Here is my last review of the day. This was another recent sipdown of mine. I finished the last of this tea Monday afternoon. For the most part, I am a huge fan of Georgian black teas, but I quickly came to the conclusion that this one was never going to be one of my favorites. Though it was a good tea for the most part, I did not feel that it compared favorably to some of the other Georgian black teas that What-Cha has stocked in recent years.
Rather than gongfuing this tea, I opted to brew it in the Western style. After rinsing the leaves, I steeped approximately 3 grams of loose tea leaves in 8 ounces of 194 F water for 5 minutes. Normally, I do not resteep black teas that I brew in this fashion, but I opted for a second infusion with this one. The second and final infusion was 7 minutes, and 194 F water was again used.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced subtle aromas of raisin and pine. After the rinse, I found aromas of roasted almond and malt that were underscored by a faint smokiness. The first infusion brought out aromas of cream and steamed milk along with subtler scents of cinnamon and orange zest. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of raisin, malt, roasted almond, cream, steamed milk, butter, pine, toast, cinnamon, oats, and nutmeg that were accompanied by hints of date, smoke, pear, and orange zest. The finish was very smooth, emphasizing cream, raisin, malt, oat, and toast notes. The second infusion offered steamed milk, cream, malt, roasted almond, toast, butter, raisin, pine, and petrichor aromas. The liquor was thinner and slicker in the mouth, as softer, subtler notes of pine, malt, cream, steamed milk, roasted almond, toast, butter, and raisin flitted across the palate. I also noted some subtle mineral impressions, hints of petrichor, and touches of brown sugar and vanilla here and there on the finish.
As stated above, this was not a bad tea. Unfortunately, it was also really nothing out of the ordinary for a Georgian black tea. Just about everything one would normally expect to find in such a tea was here. If you’re a fan of Georgian black teas, then you will probably like this tea to a certain extent, as it would be the sort of tea you could always fall back on when you need your Georgian tea fix. If, on the other hand, you are just getting into Georgian black teas or are looking for a more unique Georgian tea experience, there are teas out there that are considerably more interesting and appealing. In the end, I would very likely pick something like Natela’s Gold Standard Black Tea over this one if given the opportunity.
Flavors: Almond, Brown Sugar, Butter, Cinnamon, Cream, Dates, Malt, Milk, Mineral, Nutmeg, Oats, Orange Zest, Pear, Petrichor, Pine, Raisins, Smoke, Toast, Vanilla
