This is an odd one. I want to like it, but it has this mouth-drying astringency that isn’t at all what I want in a black tea. The first couple of steeps are downright horrid. Gets progressively and massively better as it steeps, but by the time it mostly tastes really good, it’s starting to get a bit weak. It does get this wonderful sweet perfumey apricot-honey fragrance going on 4-5 steeps in, which lingers in the cup and delights, but the burr of acridity never leaves or ceases to be unpleasant. Perhaps it settles down after some aging and turns that nasty uncivilized edge into something more intriguingly wicked, but I don’t think I would want to buy any more of it to find out.
Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Bark, Drying, Fruity, Honeysuckle, Tannic, Tobacco
