The leaves (I love the shape by the way) smelled smoky and buttery and herby all at once. Nothing in your face, just a really nice green tea scent.
The leaves unfolded so beautifully when I brewed this! I love it when tea is visually appealing as well. The surprise of the little balls unfurling into pennants was delightful :)
The liqueur smells like caramel! I was so surprised by that. It has notes of brown sugar as well. It also smells like warm toast. I love buttered toast-like green tea!
Right before I could taste this I noticed a flea on my dachshund. I freaked out and sprayed him down with enough clove oil flea treatment to drown the bloodsuckers.
Consequently, I had to wait around 20 minutes for the clove scent to leave my nose. Note that my tasting might be affected by this!
Okay, finally getting to taste this!
The scent as I sip it is very present and wonderful. The initial flavor is kind of boring – the slightly metallic generic “green tea” flavour.
The immediate aftertaste was the nice toast flavor. Maybe slightly burnt toast. Not too bad. The lingering aftertaste is more like the initial flavor but with some sweetness. It’s almost sweet in the way artichokes are sweet on my tongue.
I made a cup for my sister too and she thought it tasted burnt, but in a good way.
The more I drink this, the more I decide I like it – Not bad, and certainly interesting enough!
ETA: I did a second steeping of the leaves, same temperature and time.
Wow – the scent really improved this time. I swear, it smells just like caramels. Magical caramels that you would eat on a rainy day in one of the forgotten rooms from The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe. Seriously. It’s that good.
The flavor is more astringent than before and a little sharply herby. The liquour is still really nice and thick.
The aftertaste is really nice though. It goes back to the caramels. There is a seriously sweet flavour that just keeps lingering on my tongue, and again, the artichoke kind of sweetness at the back of my throat. The actual drinking of the tea is a mediocre flavor but the tastes/scents before and after make it absolutely worth it.
