DrowningMySorrows Send Message

I spotted this in the grocery store around New Year’s and grabbed it on a whim (don’t we all browse the tea aisle even though we have a lifetime supply of tea waiting for us at home??). I’m not usually a big fan of Numi’s teas but like this one. I’ve been drinking it semi-regularly over the last couple months. It’s been reasonably forgiving of temperature and steep time mishaps. I’ve been making up a big travel mug of it to help me through the never-ending hours of hand embroidering a baby blanket for my latest niece (115+hrs into it, remind me why I thought this was a good idea). It takes about 4 teabags to get a decent strength brew in my 16oz mug but the tea is a nice light, sweet green. It did get bitter the time I forgot it was steeping and then realized the teabags were still in there a couple hours later but that’s kind of to be expected. Leaving it that long, it was the citrus that became bitter and overpowered flavor of the tea leaves. At that point it reminded me of a citrus tea I have that’s supposed to be like digestive bitters, one of the Traditional Medicinals ones, I think (Blood Orange?).
The one small thing I’m not crazy about with this tea is the smell of the used teabags. When I remember to, I try to collect my used tea leaves in a bucket and then they go out to the compost pile when I’ve accumulated enough to be worth the trip up the hill. Most other teas are fine if the leaves sit for a couple days before they get taken out but the Yuzu Bancha has a tendency to become rather stinky quickly. I’d blame it on the yuzu peel but I don’t have this problem with chenpi or other citrus teas.