OMG this smells amazing. More raisiny and buttery than I expected. There’s a very rich smell to the dry leaves. The butter actually reminds me of hot buttered rum (which I’ve never had) — its just smells heady and intoxicating like there’s alcohol in it.
The cinnamon is more apparent once it’s brewed. The scent sort of alternates between cinnamon, raisin, and butter. Maybe a hint of “toastiness” too?
As for the taste, well, the cinnamon seems predominant and it’s more like red-hot cinnamon than cinnamon toast cinnamon to me (but I’m not a big cinnamon fan so maybe my taste buds are biased). I don’t hate it, but it doesn’t taste raisiny, toasty, or buttery to me. I guess I was expecting it to taste just like liquid buttered cinnamon raisin toast. But this cup seems to be lacking in balance. I will play with it more. Maybe it’s just my frame of mind, or my tastebuds may be off since I am a bit congested this am.
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This new tea is my reward to myself for attempting to mountain bike today. Can’t say I excelled at it or even enjoyed it much, but I survived. From now on it’s smooth, flat paths for me. And for today, since I’ve been athletic and extroverted enough (neither are my norm!), it’s back to my regularly scheduled tea, books, and maybe a hot bath later.
(ps – that gobbledy gook above started as a divider to separate my tasting note from the personal part, but then I decided to create a typographic replica of the how the MTB trail felt… lots of bumps and hills and roots… apparently that’s what makes it “fun” :-\ )
I also suspect that adding milk and/or sugar probably changes this tea dramatically. Will read everyone’s notes before I try it again. Was overeager today.