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Very sweet, floral. Simple and mild. Slightly astringent aftertaste.

Enormous leaves – I brewed with three long and two short leaves and that seemed to work fine.

Lovely tea! Pleasantly sweet, very smooth. A very soft nori taste – gentle enough that I actually like it. I can taste the rice at the end of each sip, but it’s only mildly toasty. I wouldn’t say this is complex, exactly, but there’s a lot of depth. No unpleasant flavours that I can detect, even the aftertaste is very nice. My opinions on other Teavana teas have ranged from “pretty good” to “get it away from me”- this, however, is gold.

Floral but not perfumey, complex… not as much toastiness as I expected, but enough to keep it interesting. Probably a bit overpriced, but definitely good quality and very enjoyable.

Just a note from memory (had this 2 days ago), which I might update when I next brew this.

I adore the scent of this. Really astonishing, intense, and unique. Roasty and sweet. Nutty with brown sugar and all the other promised aromatics – coffee, coconut, even concord grape, which was very interesting. I just wanted to lean over my cup and breathe it in.

After the aroma, the flavour was a bit disappointing, mostly because it tasted much more mild than the scent promised. But it was still very impressive. I brewed it a minute longer than suggested, which helped, and a longer steep on the second brew sorted out the issue of strength vs quality of flavour. I’ve never tasted anything quite like it. I love the strong roasted flavour, which gave it a warm depth, but was balanced by a very smooth sweetness, which was what emerged as grape in the nose. Also very creamy, and nutty if I remember correctly. I’m curious to see how other roasted dong dings will compare.

First off, this is only getting such a low score because I’m placing it partway between my enjoyment of its notes (I dislike nori and overly grassy teas) and actual quality (it’s honestly a very good grassy/nori tea).

Strong, rich nori flavour with grassy high notes. Sweet, considering the savoury elements in it. I get an initial burst of grassiness, a bit sharp, which fades to sweetness and then a deep, round, almost creamy savouriness – somewhat nutty, mostly nori – and finishes very grassy and fairly dry. Very intense flavours, but not overwhelming or cluttered, just powerful and complex.

Because nori is the primary note here, and I dislike that in my teas, I don’t particularly enjoy this, but I’m impressed by it. It seems like a high quality, complex tea that I would probably rate a 90 if I was looking for a grassy nori-heavy tea. I’ll probably give the next cup of this to someone else who will appreciate it more, but I’m glad to have tried it.

Lovely, savoury, roasty smell. Taste has the same savoury edge, a little vegetal, but fairly mild. Noticeably dry feel, though. Second steep is much lighter flavour and more typical green tea, with a sweet melon note, and the savoury quality only coming at the end of a sip. I like the smell more than I like the flavour, and second steep was underwhelming, but it’s still very nice.