My roommate got a tea sampler of four teas from this company, Heavenly Tea Leaves, which I hadn't heard of before then, and let me try all the teas. I was really impressed with this one, especially with its combination of reasonable price and great quality.

Dry leaf looks mostly intact pieces of whole leaves, smells quite impressive: malty, fresh, herbal notes, suggests sweetness too.

The brewed cup looks dark and smells pleasantly aromatic, but is a little weak in flavor for an English Breakfast. It's a very pleasing, lighter black tea though. I find it interesting that this is a pure Assam, as I think it's much smoother and mellower than is typical for tea from this region. The aroma is beautiful: richly malty and fruity, but fresh, with notes of sweet rice and herbs. The finish leaves spicy notes.

If you brew this tea more strongly, it gets astringent before it gets bitter. I found the astringency pleasant, but some people might find it a bit much. The flavor is surprisingly sweet even when you brew it strongly.

Resteeps exceptionally well. The second cup is not quite as aromatically complex, but the flavor was very good, strong and smooth. I noticed some wintergreen notes in the second cup that I didn't notice in the first. It has more of a "forest floor" aroma, reminiscent of a fresh, clean-smelling pine forest.

I also really liked how I felt after drinking this tea.

The price on this is really fantastic. In general, I was impressed with the prices of Heavenly Tea Leaves, but for this particular tea I think it's a great deal because this is a high-quality, single-estate tea, and teas of a similar quality often sell for a good bit more.

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