Dawn

Thanks to MRAWLINS2 for letting me sample this tea with her today. I was completely amazed at the appearance of the leaves. Long, rolled leaves with a matte black color. The smell of the dry leaves had a scent..is that cocoa that I smell? We brewed this in my Ingenitea and watched as the leaves unfurled and danced around…way cool! A nice amber brew in my cup. Now for the first sip, black tea with a nuance…an earthy tone. Where have I tasted this before? MRAWLINS2 is right, it reminds me of a dark oolong. This is one tea that could go for several infusions. I agree with Ricky, this is a must try for all black tea lovers. Lots of layers to this tea. The smell of the wet leaves reminds me of a robust Ceylon, could that be? This is one tea that deserves another tasting note in the near future. I will be watching for MRAWLINS2 review with anticipation:)

Nice smooth an enjoyable cuppa. Allergies really have me down today so I’ll have to come back and add a better tasting note when I feel better.

Update: Yummy, smooth and a great cup for anytime.

Rich cocoa aroma and taste. It is not a one note tea, but the cocoa impression is so strong that I’m having trouble sussing out the nuances. A little charcoal, maybe a little cherry. Very smooth with only a hint of astringency and no bitterness. Coppery orange in the cup.

A fairly good black tea with slight cocoa notes.

Very delicious. A nice surprise of deep, rich flavors. Thank you Jessica for sending me this sample. I regret not tasting this sooner.

I’m going to just rip off the band-aid: I think this one was over-hyped.
OK, I guess I’m just weird. Everyone else thinks it is the most amazing tea ever…I don’t. It’s not bad, just not teagasmic. I get the pre-brew smells. Yup, Chocolate in abundance. Trouble is, it just doesn’t come through on the steep for me. There have been several descriptions of the taste, but for me the thing it tastes most like is…ready?…boiled peanut shells. That’s not necessarily bad, and I love boiled peanuts, but maybe not in my morning tea. I mixed some Dawn with some Assam, and I thought it was infinitely better. As expensive as it was with shipping, I probably will not order more. Nomex suit is donned; fire away!

I wasn’t sure about this tea when we first met it. The smell some said was like chocolate but I didn’t find it so. I was quite taken back by the smell but then my nose has been a bit off as of late… long hours, stress and a sinus cold, again. However, I gave it a go in the pot-o-wonders and it faired well. It brewed a happy hue and a handsome cup! It has this mouthy mourning breakfast cereal taste which I find quiet pleasing and goes wonderfully with milk (which I am trying to kill off as I am off to sea yet again).

I am afraid this tea will be traveling with be on my next journey… so say farewell to dry land as I take no sissy teas with me! Aaarrgh! :P

Brewed two cups with the same leaves. Great both times. Gotta keep this one in stock.

The last of my hoarded Simple Leaf blacks. This one I’d opened and tasted a while back because it got such tremendous love here on Steepster that I couldn’t wait. I probably should have, as it’s the mildest of the lot (it even says “mild” on the packet whereas the others say “bold,” like Starbucks coffee grades).

By comparison, the tea is in fact mild, but that isn’t a bad thing. It’s very smooth, and despite its label, deceptively rich-tasting. The big,twisty leaves are gorgeous.

All the things folks said about the cocoa notes are true, in abundance. I’m also getting a sort of brown sugar sweetness, and a leafy quality I associate with Ceylons sometimes. There’s also a mocha-coffee note, which is very cool for a non-flavored black tea.

You wouldn’t know any of this from the smell of the dry leaf, which is basically that of earth. After steeping that dissipates, and is replaced with the leafiness as well as all of the smells associated with the flavors that open up amazingly. The tea is a reddish brown color and clear.

There’s no denying that this is a very special tea. It’s from Arunachal Pradesh, which I looked up on the map — that’s the northeast corner of India, bordering China. It’s pretty far from what I think of as most of India (i.e., the peninsula part). No doubt location has a lot to do with the flavor.

Anyone tried any other teas from this area? Are they as good as this one?