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The tea smells oddly smoky with the typical Keemun scent that smells to me like leather. It’s not a full out Lapsang Souchong type of smokiness but it is definitely there. The taste has a nice carmelized flavor to it. I understeeped it a bit since I’m in no mood for bitterness today but I suspect trying this tea that it wouldn’t have had bitterness anyway. It’s fairly good. I do not taste the cocoa overtones that the description promises but perhaps they come out if the tea is steeped longer.

It is a delicious, beautiful tea with huge full leaves. The taste is a sweet burnt sugar, with a slight caramel and slight hint of tropical fruit. It is a full mouth taste with no bitter and no astringency. I love this tea.

I have to say first that this tea has beautiful leaves: tiny twisted dark brown and golden leaves tangled together. They smell sweet like raisins and honey with a slight floral note. Brewed there is a slight bitterness combined with the taste of raisins and tea. It is reminiscent of Golden Moon’s Sinharaja (though I like Sinharaja better since it lacks the bitterness).

I’m a sucker for long twisted leaves and this tea has them in spades. The instructions call for this tea to be steeped for two minutes but I think it would probably do better a bit longer. As is the tea is sweet with fruity notes and the slightest frisson of cinnamon. I do not taste the maltiness that the package claims. It is an excellent tea. I will definitely put this one on my shopping list.

The tea presents a dark brown liquor. It has a strong malty smell with notes of leather and fruit and the barest hint of smoke. It brews into a powerful wake-up tea with a bitter back note combined with maltiness and a very slight sweetness. It’s not really for me except for those few mornings where I need something truly powerful to wake me up.

A very tasty tea with a similar flavor profile to Dawn. There is the same cocoa note along with notes of caramel and musk. No bitterness or astringency. I’m hoping this is not some sort of delusion brought on by Dawn deprivation. I’ve saved a small amount of Dawn for comparison purposes and I’ll do a tea-off with these two in coming days. Even if it’s not exactly the same, it is very, very good and I can see having a happy morning ever-after with it.

Incredibly beautiful leaves, very long and elegant. It brews into a pretty golden liquor with notes of plum, apricots, and and sweet tea that tastes good both hot and cold.

It has a nice sweet caramel, fruit, and tea fragrance and the leaves are of a nice size. It’s not the long twisted leaves of Dawn, but still very nice. The liquor is a deep ruby color. It has a slight bitterness but no astringency. There is an additional taste that I cannot identify along with the tea taste. It is an acceptable tea but not stellar.

Kristin said, “You rooibos haters stay with me. I didn’t taste any rooibos in this tea.” And that was the reason I chose to try it. She was talking to me. I’m the total rooibos hater.

Wow! I’m so glad I put aside my pre-judgement and tried this. It is chocolate and absolutely delicious! Full chocolate taste with no unpleasantness. No bitterness. Little astringency. Not even that awful dusty taste that rooibos often has. Even the aftertaste is yummy. The smell is pure hot cocoa. I will be ordering more of this. Thanks to Kristen’s great review I’ve found a new favorite for the no-caffeine part of my day. Mmmmm!

Slight smoky, malty fragrance coming from a ruby black liquor. There is a powerful yeasty taste and a fair amount of bitterness. I’m really not tasting the oolong in this but it does have a nice complexity to the middle-taste (that taste you get immediately after swallowing as the liquid evaporates from your tongue but before the after-taste).

It’s an ok tea.