…and we finally find ourselves at the end of today’s stretch of Firebelly tasting notes. One for every tea that they’re currently carrying.
This is a straight Nepalese black tea. It’s not specified in what minimal copy is written about it, but it seems like this is probably a second flush picking. The dry leaf, which composed of smaller leaves, is quite pretty and has some lovely silver tips within it. The smell is nice – a little floral and a bit sweet among greener elements. It steeps up very harshly. Really quite astringent and hard on the palate though not bitter per say. Dominant notes are muscat grapes, heady florals, malt, and autumnal leaves. Vegetal, also – but in a less descript way.
I don’t much like it, but I also feel like this is a tea with a learning curve. It seems very hard to steep it well right off the bat but I got the sense that with patience and experimentation you could definitely find a sweet spot. The ‘bones’ that are present in terms of flavour direction seem like they’d make a good foundation for a flavourful cup with the right time investment spent to get it right.