Thanks to yssah for this sample. I am on such a rose black kick lately. I now have several 1ish cup samples of rose black but I think I am going to save the rest until my rose black from In Nature tea comes and have a rose tea taste-off. This company seems to be a wholesaler only as there is no information on purchasing their teas from their website.
Also my nose has decided that it is a faucet lately. It’s not stuffy (good, so I can still smell the teas) but it is very sneezy and runny. Could be allergies, I guess; it’s been a long time since I’ve lived this far south and maybe my allergy antibodies are all off. Time to get some local honey at the market.
This tea brewed up kind of pale for a black tea but I am pretty sure it is a black. It smells kind of odd; like roses, I guess, but also a little chemically? Actually I know what it smells like but I don’t want to admit it to myself because I will never be able to drink the tea. I have never associated that smell with roses. The flavor is sweetish but yeah, chemicals. Weird! I have never expienced that with a rose tea. I guess this is an unexpected sipdown because I won’t be drinking more of this. So now I can say that the scent I am reminded of here is old alcohol-preserved museum specimens (animals, I mean, generally lizards), which I used to work with ages go. Incidentally it is also the scent of the heinous Chinese liquor baijo. Not what I was expecting this early in the morning!