6 Tasting Notes
Basic Japanese equivalent of Lipton breakfast black. Tea bags. As with many items that are cheap but visually attractive, I got it for the packaging (http://www.tiger-tiger.org/aloneinkyoto/dailyclub.jpg) which is in a word adorable!! The taste is nothing to write home about, but it is nice to have a fall-back breakfast blend for mornings when the plastic nut in my coffee grinder cracks, comes apart, and sends its aluminum blade ricocheting inside the translucent grinder dome, diorama-like, illustrating why certain appliances should never be bought at Goodwill.
At $8 per ounce, this is not the most affordable tea, and plenty of similar and nearly as good pearl green varieties can be purchased at your local (advisably Chinese I suppose!) tea shop. This stuff, however, is pretty up there in terms of accessible gourmet. Fresh, subtle, and virtually impossible to brew a bad cup of.
I have been buying steady supplies of this blend from Infusions of Tea for about four years. It may easily be my favorite herbal in the world! Served hot in winter or iced in summer, it reminds me of picking wildflowers. The flavor is slightly tropical, but not cloying. The aroma is floral but clean. Sadly this is only available at Infusions’ single tea shop a few blocks from my former apartment.
Preparation
Teas that come in bags: less pretentious, more practical. But the Ceylon Tea Company defs needs to nix their vapid product descriptions, because the tea stands quite well on its own. This is my favorite of the line, with a flavor similar to biting a chocolate-covered strawberry. Nice company for toast with jam.
