I heard a few mixed reviews on this tea. I’ve heard people saying it’s 100% damn good, and others sayin nah. I’m sorry to say it, but I am leaning towards the latter. The leaves are long darkened tendrils with a strong aroma of buckwheat honey and apricot. I brought out my shibo and warmed it up, and then I placed some leaves inside. The aroma moves about and expands into some fig newton with an undertone of sour kale. I washed the leaf once and prepared for brewing. Now the taste is what drove me away. Quick anecdote, a loooooooong time ago I acquired some “rare” tea from a foreign friend of mine. They instructed me how to brew said “mysterious tea”, and that after I brew it I can sun dry the leaves and resteep this “mystical” tea. Me, giving benefit of the doubt, believed my foreign friend and did just that, I brewed the tea, drank, and then put the leaves outside to dry, so I can steep again. I feel you can see where I am going with this if you know tea. The “rare” tea was bad, and the sundried version was not good as well. The taste was foul, sour, and badly fermented. Now, back to the review, this tea’s background notes taste just like that sundried pre-steeped leaf. The forefront is heavy honey tones, but the base and undertones are sour and cloudy. I’m not sure what it was, but when you taste what I’ve tasted you don’t forget a tone. Maybe it was a bad sample, maybe someone gave me their steeped leaves, maybe it was poor storage, I don’t know….
https://www.instagram.com/p/BPlgpuKgufI/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel
Flavors: Honey, Sour
Preparation
Comments
I got an odd sour cloudy taste off of the Slumbering Dragon as well, actually, which is another tea most people seem to absolutely love, so I wonder if it’s one of those things that only certain people with the gene for it can taste or something like cilantro? :/
I’m sorry about your experience. If you’re willing to give it another go I’ll send you a sample for free. Just let me know.
I got an odd sour cloudy taste off of the Slumbering Dragon as well, actually, which is another tea most people seem to absolutely love, so I wonder if it’s one of those things that only certain people with the gene for it can taste or something like cilantro? :/
I’m sorry about your experience. If you’re willing to give it another go I’ll send you a sample for free. Just let me know.
I’m about to review this tea and would add that the sour notes disappeared when I moved the tea to a canister with a boveda for a few weeks.