So much better since I added more leaves. Last time, I poured two tea spoons, but they were far from being full. I thought that since the leaves are so stringy for this tea that they would open up bigger, but I was wrong on that front. I used a heaping half of a tablespoon, almost a full one really, and it tasted way better.
Like I said in the previous review, North Winds is the best suited name for this tea. It smells exactly like the wind in Northern Michigan, even the woods here in Port Huron closer to Canada and the Lake. Wood, maple, cocoa, and campfire is what I personally smell when I take a single whiff of this. Last time I drank it, I tasted a cocoa, roasted black tea that was not that different from a Keemum. This time, with more leaves, there is so much more flavor. The taste is the same as the rustic aroma, being a pure breakfast blend having a simpler, yet more genuine quality than a usual English Breakfast. It’s almost like a less astringent, smoother version of an Irish Breakfast. I am glad that I decided to try this one again, and getting more out of it. My only criticism is the expense, as there are better teas that are near the same price on Whispering Pines website. Also, my sights are honed in on Golden Orchid when it comes back in stock, so I am anticipating what this particular tea base will be like with a vanilla accent. North Winds still needs another note to really fill the cup to its impressive potential, and vanilla might be the finishing note to crescendo it to greater heights.
Pompous hyperbole aside, a lot of people would like it. Breakfast tea, southern sweet iced tea, and European black tea lovers would enjoy it. Though it’s slightly better Gonfu, a Chinese brewing method, it’s more reminiscent of a European drink to me. Newbies might require cream and sugar anyway, but it by no means tastes bad with the additives. I just prefer drinking my tea without sweetener.
Flavors: Campfire, Cocoa, Malt, Wood
