It would have been easy for me to overlook this tea if I had only brewed it once. Smooth and light, this tea has a classic high-grown character. But it took multiple steepings and some experimentation to discover how good this tea was at producing multiple cups. Among the best at making multiple infusions of any black tea I have ever tried!

Dry leaf is aromatic and very pleasing, light and with faint tones of wintergreen.

Leaf is very slow to infuse. When brewed normal strength (1tsp. of leaf and 3 minutes) the cup is surprisingly muted and frankly, not very interesting. I recommend using slightly more leaf, as the leaf takes up a bit more space, and a longer steeping time--at least 5 minutes. For making a single cup, I prefered at least an 8 minute infusion.

This tea easily produces 2 very flavorful cups with resteeping the leaf, but 3 is not hard, so long as you don't want a very robust cup. The later steepings were lighter in color but had a surprisingly rich flavor and were very pleasant.

Regardless of how you brew it, the flavor is mellow, the aroma dusty, and faintly vegetal. When brewing stronger, it becomes a bit malty. In later infusions, very clean tasting. Always fresh and light tasting.

I'd recommend this tea for someone who likes high-grown black teas that have none of the muscatel quality of Darjeelings, and a very different overall character from Darjeeling teas. It might also please people who like to resteep their tea, or someone who wants to practice Gong Fu brewing of a black tea from a country other than China--it's rare to find a Ceylon black tea that resteeps quite as gracefully as this one does.

If I judged by the first cup alone, this would not be my favorite tea from Arbor teas, but the fact that the leaves hold so much flavor through many steepings really impressed me. I think this is my new favorite.

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