Nepal Hand-Rolled "China Bush" Black Tea

I got this tea as a “mystery bag” with my regular What-Cha purchase.

The appearance of the dry leaves are surprisingly green! Dark, forest-y green mixed in with blacks and browns. Like most rolled teas, it takes a few infusions before the leaves completely unfurl themselves, but they’re very smaller leaves, not many broken pieces.

It’s a mild tea for being a black. Light roasty notes, very nutty. There’s that slight bit of grassy depth you get from certain green teas that I can taste creeping in the back. Even though I’m brewing this gaiwan style for very short periods, my pulls seem to be ever so slightly bitter. Not astringent at all really.

It’s definitely not a bad tea at all. I think I’m just starting to learn that these lighter trending blacks just don’t have the maltiness that I’m looking for, and if we’re going that route, I’d rather have an oolong.