Thanks so much Christina for this sample!
I had started a thread regarding compressed black tea. I received a lot of recommendations and Christina thoughtfully offered me some of this tea to try.
The sample I received was a few “chunks” of this tea. The smell upon the hot water hitting the tea immediately reminded me of sweet cinnamon. I wondered for a second if there was some contamination from my tea implements. But the smell quickly faded to subtly sweet black tea scent. A bit of an earthiness smell but still every once in a while my brain tells me cinnamon.
I did the first infusion with just boiled water for 60 seconds. My first thoughts were this tastes kind of musty, or dusty. After a few sips, I think what I am tasting is the chrysanthemum. There is what I would guess to be a slight dried flower floral flavour. The black tea does not seem to be very strong. It is slightly sweet but not getting the cinnamon flavour that I get in the scent. There is a generic light spiciness to the tea. At the end of the sip there is some dryness in my mouth but I would not describe this as astringent. I read someone’s tea blog that described this tea as “autumn” and I would agree.
I am unsure about this tea as of yet. I would not describe it as bad or that I dislike it. I think I am just having a hard time harmonizing with the flavour. I am going to try a few more steeps.
For the second steep I added 30 seconds. I feel like in this steep there is more astringency, especially as the cup cools. The dried floral flavour profile has morphed into a dry hay flavour. I feel like there is quite a bit more earthiness into this steep.
More to come…..
