This tea tasted more like a sweet, Christmas-ey baked good than any other tea I've ever tried.

The leaf has such a pleasant fragrance, a rich, buttery, bready, and fruity aroma, like a fruit tart fresh out of the oven, quite remarkable. There's a distinctive smell in the aroma that reminds me of some food from my childhood, but I'm not able to pinpoint it. It also, incidentally, smells uncannily similar to the blossoms of the Kentucky coffeetree, Gymnocladus dioicus. Try smelling them, they bloom in May in the mid-atlantic and have a very sweet fragrance that, like this tree, evokes thoughts of sweet baked goods.

The brewed cup has a jam-like aroma that suggests sourness. Upon sipping, there's a pleasant, up-front astrigency, soft but a little edgy somehow. Honey-like sweetness though...even leaves an aftertaste a bit like honey, slightly metallic though. Full-bodied but soft and mild-flavored. The aroma is more like a sweet cake, a little like nuts and jam.

I don't think of this as an everyday tea; it doesn't have much bite or power to it, but when I am in the mood for something gentle, it is exquisite.

This tea has an extremely high price...I just don't see it as justified. It is too smooth and it lacks the power or depth that I demand of a tea in this price range. Perhaps others value smoothness and gentleness more than I do in teas. It resteeps well, but each cup is always too soft for me.

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