By courtesy of derk I had a chance to try another Old Ways Tea. I remember talking with the owner on r/tea IRC chat (I haven’t been there for ages… just re-logged there now.) It seems lots of changed during the year I haven’t been there. I was busy with my life (finals, thesis, job search…) and I am now very sad about it that I left it without saying goodbye.
I remember we were talking about wrappers. Wrappers of those loose leaf “samples”. And he sent me photos of shop where buys them. Here is the link (I have saved it that I can admire) https://imgur.com/a/g88DE
Anyway to the tea. It was my another breakfast tea and today I was feeling it’s gongfu time. So, prepared all 5 grams in my gaiwan. No rinse, because the tea was such great looking and there were no dust.
It had mild smoke aroma complemented with red fruits aroma. It was good pairing to my bread with aged gouda cheese.
In taste it was quite strongly smoky at first, but soon it started to mellowing and it has ended with smooth minerality with sweet notes of tea, which were again quite similar, to red fruits to me.
The pine smoke was enjoyable all the times, it was never overpowering the flavours. And other notes. I wish I got a chance to try it again. Maybe not today. Nor soon. But Old Ways Tea is always a quality tea.
Damn!
Thank you derk.
Flavors: Mineral, Red Fruits, Smoked
Wow! Those packages!
Cool picture! Looks like a wall of smokes behind the counter at a gas station. Also, your food pairing sounds perfect.