This is what I’m having at work, I think I’ve mentioned that before.
I’m sharing it with my boss and usually we take turns buying milk for it. I don’t usually take milk in tea, but while I rarely do it at home, I do think a little milk really suits a lot of Assams. But anyway, she was on vacation for the last week and a half so I’ve been all alone with the tea. Once I ran out of milk, I did buy a new half liter, but forgot to bring it, so I was just drinking it plain.
Lately I’ve found a lot of raisins in Assam. It’s funny really how I’m finally beginning to learn to spot those typical flavours. It’s taken me ages. I’d find them in each individual tea, but it’s only just in the last year or so that I’m learning to really associate a specific region with a specific flavour profile. It makes it so much easier to work out what to expect from a new one.
So anyway, raisins. And also some sweetness. Some would say malty sweetness, and to a certain degree I agree with that, but sometimes I think it’s more along the lines of honey.
The reason I’m posting about this one now is that yesterday at work I had an experience that was much like what I imagine it feels like to have succeeded in making Jackee Muntz go all caramel-y. The last half of the cup, cooled to just the right temperature was pure honey. It felt thick in the mouth even. An intense and dark honey with a little black tea around it.
It was UH-MAY-ZING!
And this is the reason why I’m giving the rating of this one a few more points.
I reckon this is a fairly good leaf grade. Obviously it’s not The Best Ever out there, but it’s not just an OP either. Funny that this, and not the FTGFOP should turn out to be something coming very very close to being My Perfect Assam. Even when I don’t get it to be so utterly honey-y.
I wish I knew what I’d done to achieve that though. I have some other good Assams in my possession at the moment and I’ll get through those first, but once they’re gone, I may very well just order some of this for at home as well as work.
