Yup, still reviewing this tea about two years after my first two initial reviews. I have a habit of holding on to really great teas to try and stretch out their longevity. When I looked this morning, it seemed I had about 2 gongfu sessions left in it. And since I’m apparently in the mood to finish off old teas lately, here we are.
To set the mood, it is a cold winter day with a dusting of snow and ice. My 14 month old is eating toast and peanut butter in his high chair next to me and my older two kids are just getting up and around for breakfast, savoring sleeping in for the last few days of winter break.
The tea itself: Still smells nice upon a quick rinse. That nice, thick, malty scent that lets you know it is most likely a quality black tea. Upon sipping, I do think either a) I over leafed it, which I don’t think is the case. Or b) this tea being a few years old has finally started to loose some of its luster (flavor… I mean flavor). It’s not that it is a bad cup of tea just that it has lost some of that freshness that made it pop previously. Almost verging on stale. Kinda like it steeped with a few pieces of corrugated cardboard. But other than that flavor, it has some good citrusy brightness and a big dose of malt left to give.
But even old and faded, this tea still could beat out many other black teas which is a testament to the quality with which it started. I’m not going to knock its rating just because I can’t bring myself to finish this tea when it is fresh and at peak quality.
Flavors: Cardboard, Citrus, Malt
