’t recommend drinking it after its sat for any serious length of time as the overnight cup had apparently oxidized??? Anyway, it turned black…seriously, black like ink.
I really like this tea. I don’t get why others don’t. The dry tea smell is powerful…this could be a potpourri. The brewed tea has the same smell and the part that I really like is that the tea has the citrusy, bergamot taste. IMO, to many Earl Grey’s are all show and no go…they smell nice, but they have no flavor beyond English Breakfast at best, or a crappy mud tea at worst. To each, his own, I guess.
Preparation
Backlogging last night.
I love this tea. Not because I like the taste, I do, but because my wife likes the tea. This is the tea that cemented my wife as a loose tea drinker. Its the one that she will go to the trouble of brewing, as opposed to dropping a teabag into a cup of water and putting it in the microwave.
Did I mention its a damn fine tea?