Maya Patel Send Message

The tea has a gorgeous deep coppery orange color that you could spend a great deal of time admiring in its own right. Along with a beautiful color comes a truly sweet smell loaded with pine smoke. The taste is light and elegant, sweet and with balanced smoky nuances that linger delicately. I found the cup to be really surprising, and quite unlike other Lapsangs I’ve been able to try. Of several I’ve tried, this one is remarkable to me in that the smoky scent and flavor is pervasive, to be sure, but is wonderfully balanced and tasteful. The taste of smokiness doesn’t linger in the mouth as a cloudy, campfire sort of residue but rather as a bright and piney, fresh crispness. The cup has a fine, surprising elegance and lightness to it that is most enjoyable and eyebrow raising considering the power that a smoke flavor can sometimes have to make a cup heavy. This cup is truly light. That a Lapsang could come across as both full of its hallmark flavor as well as delicate and elegant seemed a marvelous achievement to me.

In my experimentations with leaf proportions, I found that a scant to precise teaspoon yielded the best results for my tastes. A slightly higher amount of leaf, roughly 1.5 teaspoons per 8 ounces, definitely brought to light a sturdier cup. While still excellent in taste, the lesser amount of leaf allows a just perfect natural sweetness to shine through along with the smoky flavors. The sturdier cup exhibited interesting sour notes rather than notably sweet ones. I thought the lesser leaf steeping would pair well with savory items and the stronger cup seemed to request a sweeter pairing.

A second infusion is well worth the time. I found the tea quite forgiving and never prone to bitterness in terms of either the first or the second infusion.

I tried this tea – I have stage 4 breast cancer – and my mom tried it as well – she has diabetes.
We read lots of good things about graviola and were very encouraged.
1) Tea tastes awful. Like dirt or grass. It’s positively disgusting. (I drank it au naturel, no sweeteners).
2) I had itchy skin, severe headaches, very low blood pressure causing extreme exhaustion (no energy to even stand). I’ve been on it for a week.
3) My mom had a strong allergic reaction, hives and severe itching up and down her arm, exhaustion, no energy. She took benedryl to feel better. She’s been on it for a week too.
Because of this, we are discontinuing the use of this tea. I hope others had a more beneficial effect from taking this tea. For me, not so much. For my mom, not so much. Best of luck in your future treatments.