The loose tea smells quite a bit like grass. Steeped, the scent is decidedly more complex: soy, pepper, and tobacco smoke. Thankfully, the flavor is mostly just floral, although fairly timid. I’m fine with nuance, but it’s kind of weak. Compared to my favorite Darjeeling of 2016, Puttabong Moondrops, this is nothing to experience.
Flavors: Floral
A pu’er from La Maison des Trois Thés is what got me into tea, about 5 years ago now. I not only had no idea tea could taste like that but that it could amplify the taste of food so incredibly.
Perhaps because pu’er hooked me, I actually find it less interesting, these days. Taiwanese high mountain oolongs are my newest fascination. Phoenix oolongs and Wuyi teas can be pretty great, as well. And I love Puttabong’s 1st flush Darjeeling, even if no one seems to care about Indian tea that much.
Although I’m a tea snob, I find a lot of the attention tea gets to be extremely pretentious. I genuinely believe if you’re routinely picking up 5 or 6 obvious notes that then shift with each steeping, you’re imagining things. I’ve had the good fortune to eat an inordinate variety of fine food, internationally, and I can usually only discern 2 or 3 notes in my teas; that’s more than enough to keep me fascinated.
MY RATING SCALE:
95-100: I want to make babies with this tea.
90-94: Everyone should try this.
80-89: Great tea that I could drink every day.
70-79: Ehh. It’s good. I’ll drink it again, although doing so might bore me.
60-69: I’m not into this.
50-59: Gross.
Below 50: What did I just put in my mouth?
Portland, OR
