50

I tried a mug of this with a heaped teaspoon – it’s fine-grained so doesn’t heap very high – steeped for three and a half minutes – instructions say three to four.

It made a red-brown brew – not cloudy but so intensely coloured as to be almost, but not quite, opaque.

It had a good basic tea flavour with a metallic hint. There was a slightly ‘hard’ edge to it that I found unpleasant – rather like staleness but not quite that. It made me think that -possibly three and a half minutes was too long.

So I brewed another mug for just three minutes, but used an extra half-teaspoon of tea.

It had a slight aroma with elements of straw and sweat. Nothing special in the mouth: it had good basic tea but that hint of ‘staleness’ again.

Not one I’m going to buy again.

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Happily retired male.

Started exploring ‘proper’ tea in March, 2010 after decades of PG Tips teabags. I was initially looking for ‘the perfect tea’; now I don’t want to find one – I’m so much more enjoying exploring the variety.

A confession: I take my tea with four sweeteners to a half-pint mug.
28/05/2012 – I’ve decided to wean myself off the sweeteners, starting this morning, so, three per mug instead of four (I’m getting a growing feeling that I’m failing to get the best out of some of the oolongs and greens I try and I intend getting a gaiwan and the appropriate little cups, and sweeteners don’t seem to be appropriate, there). 16/02/2013 – since New Year’s Day I’ve only been using two sweeteners. I’m struggling to get used to it, to be honest – some teas are more difficult than others.

How I make tea: either in a traditional teapot which holds enough for three half-pint mugs and has a removable infuser (London Teapot Company); or in a half-pint mug with an Agatha’s Bester filter. Sometimes I vaguely think about getting some nice, genteel cups and saucers …

Important: I measure the tea with plastic kitchen measuring spoons – teaspoon and half-teaspoon sizes – so when I say a ‘heaped teaspoon’, as the correct measure is a levelled one, I should probably be calling it ‘two teaspoons’!

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Derbyshire/Staffordshire, UK.

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