I really just wanted something to sit with while reading or writing or some such. And by writing I don’t mean writing a tea post. I wanted something I knew, something I didn’t have to pay attention to so I could get some other stuff done.
But that black sampler box! Oh how she beckons!
So I took a random one out of the box. Or… a semi-random one. I first a second flush Darjeeling, but I thought I’d save that for later and have it in connection with the first flush from the same estate and see how much difference I could tell. Then I got one from Guatemala but since that’s such a special place to get tea from, I wanted to save that one. (Then I got the same second flush Darjeeling again) And then I finally got this one. It was so randomly chosen that it took four attempts to choose it. Randomly. Yes.
I haven’t got the faintest idea how to pronounce Sewpur. But it sounds like ‘Super’ in my head, so that’s a good sign, I think.
I tried smelling the dry leaves before steeping but they didn’t really have much aroma to speak of. If I breathed on them first there was fleeting note of something warm and spicy-ish and maybe a little pine-y. But otherwise nothing really.
It was the same aroma that I get from the steeped tea. Very dry and wooden, it smells. It doesn’t actually smell like something that is wet at all, and that honey-y note? Completely missing. Gorgeous red colour though. This cup is glass, so I can really see it here. Absolutely lovely.
It has a certain dryness too. It tastes… dusty. Like I made it way too strong, but I used a larger pot, so I actually made it weaker! O.o It’s not wildly astringent, or even all out astringent at all, but it’s borderline. It’s very woodsy in flavour. Nothing at all sweet here. Not even a hint.
I don’t think it’s so ‘Super’ after all. It’s like it’s missing something. The foundation is there, but there’s nothing on it.
Oh well.
