A co-worker (not the cheesecake guy) came back from vacation having taken the South Carolina tea plantation tour. He didn’t want to go – his wife pushed him into it. He said it actually turned out to be the most interesting thing they did on vacation. He wanted to share what he had learned. It was a bit of a refresher course but I pretended it was all new so as not to squash his excitement. He bought a book, and a video, with me in mind, but forgot them this morning :( but did remember a tin of this tea :)
On to the tea. There are no brewing instructions on the tin. Ingredients are tea and oil of bergamot. It smells great in the tin. The leaf is very small pieces of CTC. I am going to reserve rating this until I get control of the steep. Today I was handed a press with the leaf already brewed once. It did not appear there was enough leaf. This may also prove to be a tea that cannot be steeped twice. It has been so long since I have had a black that could only be steeped once that I almost forgot that is normal. The tea is dark enough but the taste isn’t there. The coworker who drank the first steep compared it to bagged Twinnings Earl Grey. I took a scoop of leaf out of the tin and put it in a plastic bag to try later.
Comments
I was recently in Charleston and was interested in this tea, but couldn’t bring myself to buy a whole tin of it because I knew it was going to be a CTC and that I probably wouldn’t be that much of a fan. Interested to see how you feel about a first steep of it!
I was recently in Charleston and was interested in this tea, but couldn’t bring myself to buy a whole tin of it because I knew it was going to be a CTC and that I probably wouldn’t be that much of a fan. Interested to see how you feel about a first steep of it!
I don’t think I would give a CTC much more than two minutes…