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First to review this tea, which is non-existant in Fortnum’s website. I wonder why.
First of all, note the blurb. It could feel at home at the back of a Moleskine notebook. What a pretentious way of saying that this is a blend of Darjeeling, Yunnan and Ceylon teas, together with Safflowers and Cornflowers. I’m guessing it’s Yunnan tea and not Keemun from China, as there’s no smokiness to this tea.
The tea looks gorgeous. Gorgeous. The combination of smallish black tea leaves, blue Cornflowers and reddish-orange Safflowers is fantastic. It brews beautifully, the wet leaves look fantastic, and the liquor is a deep, deep red that reminds me of maple leaves on a golden fall afternoon, with the sun glowing through them. This is the first tea that I’ve seen that can actually light up the room. Not brewing it in a glass teapot or gaiwan or test tube brewer is a SIN.
Now for the flavour: this tea is robust, and can very easily be over brewed and become bitter. Use less leaves and shorter brewing times than you usually would for black teas. It is astringent, so if you don’t like that in your tea, look elsewhere, but it’s also somehow delicate. It’s oily mouthfeel and gentle sweetness won’t take milk kindly, I should think. It reminds me less of caramel and more of honey or honeydew. It really evokes a garden aflame with red and orange flowers, and hummingbirds and bees zooming madly through it. There are some bass undertones in this tea (where the bitterness stems from, I believe – the Ceylon), but it ends on a bright, high note (likely the Darjeeling). A complex blend that is worth F&M’s generally outrageous price. Comes in a wonderfully beautiful caddy.