An exceptional CTC tea, the best I've ever had, and as complex as many hand-processed, whole-leaf teas. This one really surprised me.

The dry leaf is unusually aromatic for a CTC tea. The aroma is toasty and with a strong maltiness, more like rye than other grain.

The brewed cup smells intensely aromatic, and just like the dry leaf: toasty and malty, like rye. The toastiness is my favorite part of the aroma, it makes this tea crisp, warming, and full of character. Flavor is robust.

I very much enjoyed how I felt after drinking it as well.

Very easy to brew. I experimented, with a teaspoon of leaf, it's plenty strong using even a 1.5 minute first steep (what I actually preferred) but you can go longer. I notice that Teakruthi doesn't personalize the brewing instructions very much...this one has the same recommendation of 3-5 minute steeps as other teas, including the very large-leaf wild monsoon, which was super slow to infuse. I think that's a bit silly. I'd recommend 1-3 minutes on this one. 3 minutes was at the limit of how strong I'd want.

What was astonishing to me though was how well this tea resteeped. I was actually able to steep three milder cups, or two very potent cups (my preference, I thought this tea really shined when brewed strongly). I have never had a CTC tea resteep this well!

So, this is without a doubt the best CTC tea I've ever tried, although it's also the most expensive. I think it is worth it though, sometimes you get what you pay for!

Add your own review

Login or Sign Up to comment on this review.