This company makes me smile. I work in customer service, and let me tell you, I don’t believe in it. I could be the sweetest thing on the planet and people still get pissed off. But the people at Norbu… I like them. I got this tea in about one business day. And it was on sale, meaning I wasn’t supposed to get a resealable pouch, but they included it anyway. And they gave me two samples.
It made my day when I got this package, folks. Made my day. It was just nice to get my little box full of my tea plus two I wasn’t expecting. I’ve never ordered tea online before. I stick to what I can smell, inspect, touch. The only thing I tend to get off the internet is books because you can read the descriptions just the same as in a store. But this has turned me into an internet shopper. I am completely happy with my order and the whole process of getting it. (:
So on to the tea. When I opened the vacuum-sealed packet, it smelled so wonderful. I was very afraid of anything looking green after a mishap with some sencha, but this smelled lovely. Sweet, lightly floral, maybe a touch of fruit? I’m so bad at weeding out smells. Anyway, it was wonderful. I put a heaping teaspoon of the adorable little green balls into my giant teaball and prepared.
I used not quite boiling water. I don’t know what temperature. I just boiled it and then added a handful of ice cubes. My first steep was for about two minutes. The first sip scared me a little. I got a hint of that sencha taste (I’ll explain my problems with that when I get to reviewing that tea…) but I chugged on, thinking surely this won’t be the same! It smells so lovely! It must be better than this. And sure enough, it was. It’s perfumey, almost. A floral perfume, but in a good way. There’s also that slight almost fruitiness that I think I taste but I’m not quite sure? And a slight, slight base of the general ‘tea’ taste.
Second steep is the same temperature water for four minutes. It’s slightly less perfumey. In fact, the floral taste has evened out very nicely with whatever that other flavor is. What is it? Is it fruity? I honestly can’t tell!
I can tell I’m easily going to get a third, maybe fourth steep out of this one. Maybe I’ll find that fruit. Next time I think I’m upping it to two teaspoons to see what it does. Mmmm. This is turning me on to oolong big time.
This is the best tea. One of my very favorites!