Smell of the dry leaf is a deep assam kinda of tea. Brewed, it smells sharper and brighter, like a ceylon. I know I do a lot of my notes in terms of other teas, but I’m better at comparing, I guess. The package suggested five minutes, but I did four on account of snooping the few existing tea blogs that reviewed russian teas and hearing about it being pretty strong.
Wow, this is surprisingly vegetal. The brew is amber, but the taste is light, spinach, no bitterness or astringency that I can find. The taste makes me reconsider my initial thought on the smell. There’s still ceylon there—spinach with honey. Will have to try the full five minutes in the future.