I enjoyed this tea last week but am just getting to this note now.
This black tea dragon ball is quite pretty with it’s large leaves interspersed with numerous jasmine flowers.
I wanted to try the base tea from Simao first so my first steep was 45s. There was a hint of jasmine-scent over a malty fruity scent. The tea is malty upfront with a slight almost grape like fruit note overlying a touch of honey with a hint of the creamy cool taste of jasmine. Steeped this way as Teavivre notes the tea is very upfront and the floral is a faint echo.
For the second steep I took a western approach and steeped it for 1.5 minutes. There were hints of chocolate added to the scent and flavour and the base tea became much sweeter and creamier. There was a plummy note and a bit of cream added to the flavour. The jasmine was intensifying the creamy and fruity notes of the tea. This was a fruity jasmine note that I often find in well scented teas. It is however still very muted. The jasmine is more apparent as it cools and adds a spice incense like note into the grape notes in the tea.
The third steep at 2 minutes had Hints of sweet potato and stronger malt from the base. Jasmine was still presenting a cool creamy accent. Jasmine became more apparent as it cooled and created a fruity slightly candyish accent over a cool hint of floral spice. This steep was more distinctly floral than the previous steep.
Altogether a very nice tea with the subtle jasmine enhancing the flavours of the base rather than being the star of the show. I will enjoy drinking this again. Thanks Teavivre for the sample!
