eastkyteaguy Send Message

Allow me to start this review by stating that I have long admired the Amba Estate. Not only does Amba make a seemingly honest attempt to produce their teas ethically and sustainably, but the estate also produces a fairly unique, quirky range of black teas. That being said, I have yet to try an Amba tea that blows me away. To be clear, I always find their teas enjoyable and appreciate their little quirks, but I have yet to have that one Amba tea that just clicks for me. Clearly this tea did not do that either.

I prepared this tea in the Western style. I steeped 3 grams of loose tea leaves in approximately 8 ounces of 203 F water for 5 minutes. I did not attempt any subsequent infusions.

Prior to infusion, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of malt, toffee, and roasted nuts. After infusion, I found stronger aromas of malt, toffee, and roasted nuts accompanied by emerging scents of orange and sorghum. Robust notes of black walnut, hickory, roasted almond, and toasted cashew were evident on the entry. They were soon balanced by impressions of sorghum, honey, malt, cream, wood, leather, toffee, and orange. The finish offered lingering touches of malt, orange, and toffee with something of a nuttiness just before every other lingering flavor component faded away.

In terms of what this tea actually offered on the nose and in the mouth, I was pleased. Like many other Uva teas, however, I found this tea to be somewhat more tannic and astringent than I generally like, and as I played around with it, I could never quite seem to get it where I wanted and needed it to be. Overall, this was not a bad tea, it just did not quite do it for me.