I split an order of this and the other new V.I.T. with tattooed_tea, so we both ended up with 0.75 ounces of each tea. Thanks tattooed_tea!!! The dry leaf aroma is discernibly pomegranate. The brewed tea aroma is woodsy, dark oolong and smells exactly like salted peanut shells to me. Uh oh. Where’d the pomegranate go?
Hmmm…the taste is different than other dark oolongs I’ve tried, namely Formosa oolongs. And by different, I mean better. ;) I read the back story on this tea too, and it’s hard to believe that this tea is more valuable than gold. Who’s the crazy loon who spent over $1600 on 20g of this stuff? I mean, I think it tastes good, but no where near that good!
Luckily, that salty peanut shell aroma doesn’t make its way into the flavor. This is a medium to light-bodied cuppa with virtually no pomegranate flavor. Maybe I didn’t use enough leaf or I understeeped it? I can detect a tiny hint of fruitiness, but it almost tastes like a naturally occurring flavor rather than an added flavoring. And it’s definitely not a pomegranate specific taste. It’s more generically fruity to me.
I picked a couple extra pomegranate arils from the bag and added them to the second steep for 2 minutes. Hmm, sadly there’s still no pomegranate flavor. I triple-bagged it and stored it in a tin, so I’m not sure how it lost flavor. Oh well. It’s a good oolong, but it’s no more than that. It’s really too bad. I can imagine pomegranate being a nice complement to this.
