Aaaand evening tea time commences! A whole load of new teas tonight, because I got a bit carried away!
Starting off with some of my brand new Verdant Tea! (Yes, I realize I have yet to try some of the ones I previously received, haha, just too excited about the new ones!)
I was admittedly rather skeptical about this one. It has multiple ingredients I typically dislike… in fact, I think it contains all three of my least favourite tea ingredients! Mint, chamomile, and fennel/anise/licorice. But my curiousity (haha) got the better of me, and the reviews intrigued me.
The smell of the dry tea has me a bit worried. It smells minty. And I can smell fennel, I think. Crap. I was really hoping they wouldn’t be predominant in the blend. Oh well.
And then…. it gets wet. WTF?! Cinnamon sugar toast? That is ALL I am smelling! It smells marvelous! This is entirely NOT what I was expecting! I noted down that it smelled extra bready as well, although that has disappeared a tad as it has cooled, and I feel like I can pick out the barest hint of mint.
Wow. This is so complex. I can taste the mint, but it’s tempered enough that I can handle it, the fennel/anise/whatever is present but only just barely, which is quite acceptable, it seems. And the finish is a lingering, lovely chocolatey flavour. Of course, I’m failing to appropriately identify the flavours in amongst those. There’s sweetness, yeasty bready flavours… so many. This was definitely worth the try! There’s a bit more peppermint than I would like, but everything else is delicious. I’m really loving the lingering aftertaste.
I have to admit that I’ve tried neither the Laoshan Black nor Wuyi Big Red Robe (although I have both), so I should probably do that before trying this again; perhaps it will help me elucidate some more flavours.
Overall, very satisfied with this blend! I might try it stronger next time; I brewed it cautiously tonight, with maaaaybe 1.5tsp of leaf, which was pretty “fluffy”.
ETA: Second infusion (boiling, 3 or 4 mins, I can’t recall), day after. The steeped tea still smells strongly of cinnamon sugar toast. Today, I feel like I’m tasting some cinnamon, and some sweetness. The peppermint is tamed more today (yes!), and other than being a bit weaker than I would like, this is really tasty :D
ETA: The second day after. I probably shouldn’t be re-steeping at this point. Ehhhhh… The aroma is still cinnamon-toasty. Before it cooled, I was getting some stronger peppermint aromas, which turned my stomach a tad. Today, it tastes… oh man, choked on my tea for the second time tonight… sweet and cinnamon toasty, with an undertone of peppermint. It’s rather mild, even though I steeped for four minutes. This is probably as far as I’d bother taking this one in the future.
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This sounds really exciting!
It is so neat!
I’m going to have to try this one!
I recommend it! Particularly if you aren’t averse to peppermint in tea. The dichotomy between the cinnamon sugar toast smell of the steeped brew and the complete lack of cinnamon in the taste is really interesting!
This sounds delightful! Looking forward to getting my hands on some :)
Haha, I nearly posted an identical response to the one I already did above :P Can’t wait to try this one again!
This sounds really exciting!
It is so neat!
I’m going to have to try this one!
I recommend it! Particularly if you aren’t averse to peppermint in tea. The dichotomy between the cinnamon sugar toast smell of the steeped brew and the complete lack of cinnamon in the taste is really interesting!
This sounds delightful! Looking forward to getting my hands on some :)
Haha, I nearly posted an identical response to the one I already did above :P Can’t wait to try this one again!