This tea is one of the first tea’s I ever tried from DT’s… Like “Orange Blossom” it was the sample of the day when I was out in the mall, Boxing Day shopping with my folks. I wasn’t too sure about it back then, but my mother fell in love and bought us both a package. So I took it back home with me, and this last little bit (well I have maybe 2 cups worth yet) has been sitting hidden in my cupboard for quite some time now.
Dry this tea has an “interesting” smell up close. (Now I will say that my mother’s batch actually DID end up rotting, and not just smelling like it so it could be that one of the ingredients just didn’t dry properly? Who knows at this point.) Usually for me I get hits of fig right off the bat with higher notes from the marigold petals. The orange is present but a bit overwhelmed by the burdock root (I found) and the tea itself served as a dark background note but not really anything to write home about. Oh and there was cinnamon in there apparently, I don’t really notice it at all.
When steeped the liquor comes out as a mid-brown color, with a small amount of particulate that settled towards the bottom. The aroma of this infusion was very dark… more so than I’m used to from this tea. The burdock root brings quite an earthiness that I wasn’t expecting and meshes well with the sweet-tang of the fig.
Flavor wise… I still can’t find any of the cinnamon but the orange and marigold help balance out all the deep dark flavors in this tea. It actually matches up well to the scent, earthy dark with a very predominant fig flavor. There is a definite earthiness from the burdock root and the black tea but I find it balances things out pretty well. It does leave a bit of an odd aftertaste though… bitter and a touch off putting but not overly so.
Overall this tea really depended on the kind of mood I was in… there were times when I loved it and times when I wasn’t quite as sure. In the end though I’m glad to have tried it, but it has definitely “ruined” me on fig teas… I’ve not yet found another tea that has managed to stand up to the shear “figginess” of this one. (Though I’m open to suggestions? ;) )
