Holy smokes, Batman!
I got a sample of this to share with a co-worker who also likes the Golden Monkey/Yunnan types of teas. Made up a pot this afternoon and at first sniff I wondered if they’d put Lapsang in the bag by mistake. I just can’t do Lapsangs. That smell of charcoal and smoke – nothing my brain thinks I need to be drinking. I made myself take a sip and good grief – there’s a whopping ton of smoke in here!
There may have been other notes to get but I couldn’t get past the heavy, ashy smoke. Co-worker also thought it was smoke heavy but he didn’t find it quite as unpleasant as I did. I would not call this a medium body nor is there anything subtle about it. As it cooled off I could get a bit of sweetness but it was a deeply smoky sweetness. From the descriptions and reviews here and on the Harney site, I was pretty disappointed in this one. I’m glad I only got a sample and I’m glad we used it all making a large pot of it. I hate to throw tea away.
Rating is low not because I didn’t like it personally, but because I don’t feel that it measured up to the description.
