Another sample from the recent Philly Coffee and Tea Festival, and I'm glad I tried this one; I almost overlooked this tea company, which is newly founded, because of their name (I shy away from companies that use health claims in their marketing).

A strong, rich, and very enjoyable tea, with a strong malty aroma and a flavor suggestive of cocoa or bitter chocolate. Very warming and rich, full-bodied, and easy to brew strong. This is a tea that I would recommend for people who like strong Assam and Irish Breakfast teas or black coffee, but it has great complexity and is smooth, making it suited to connoisseurs as well.

Dry leaf is mostly large pieces of broken leaf, with some golden tip: it both looks and smells like a tippy Assam: rich, deep and malty.

Upon pouring water over the leaf though, a very different aroma emerges: a strong, deep cocoa-like quality, with a fairly strong wintergreen aroma as well. I love the wintergreen quality in this tea--and I recognize it from trying a Taiwan Ruby Black (Hong Yue) tea from Rishi Tea, which I tried some time ago.

Brews a very dark, rich cup. Definitely contains Assam-like qualities...but also has a rich, deep cocoa quality, and notes of wintergreen. Just the perfect amount of astringency--enough to impart a rich body, while never seeming harsh.

I liked brewing it more strongly than recommended...using a heaping teaspoon of leaf, and/or a longer steeping time. I initially steeped this 4 minutes, and then I made a second steeping of 6 minutes; surprisingly, there was still flavor left for a third cup. I was surprised how well the broken leaf worked with multiple infusions.

I liked this tea better than Rishi's, and this tea is much cheaper (Rishi's is nearly twice the price). Rishi's tea definitely has more intact, whole leaves, but I found it was a little less accessible, with more alien aromatic tones.

I can see wanting to drink this tea every day. It's priced slightly high for an everyday tea, but given that you can brew multiple cups with it, I think it's a great buy. It's also hard to find a tea of this quality for such a good price.

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