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I finally managed to finish a tin of this blend yesterday afternoon. My agency had scheduled our annual staff picnic at the closest state resort park yesterday, but we had rainstorms move in Thursday and it rained all day. I didn’t want to go anyway, so I used the weather as an excuse to skip it. Instead, I spent the day getting a couple meetings out of the way and then went home early to drink tea, play with my cats, and rest. Days like yesterday make me miss the time I spent working from home. I used to hate it because I found it boring, but now I miss the freedom of being able to work at my own pace whilst sitting around in my boxers and a t-shirt and drinking tea all day.

I prepared this tea in the Western fashion. I steeped a full teaspoon of loose leaf material in approximately 8 ounces of 212 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any additional infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry leaf material emitted aromas of malt, smoke, wood, and pine. After infusion, I began to pick up on touches of brown toast and sea salt. In the mouth, I mostly detected strong top notes of malt, smoke, and pine underscored by subtler flavors of sea salt, brown toast, leather, roasted nuts, and caramel. The finish was smoky, woody, and malty with touches of roasted nuts and leather.

This was a nice, hearty blend. It was not particularly deep or complex, but it was a great blend to just knock back. Though I kind of wish there had been something to better balance all of the wood, smoke, and malt, this was still very solid.