I bought a sample of this from YS quite a while ago, but am just getting to try it now. It wasn’t a terrible tea, but I wasn’t feeling this one at all. The dry leaf smelled slightly camphor-y. Once rinsed, it was a bit wet smelling, with some tobacco notes as well. I got woody and tobacco notes throughout, with the occasional hint of a honey sweetness. On many steeps I also got a kind of wet mossy flavor that I didn’t particularly enjoy.
The brewed out leaves are quite chopped up – doesn’t seem like particularly high quality leaf. This isn’t unexpected from a $30 2006 cake. I did get a few tasty steeps, but couldn’t put together a good session in a few tries. Not one that I would recommend really.
Flavors: Sweet, Tobacco, Wet Moss, Wood