An excellent blend for an excellent price, that I can see pleasing both connoisseurs and lovers of strong black teas. Potent but smooth and also complex.

Dry leaf, which is intact and wiry, has a very pleasing aroma with strong vegetal notes.

Upon brewing, produces a dark, rich, but mellow cup which reminds me a lot of African teas more than Assam. It also has a decisively German aesthetic, which sounds odd, but I recently went to Germany and tried a bunch of black teas there from many different brands, and this tea seems to embody not only the style of Ostfriesentee but also German teas in general.

The flavor is more vegetal than malty, and there are wintergreen notes underneath a rich tapestry of smells that suggest a mixed broadleaf-coniferous forest. I even detect a note of pine, not smoky, but like fresh pine needles, and a hint of wet moss. Pleasantly dry finish.

Even with a first steep of 5 minutes (as recommended), I was able to brew a second cup, using a 12 minute steep. This tea seems to infuse very slowly. You could probably brew three cups using shorter steeps across the board, but I think I prefer it with the longer steeps.

This one was a pleasure every time I drank it; the price is also remarkably reasonable.

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