Tajiri

Thank you adagio breeze for this tea.

This tea is light, sweet, malty and smooth. One of the more delicate black teas that I have tried and very much on the sweeter honeyed side. The sort of black tea that does not require milk or sugar to be a pleasant drink.

Most days this would not appeal to me as I love strong black teas but on days like today where I long after greens and whites it’s a nice in between drink.

With all the brown sugar and caramelized baked apple references in the flavor description, I figured this would be a great choice for a sweet-tooth like myself. Much to my dismay, I found it disappointingly unremarkable.

The scent from the tin is faintly mineral; while steeping it barely smells any different from a steaming cup of plain hot water, though some sweet notes are perceptible after a few minutes. The taste… it unfortunately doesn’t taste of much. There’s a pleasant bitter edge and a deep brown color to remind me that I did in fact put leaves in the cup, but not much else. I added sugar 1/4 tsp at a time to see if it helped bring out the flavor (it didn’t really). Toward the end of the cup I poured in a tiny dash of soymilk to see if that would help, but it only seemed to cover up whatever little flavor was there. The aftertaste is quite nice, but I really wish there were more to this tea than that.

I’ll give this tea another go, since I’m probably still not up to snuff on my tasting or loose tea making abilities. I have about 48 grams of this stuff left, so if anyone wants to try it, let me know.

A sample from KittyLovesTea I was intrigued by the description of this one – baked apples and brown sugar sounds divine. I’m not sure that it’s a flavoured black, though. Something makes me think that might be a natural element of the tea itself. In any case, I’m rather enjoying myself! I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.

The initial taste is rather strong, slightly astringent black tea. It lingers a little, but then develops into a wonderfully thick-tasting, rich baked apple flavour. There’s a sweetness right at the end of the sip that’s perfectly reminiscent of brown sugar. I noticed the flavour progression mostly in the early sips, but towards the end of my cup I think I must have developed palate fatigue. Either that, or the flavour diminishes as this one starts to cool. The last few dregs are just strong black tea. I’m not complaining, though. Hot and fresh, this one makes for a tasty treat. Even as a plain black, it would be strong enough to wake me up on a morning!

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to try this one. I probably wouldn’t seek it out, because there are plenty of strong black/flavoured black teas that I like just as much, but it’s definitely worth a try for the apple/sugar aspect alone.