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A dark and comforting tea. Easy to drink, with a decent amount of sweetness and very little bitterness. Works well for me brewed western style, and I typically brew it for 3 or 4 steeps (starting at 2 minutes and working up to 5 minutes after an initial 30-second rinse). Might even have a few more good steeps, but that is too much for me. Not sure what the difference between sandalwood and oak would be, but I guess if sandalwood is on the softer side with more floral and spice tones, I can see that. I’m not feeling any root beer or cinnamon here. Vanilla and cherry notes for sure. No really strong earthy or funky tones – smooth is the name of the game here. Not super complex, really, but very pleasant. I’m not a total shu-poo-head yet, but after trying this tea I might be on my way.

Spring 2024: It’s okay. Not bad for the price, I guess. Not much lingering flavor, and not nearly as much of the nice fruity/floral/minty/etc notes you can get from white teas sourced from other areas. This one kind of has softer floral notes and more of a vanilla flavor going on. Some nice hoppy notes. Doesn’t linger too much. Kind of simple and boring.

I like this even more than the Spring 2023 Heaven’s Door raw pu-erh I tried recently, and this tea is at a more affordable price point, too. A similar flavor profile between the two, but this autumn tea has more perfumy florals (violet) to go along with the cotton candy sweetness, which is also somewhat nectar-like. This tea is a bit more complex with more grainy flavors and apricots, too, and some deeper more leathery notes to it. A really wonderful tea!

Spring 2022: This is a really lovely tea. One of my favorite oolongs. Just be careful to wait until it is at least a year old or so before you drink it – The roast will take a while to smooth out. I’m sure it is probably outshined by the some of the fancier and more expensive grades, but most of those are far more expensive and outside my budget.

What you get here is a very nicely balanced tea, with florals, fruitiness, and some woody notes present. On the floral side, it has the “orchid” florals which are typical of a lot of oolongs. On the fruity side, you get a nice grapey wine-like aroma kind of on the red wine side, but the surprise here is not only grapes but some nice cherry notes coming out in the flavor. I haven’t found a lot of teas with cherry notes. And a nice touch of oak to compliment things, not too much wood but it is there and welcome.

Not a tea I need every day, but teas like this make me wonder why I bother drinking anything else sometimes.

I never really love Assam teas. Not sure why I bought this one; I guess I am always hoping to be surprised. The dry leaves are beautiful, showing off a nice clean-looking and fine picking, with abundant golden tips interspersed throughout an attractive sea of black leaves. Not a dusty black like some teas, but a healthy, almost shiny, black. I think Mighty Leaf is great at picking teas, based on my sampling of some of their other teas, so I trust this is a decent example of a good Assam tea.

The tea gives a dark liquor, and a nice honey sweetness, and pretty much has a standard “black tea” flavor profile. Reminds me of a typical commercial black iced tea type flavor, but I am drinking it hot. But pretty much like buying an unsweetened bottle of Lipton or Gold Peak black iced tea or something like that.

Where this tea, and pretty much every other Assam I have ever tried, loses me, is at the end of the sip when the aftertaste emerges – Makes me feel like I’m sucking ashes out of a cigarette ashtray all of a sudden. Not a fan of that flavor. It isn’t so much the bitterness which bothers me, and there is some present, but just the “ashtray” sensation which seems to taint Assam teas in general.

Weird, because I love Yunnan black teas, and I understand they share a lineage with the Assam black teas grown in India. Not sure why it is so difficult to like them for me, then.

I’ve taken to calling this one “Ukrainian Country,” for obvious reasons. Purchased 1-lb bag of this 3 years ago, and still have maybe the last 1/4-lb hanging around. It’s been pretty good to me, and surprisingly not offensive to me as Assam is a key component and I typically do not like Assams. Not too smoky, and has the nice black breakfast tea profile I crave sometimes. If anything is most prominent in this mix, I think I feel the Ceylon vibes most – citrusy, malty, leathery, and a touch of sweetness.

A smokier version of Keemun tea. A good amount of smokiness to this one, but not nearly as much as a smoky lapsang might have. Not much in the way of the florals or fruitiness I usually enjoy from Keemun teas. Instead, we have very woody and leathery types of flavors. Maybe cedar? Resinous with a touch of bitterness. I’ll stick with the Chinese Keemun teas.

Spring 2024: Beautiful green tea. Nutty and sweet with lingering taste. A touch of green apple tartness with nice elderflower florals in taste and aroma. Feels nice and buttery, too.