Kodama

This is another tin I’ve felt has been practically glaring at my from its spot on my black tea shelf, so I made a mug a few nights back to drink over a few chapters of a book I’ve been reading. I believe, in my first tasting note, I said something to the effect of “this is a tea that is an acquired taste” and I think that was a good impulse. Though less citrusy overall that I remember from my first time trying it, it was still kind of a weird mish mash of flavours. Mostly caramel, very earthy ginger, and the brisk and somewhat astringent black base. However, I enjoyed it more. It seemed less at odds with each other. Maybe that’s just all in my head because I knew better what i was getting myself into. Whatever the case, I enjoyed it!

A coworker brought this in from her personal tea collection for us to enjoy on my birthday. It wasn’t a cake themed tea, but it was the closest thing she had to one and really the thought it was counts more than anything else!

It’s supposed to be a caramel biscotti flavour, though there is also quite a bit of ginger in it and it had a lemony scent and taste, too! I don’t know that it was my favourite as there was a lot going on in terms of competing tastes. Rich a creamy salted caramel, earthy ginger with some back of the throat heat, and a kind of “lemon buttermilk” type of taste. I think mostly it was the lemon in particular I disliked as it was a little sharp and I thought it was strange with such a rich and indulgent caramel flavour. Aside from that, it was also a really oily tea because of how many caramel/white chocolate drops were in the blend…

Certainly interesting, and I appreciated that it was aiming for something really complex and sophisticated. Maybe it’s more of a taste that grows on you with time, but my first impressed was that there was still some fine tuning that could have happened with the blending.