Last Sunday I got a (fairly large amount) of some black tea from Azerbaijan from a friend of mine, who in turn got it from someone who visited Azerbaijan a while back. There is not much information on the box, but the tea is from Lankaran region. Unfortunately, the production date is unknown.
It has a somewhat unusual dry leaf aroma of cigars, peat, prunes. The wet leaves have a similar scent with further notes of motor oil and some more fruity ones.
I am a little surprised how smooth the tea is given the broken up leaves, I was expecting more astringency. Instead, this is a pleasant sweet, woody and fruity black tea with very little (if any) bitterness or astringency. I suppose the smoothness might be partly a result of it being aged (i.e., old). The profile does remind me of a mix of some Georgian black tea I had with a 7 years old purple varietal black tea from Dehong I had recently. The aftertaste is quite sour and has notes of cedar wood, leather, and cookies. It has a decent longetivity and evoves into a sweet one. I also seem to get some body warming sensation from the tea.
I was not expecting much from this tea, but it turned out both a bit unique and very much drinkable. I just wish I had just a bit information about it.
Flavors: Cedar, Cookie, Dried Fruit, Fruity, Leather, Peat, Plum, Sour, Sweet, Tobacco, Wood
