This one always smelled like sour cinnamon to me and I’ve never been able to make up my mind on how I feel about that. Separately, I am both a huge citrus and cinnamon enthusiast but putting them together is a hurdle I had to jump in order to appreciate this tea.
The basic tastes do some impressive acrobatics here: sour-sweet-spice, a hint of sweet-salt, potentially from the calendula flowers, and even a bit of bitter (or more of a bit if you don’t steep it properly)… Wow. Despite all the crazy shenanigans I feel the cinnamon dominates and draws the most attention. There’s a lot happening to distract the unsuspecting casual sipper but the oolong is there underneath it all.
The result of this crazy collaboration is a warm, invigorating tea with a lot of spirit. It just takes a couple sips to get into the rhythm.Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C
4 min, 45 sec
