This has been my daily morning black tea for over a week and I’ve almost depleted the 25g bag. This tea has bright flavors to wake up the taste buds, bringing some alertness to my groggy mornings but the caffeine content seems to be on the lower end, so I find myself brewing an additional tea to take to work with me in the thermos.
Brewed western exclusively following What-Cha’s parameters of 2tsp per cup (8
oz), 200-205F, 4 minutes and I do a second steep for however long it takes me to get around to straining it, 6 minutes or more.
Strongish sour dried cherry at the forefront followed by some maltiness but nothing intense, whole wheat cereal flakes, cedar, cherry wood, prunes, both muted cream and butter, hints of cacao, sweet-tart. The butter and cream are deeper in the finish than while sipping. I get the feeling this tea is a bit more complex than my morning palate can discern. Second steep can get sandpapery astringent if brewed way too long, like 20 minutes. Otherwise, it’s a smooth, slightly drying tea and stacking both steeps in my thermos seems to take care of that astringency if I’m taking too long to get ready.
This tea is autumn and sweaters and maybe some old man and old woman. Good for these cool and foggy, coastal California pre-dawn summer hours. A lot like the Georgia ‘Phoenix’ Black Tea offered by What-Cha but much less astringent and red-fruitier in tone.
Flavors: Butter, Cacao, Cedar, Cherry, Cherry Wood, Citrus, Cream, Dried Fruit, Drying, Malt, Plum, Rose, Smooth, Tart, Violet, Wheat
You had me at malty and autumn and sweaters. DEFINITELY my cup of tea, then!
It’s not heavy with malt, more of a light to medium black tea. So much lovely tart dried cherry and prune. Tastes great when cooled to room temp, too.