32 Tasting Notes
Picked this up at a local coffee shop on a whim. Was amazed at how good a tea with coffee influence could taste without the thirst that accompanies drinking coffee for me or the bad breath. It’s almost sweet, has a smell of cacao that you can’t deny and while it packs a powerful punch, is the right cup to turn coffee converts into tea drinkers.
Flavors: Cacao
I ordered this because I tend to drink Darjeeling silver needle and wanted to attempt an African white tea to see what I thought. My first thought is on smell, they’re pretty similar. But the Darjeeling has a much more pronounced taste and again is a bit more bold to me than this turned out to be.
It’s pleasant enough and surely if you don’t like vegetal Japanese teas, it’s a decent alternative in that regard. I didn’t think it boasted a whole lot of flavour, but maybe that was a reflection of my taste buds than a flaw with the tea itself. Very smooth, very light and easy to drink.
If Lapsang Souchong had a drinkable cousin, it’d be this vanilla black. Bears a passing resemblance to it, in terms of its smokey haze and the taste as a result comes off very different than you’d anticipate from the name of the tea. Less taste of a vanilla from my experience or at least, what I’d have preferred. It’s perhaps a bit more earthy and strong. So a nice sturdy black if you want that kind of thing. I wanted to like it more, but just can’t seem to get into it.
For loose-leaf drinkers, this team resembles faintly the smell of a strong green blend of some kind. But rather than a vegetal taste, it carries a more menthol smell that extends to the drink itself. Just not an especially pleasurable drinking experience if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Just a bit too bitter, not especially flavorful in an enjoyable way and certainly not the type of drink to oversteep. More enjoyable than say, Yerba Mate, but…not by much.
