Not sure why my first tasting note on this was so different but I tried this again and it was much less astringent than I remembered. I think steeping for a shorter time and also at a lower quantity of leaves helped. The caramel/brown sugar taste that others have noted is finally coming out too, and seems less malty than I initially thought. It has medium body with some roundness of taste.
Flavors: Brown Sugar, Caramel, Malt
finding myself in hot water again and again…
I grew up in a tea drinking culture, but my parents were seriously hung up on jasmine tea and oolong tea, so I never really had much exposure to other teas. My horizons expanded when I moved to Japan and discovered genmaicha (roasted rice tea aka popcorn tea). after that, I discovered black teas, red teas, and flavoured teas, how different teas could be by the region, processing methods, water used.
Now I can’t get enough of it!
I experiment with different teas, blending them sometimes to see what the outcome would be. I find my tastes to be quite diverse, but run away from the more floral side of things. Tie Kwan Yin is probably the only one that most people seem to enjoy, that I don’t. Otherwise I am game for most teas. Fruity? love it. Smoky? Mmm. Earthy? bring it on! Light and vegetal? keep pouring!
Toronto, Canada
