I was feeling like a nice black tea this morning (I miss all of my Yunnans!) and I thought I’d try something new instead of drinking one of the few teas I brought with me from home. So out this one came! I actually think this was one of the teas we sampled in-store, but I’m not positive on that… Anyway! The leaves are dark, medium-sized, and twisted. I didn’t see any flower petals in mine, but it was a small sample size, so that doesn’t surprise me. It smells very sweet and floral, like some kind of flower-scented candy! Somewhat similar to the Violet I tasted yesterday, actually. I considered steeping it for 3 minutes, which is my usual time for black teas. After poking around on Steepster, I saw that the average was 2 minutes and decided to go with that! God, I miss my electric kettle something fierce… :P
The floral in the brewed aroma has toned itself down, which I appreciate. It still smells quite sweet, almost vanilla-y. There’s a little bit of citrusy something in there, too, tangerine I suppose!
Hmm… I’m not sure about this one. I do like the base tea a lot, it has that nice almost chewy grain flavor that I’ve found in all of Shang’s teas so far, which I adore. There’s a little bit of citrus in here, but I find the floral element to be quite overwhelming. I am not a huge fan of floral teas in general, and I think this one is just a little bit much for me. I would probably enjoy this more with either less tea used or a 1-minute steep, unfortunately I only bought the one sample. This probably isn’t one that I’ll purchase, just because I’m not a floral tea person. I’ll try some shorter times for the resteeps and see how they come out! :)
Not going to assign it a rating because I feel I’m biased and I don’t want to drag its overall rating down for people who do like floral teas. :P
Flavors: Citrus, Floral, Grain, Hay
Preparation
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I feel you’re pain! Sometimes I have a tea with licorice hidden in it and I just want to give it like -100 for tricking me with its devilish tasty blehness, and then I’m like, but it’ll make the score lower for people who don’t mind the devil in their tea.
I think a one-minute steep is the way to go. I enjoyed the re-steeps a lot more, and I did 2 minutes and then 3. Much less overpowering. :)
Jasmine is the one floral I enjoy enough to reach for it willingly, it reminds me of my childhood when our house was surrounded with jasmines.
I feel you’re pain! Sometimes I have a tea with licorice hidden in it and I just want to give it like -100 for tricking me with its devilish tasty blehness, and then I’m like, but it’ll make the score lower for people who don’t mind the devil in their tea.
I think a one-minute steep is the way to go. I enjoyed the re-steeps a lot more, and I did 2 minutes and then 3. Much less overpowering. :)
Jasmine is the one floral I enjoy enough to reach for it willingly, it reminds me of my childhood when our house was surrounded with jasmines.