At last, I tried this tea as well. No idea what to expect, but reading those happy notes makes me happy and I have been expecting a lovely tea.
I tried it using western steeping method, using 3 grams of the leves.
They are smelling amazing by themselves, smelling, as mentioned, like a chocolately black tea. But also roasty, as houjichas are. Gently though.
Flavour is amazing, very comforting and smooth, with only little hints of char, which could be avoided by shorter steeping time or rinsing it during gong fu. It’s very toasty, but s well there are sweet caramel notes, certainly I get the roasted barley tea notes, but still I notice the green tea which is made it from. I don’t understnad the last note at all, as I never experienced that before in houjichas I had (okay, two aren’t a perfect example), but still.
I will be very sad once I finish this down. I think I fell in love with Georgian teas afterall. Maybe next year there will be time to visit Georgia itself?
