I loved this tea, which I was excited to receive very recently as a sample from Health & Tea. I love this company's offerings and each year I have continued to become more impressed with them as I've seen their catalog expand. This tea was rich but mellow, complex but smooth, and the main word I'd describe it with is "toasty".

Huge leaf, very coarse and oolong-like, larger leaves than a Ceylon OPA even. The dry leaf doesn't smell that strong, but it becomes very aromatic as soon as water hits the leaves.

After brewing, the tea's complex aroma is evident, and it is both bold and mellow: it's definitely chocolatey, more like hot chocolate than bitter chocolate too. The flavor is smooth. There are hints of roast, floral notes. It's a little bready, reminding me of well-done toast made from a hearty, multi-grain bread. Medium-bodied. Very easy to drink. There's a pleasant sweetness, and surprisingly, as I got to the bottom of the cup the flavor became sweeter rather than more bitter.

I followed Health & Tea's recommendation of a 3 minute first steep. I'm not sure the exact weight of dry leaf I used, but they recommend 2.5 grams and I aimed for about that, I have no scale though...but it came out spot-on, just the right strength.

Resteeps very nicely. Similar cup, perhaps a bit thinner, for second steep. Still sweet and pleasantly aromatic though. It really retains the wonderful toasty quality as well as the chocolate notes. I liked using an 8+ minute infusion for the second cup and then only steeping twice.

I found this tea pairs well with whole grain bread and baked goods that aren't sweet. It's not as good of a pairing with sweeter baked goods because I find it is naturally so mellow itself.

This is a fairly pricey tea, $10 for well under one ounce, but I thought it was also a pretty exceptional tea, so I'd recommend it if you want to try something both unique and easy to appreciate.

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